The UK’s emerging Blueshift Memory has developed a new kind of computer chip that can make data operations 1,000 times faster. This is likely to help speed up scientific discoveries significantly while significantly improving traffic congestion.

The chip may have significant effects on DNA research and the design of artificial intelligence in self-control compounds that need to process vast amounts of data quickly to make decisions. It can also lead to new discoveries of pharmaceutical drugs, problems such as traffic congestion; urban pollution, through improved infrastructure and planning of cities, and improved research on climate change.

The memory chip prototype addresses the growing gap between the faster progress of CPUs compared to memory chips – a problem known as the bottleneck. This disparity means that high-performance computers are unable to achieve CPU capabilities when performing data-intensive operations, such as large database analysis or database searches with millions of potential results.

As a result, the data is stacked in a slow-moving queue between the CPU and the less efficient memory, reducing the speed at which computers can deliver results. The new chip can allow computers to perform operations that currently take hours or days in minutes, and the company claims that its new memory design allows for complex operations in minutes, compared to day-long tasks.

Although the development of the chip beyond the prototype model will be costly, Blueshift Memory said it is currently seeking funding to further develop the chip.