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Carbon Nanotube Memory on the Way

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the prepare-yourselves dept.

Cyberherbalist writes "Nantero, a nanotechnology company, is expecting prototypes of products using NRAM technology (nanotube-based, non-volatile random access memory) to be available in 2006. In the article at nature.com, it says that 'the company has succeeded in making circular wafers, 13 centimetres in diameter, that hold 10 gigabits of data.' And they are ten times faster than 'flash' memory."

13 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. Wafer? by slashflood · · Score: 2, Insightful

    A 13 centimeter wafer that can hold 1.25 gigabyte of data? That's not impressive.

    1. Re:Wafer? by SonicBurst · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's a prototype for Christ's sake....it'll get smaller with time. You ever see a string of iron core memory? That stuff was big too, but it got smaller.

      --

      Geek used to be a four letter word. Now it's a six-figure one.
    2. Re:Wafer? by elgatozorbas · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Indeed, but if I had a server I'd want one of these for RAM.

      That would make you a 100% technology elitist. If I, for one, would build a server, I would make it out of small, cheap, proven reliable, available components that I know rather than (presumably) expensive, large, unavailable non-field-tested new technology for which the only incentive to buy them would be they are 'cool'...

    3. Re:Wafer? by InvalidError · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why would you do that?

      Current DRAM chips were there years ago: current DRAM chips are around 1Gbit per square centimeter. On a ~5" wafer, this means ~40 potentially working chips per wafer and 40Gbits/wafer, four times as much.

      And as far as downtime reduction goes, NRAM would be no good unless the server has time to suspend-to-RAM... so you would still need an UPS or ultra-capacitors to cover this.

    4. Re:Wafer? by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 3, Insightful
      The carbon nanotubes bend to make connect with an electrode, so something moves. This is usually a bad sign for long-term reliability.

      I'm not a materials researcher, but I could imagine reasons why macroscopic phenomena like "wearing out" don't apply to nanomaterials. It seems at least remotely possible that these nanotubes are small enough that their mechanism of movement is completely understood, and there aren't any nonreversible reactions taking place.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  2. Transistor by mysqlrocks · · Score: 2, Insightful

    He says they still have to check that the chips can be reliably produced on a large scale

    When the transistor replaced vacuum tubes it only became economically viable when it was produced on a large scale.

    --
    Bradley Holt
  3. "On The Way" by LesPaul75 · · Score: 3, Insightful
    They should call it DNFRAM, because I heard that each DIMM will come bundled with Duke Nuke-em Forever. I also heard that their first major customer was the Phantom game console.
    And ferromagnetic RAM (FRAM) technology shows promise for making faster non-volatile components: it uses the orientation of crystal atoms to store data.

    But both flash and FRAM chips wear out over time and lose the ability to store information. FRAM chips, adds Schmergel, cannot be made as small as NRAM ones.
    How long have people been announcing that a new, non-volatile, and/or huge-capacity, and/or incredibly fast memory technology is on the way, and soon to be released, and just going through the very last stages of entering mass production? Has even one of them made it to store shelves? The last real revolution in storage technology that I know of, that actually went anywhere, was "spintronics." And that has turned out to be practical only in hard drives, even though it was claimed by some that it would completely revolutionize memory in general.
    1. Re:"On The Way" by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Hey, innovation comes along.

      I remember hearing about Perpendicular drives. You can buy them now.

      (Ok, I know its not a huge advance, but I like the marketting, so its mentioned here)

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
  4. Not viable by 8086ed · · Score: 2, Insightful

    He didn't say viable, he said reliable. There's a big difference. If they can't be produced reliably, why would they waste their time mass producing them.

  5. Re:Perhaps RAM isn't the ideal application... by rodwthompson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I am an old timer, been through the tube age, then on to transistors with tubes, then transistors then the first chips and on and on... All new technologies have a rough start, I know we will soon have solid state memory that is cheap, reliable and non-volatilse that will allow our computers to be instant on instead of loading all of the crap we now have to. Do prototypes work to begin with, hell no, but give it all a chance. A techno nerd before they were words... Rod

  6. 13 centimeters diameter??? 10 Gigabits???? by barfy · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Ok, holy freakin crap, but this thing is HUGE... This is bigger than most hard drives , and it holds ONE gigaBYTE of data . You are NOT fooling me with your non-standard measurements. I would have expected a bit better from "NANO" technology.

    This is not going to replace ANYTHING with these dimensions... I can get an Ipod NANO with 4 GB of space, and I get a screen, a click wheel, audio processor, and a battery in less space...

  7. Yeah, and optical disks that hold gigabytes... by Belial6 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I hear you, I remember when they were promising optical disks that would hold as much data as hundreds of floppy disks, and would be 100x bigger than that 5 megabyte hard drive in your PC. Where are they?!?!?!

    Then you had promises that they would release optical disks that would hold gigabytes...that's right GIGABYTES, of data. Did they ever show up?

    Even just a few years ago, we heard about this 'pixie dust' stuff for hard drives. This technology was supposed to make hard drive density high enough that you could go down to your local Fry's, and for a few hundred dollars buy a terrabyte drive. When will the empty promises end?!?!?!

  8. Re:It's a bad idea to pick up where you left off by ZenShadow · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Ah, but how much more often would you turn off your desktop if it were guaranteed to be as you left it when you turned it back on -- and there was no delay in getting to that state?

    Think of the power savings if computers only had to be on when we were actually *used* them... :-)

    --S

    --
    -- sigs cause cancer.