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MRAM in 2004?
amberspry writes "As previously reported here and here. Wired has yet another update on MRAM here. They give hope by mid-2004 we will see devices with faster boot up times and using less power as a 'vastly accelerated timetable is being implemented.' Gotta love joint ventures."
I'm sure there probably isn't anything to worry about, but isn't there a chance of problems if you put magnetic things near storage media?
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
I can't wait till this technology can permanantly remember data. AND it gets cheap enough to replace the spinning hard drive. Speeding up the memory read/write times and reducing the memory bottleneck could effect your pc much more than upgrading from a 1.8 ghz to a 2.0 ghz processor.
Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
Most people will just grab a beverage or something during the minute (or less) it takes most PCs to startup. I would think most of the people who keep their PCs on 24/7 do it for P2P or [Seti|Folding]@home or possibly to prevent wear and tear on the hard drive (spinning up the hard drive wears it down faster than anything).
Slashdotter are stupid and biased.
Clearly, my computer will startup no faster than it does when coming out of Standby mode (which stores the state of my computer in RAM, but requires that the PC remain plugged in). So, what do I gain? Basically, we get Standby mode that works even when you unplug the computer. And, that's still no improvement to the "startup time".
So, who needs their cell phone or PDA to startup faster? Most of these devices are pulling straight from some flavor of RAM during startup, already.
How often do you reset your iPaq? Just when it crashes, and it only takes 5 seconds, anyhow.
What about that annoying startup time on your cell phone? Let's see, only when the battery falls out do I ever exercise that feature.
If MRAM is really 6 times faster than today's static RAM, that's wonderful, but it will have little impact on startup times (see Hard Drive I/O-blocking).
I don't want to sound too cynical here, but I just can't seem to get so excited about Motorola working on new innovative technology and continuing on with it. I remember when Motorola phones were the way to go. Even more dramatic an example though is the whole PPC chip. There was once a time the chips they produced for the Macs were just slightly slower than Intel's chips (in terms of MHz...but we all know that doesn't really matter for true performance). But then they seemed to take naps that lasted for years while AMD and Intel kept improving chip speed and performance. Sure...Motorola may be working on this now, but from what we've seen in the past, I wouldn't be surprised to see them resting on their laurels and letting the world pass them by yet again.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
Does this remind anyone but me of the ferroelectric memory cells of about a decade ago?
Smaller than DRAM cells, faster than SRAM and nonvolatile as well. They did actually make it out into the real world, several devices made today include a dozen or so F-RAM cells, but they certainly did not take over the world.
One thing that does shout "vaporware" to me is that the articles I can find are all really sparse on details.
Also, how compatible is this technology with common (or esoteric, for that matter) silicon technology? If it's not, can we use the same technology to build processors, etc.?
How soon do we actually get to see a 256 MBit MRAM device? How much will it cost in 2005? The answer to those questions will tell me a lot about whether this is enough to make people show interest in Motorola's stock again....
-- Ancient (IBM 1620 and Atari 400) Programmer