For years, DRAM's volatility has limited its use to temporary data storage, as it loses information once power is cut off.

Conversely, NAND flash memory, while non-volatile and capable of retaining data without power, falls short in speed compared to DRAM. The need for a solution that combines the best of both has been a long-standing quest for scientists and engineers.

The KAIST team's breakthrough lies in their innovative approach to phase-change memory (PCM), a technology that has been explored previously but has yet to be explored by high power consumption and manufacturing costs.

 By focusing the phase-change process on a minuscule area, the researchers claim to have reduced power consumption by up to 15 times compared to earlier PCM attempts and kept manufacturing costs reasonable. This achievement could represent the world's first non-volatile DRAM, a 'holy grail' in-memory technology.

According to one of the researchers, the implications of this advancement are far-reaching, with potential applications in 3D-stacked memory and neuromorphic computing systems. However, despite the promise of PCM, its adoption has been slow, with previous commercial endeavours like Intel's 3D X-Point Optane memory failing to gain traction in the market.

While the industry remains cautiously optimistic about the future of PCM, replacing DRAM has been a topic of discussion for over a decade, with a solution always seeming to be 'just a few years away.'