A team of scientists at Sandia National Laboratories and France Telecom has developed a prototype digital memory device that uses protons to save crucial information, even in the event of a power outage.

The work stems from research for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is seeking radiation-hardened, low-voltage chips that could survive a nuclear event. Researchers report that the protonic device is simple to produce, low-powered, and inexpensive &£45;- characteristics that could finally bring so-called static memory devices to the commercial marketplace.

(c) Popular Science