  The increasing capacity of modern computers, driven by Moore's Law, is
accompanied by smaller noise margins and higher error rates. In this paper we
propose a memory device, consisting of a ring of two identical overdamped
bistable forward-coupled oscillators, which may serve as a building block in a
larger scale solution to this problem. We show that such a system is capable of
storing one bit and its performance improves with the addition of noise. The
proposed device can be regarded as asynchronous, in the sense that stored
information can be retrieved at any time and, after a certain synchronization
time, the probability of erroneous retrieval does not depend on the
interrogated oscillator. We characterize memory persistence time and show it to
be maximized for the same noise range that both minimizes the probability of
error and ensures synchronization. We also present experimental results for a
hard-wired version of the proposed memory, consisting of a loop of two Schmitt
triggers. We show that this device is capable of storing one bit and does so
more efficiently in the presence of noise.
