'Accidental discovery' creates candidate for universal memory — a weird semiconductor that consumes a billion times less power

Graphic of digital computing components encroaching on new ground.

Scientists may have accidentally overcome a major barrier to smoothening the adoption of next-generation data-storage technologies.

Using a unique material called indium selenide (In2Se3), researchers say they discovered a technique for lowering the energy requirements of phase-change memory (PCM) — a technology capable of storing data without a constant power supply — by up to 1 billion times.