Scientists have developed a new ferroelectric diode that can withstand temperatures of up to 1,112 degrees Fahrenheit (600 degrees Celsius) for hours, opening the door for computers that can operate in the harshest environments on Earth and beyond. The device, made using a material called ferroelectric aluminum scandium nitride (AlScN), is the first non-volatile memory (NVM) device that can operate at such high temperatures, where current NVM devices like solid-state drives (SSDs) fail within seconds. This breakthrough could enable the development of sensors and computing devices that can operate in nuclear plants, deep-field oil and gas exploration, or even on the hottest planet in our solar system. The researchers believe that this new technology could also lead to a new era of non-silicon computing devices that integrate memory and processing closer together for data-heavy tasks such as artificial intelligence (AI) processing in extreme conditions on other planets.