Stopping the energy runaway in computing

If you conduct 300 Google searches today, you are consuming enough power to boil one liter of water at room temperature. Computers, and the hardware that make them, are not frugal in their use of energy.

Bandyopadhyay et al. reviewed the burgeoning field of magnetic straintronics, a method that switches magnetization states in nanomagnets using electrically generated mechanical strain while expending extra-ordinarily low amounts of energy. Progress in magnetic straintronics can lead to information processing hardware with much lower energy requirements than present day systems.

The review offers a comprehensive look at the recent trends and advances in magnetic straintronics, identifying key opportunities and challenges to progress and emphasizing technologies the low-energy method could improve. The researchers examined the role of magnetic straintronics in logic, memory, signal generation, unconventional computing, electrical communications, and phenomena, where the interplay of magnetism and acoustics elicit intriguing effects, including some that could be harnessed to search for dark matter.

“The energy that will be consumed for computing by the year 2050 will exceed the total energy production in the planet that happens today. … Under these circumstances, it is vital that we address the energy cost of computing now,” author Supriyo Bandyopadhyay said. “The scenario is not too different from climate change. We need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels before it is too late, and in the same vein, we need to shed the luxury of energy-guzzling computing machinery before we can no longer afford to compute.”

Bandyopadhyay said he hopes readers will help identify and develop computing approaches and hardware platforms best suited for straintronics, since magnetic straintronics, while more energy-efficient, is also more prone to error than traditional approaches.

Source: “Magnetic straintronics: Manipulating the magnetization of magnetostrictive nanomagnets with strain for energy-efficient applications,” by Supriyo Bandyopadhyay, Jayasimha Atulasimha, and Anjan Barman, Applied Physics Reviews (2021). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0062993 .