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Scientists Unveil Most Dense Memory Circuit Ever Made

Posted by samzenpus on from the size-matters dept.

adamlazz writes "The most dense computer memory circuit ever fabricated, capable of storing around 2,000 words in a unit the size of a white blood cell, was unveiled by scientists in California. The team of experts at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) who developed the 160-kilobit memory cell say it has a bit density of 100 gigabits per square centimeter, a new record. The cell is capable of storing a file the size of the United States' Declaration of Independence with room left over."

34 of 249 comments (clear)

  1. Press Conference Transcript by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    [unveiling the most dense memory circuit ever made]
    Dr. Tufnel: Look... densest memory circuit ever, so dense you can't even see the data on it, so dense it's never been used.
    Reporter: [points his finger] It's never been used ...?
    Dr. Tufnel: Don't touch it!
    Reporter: We'll I wasn't going to touch it, I was just pointing at it.
    Dr. Tufnel: Well... don't point! It can't be used.
    Reporter: Don't point, okay. Can I look at it?
    Dr. Tufnel: No, no. That's it, you've seen enough of that one.

  2. Really? by HBI · · Score: 5, Funny

    The cell is capable of storing a file the size of the United States' Declaration of Independence with room left over."

    Not in Microsoft Word format. Maybe ASCII.

    --
    HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
    1. Re:Really? by LighterShadeOfBlack · · Score: 4, Funny

      Wait, so how many United States' Declaration of Independence do you get per Libraries of Congress? At room temperature, obviously.

      --
      Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and stupid comments are intentional.
    2. Re:Really? by Frogbert · · Score: 4, Funny

      I think I speak for the rest of the world when I say 'How the fuck long is the Declaration of Independence?"

    3. Re:Really? by Americano · · Score: 5, Funny

      You know, I'm pretty sure the British government received a copy of it... look around, maybe you still have it. :)

    4. Re:Really? by Runefox · · Score: 5, Funny

      1338 words
      So if the "The" at the beginning of the bolded opening sentence were dropped, the USA would instantaneously be the best place on earth?

      --
      Screw the rules, I have green hair!
    5. Re:Really? by Xzzy · · Score: 2, Funny

      I don't understand your American units of measurement, what I really need to know is how much memory this is in VW beetles.

    6. Re:Really? by Sam+Ritchie · · Score: 2, Funny

      We've certainly got it in Australia. I can't imagine the sort of trouble we'd have if we jumped straight from the 3rd to the 5th.

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      This sig is false.
    7. Re:Really? by lhbtubajon · · Score: 2, Funny

      No way, MS will have a patch for Outlook to handle that shortly.

    8. Re:Really? by Dunbal · · Score: 2, Funny

      As a proud Brit, I HAVE NO IDEA how large the USDI is

            Oh it's quite short really, and it goes:

            "Sod you, you limey bastards - we've had enough! We're not giving one more cent to your lunatic King, and you can tell him we are personally going to chop down all our trees, so THERE!"

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    9. Re:Really? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Of course we do. When did you think we celebrate Thanksgiving?

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  3. Public Service Announcement by mrsam · · Score: 5, Funny

    Please post all "Libraries Of Congress" jokes in this thread. Help keep Slashdot clean. Thank you.

    1. Re:Public Service Announcement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      1 Library of Congress = ? Declaration of Independence

      Library of Congress in Declaration of Independences

      Declaration of Independence in bytes

      Damn, didn't work in google calculator.

  4. The real question is... by ENOENT · · Score: 5, Funny

    how many Libraries of Congress you can fit into an elephant with this technology.

    --
    That's "Mr. Soulless Automaton" to you, Bub.
    1. Re:The real question is... by joe_bruin · · Score: 3, Funny

      how many Libraries of Congress you can fit into an elephant with this technology.

      So you want to know the LoC / metric pachyderm of this technology? I'm not sure, but don't go by what it says on the box, they define a kilo-Library of Congress to be 1000 LoCs, not 1024.

    2. Re:The real question is... by Bogtha · · Score: 5, Funny

      how many Libraries of Congress you can fit into an elephant with this technology.

      Well, this page estimates LoC at 10 terabytes, which works out to 81920 gigabits. According to the article, a bit density of 100 gigabits per square inch means that you'd need 819.20 square inches to store the Library of Congress.

      According to this page, an elephant can reach 11 feet tall, or 132 inches, and 30 feet long, or 360 inches. According to this page, an elephant can reach 6'4" wide, or 76 inches. That's a dimension of 132 x 360 x 76 inches, or 3,611,520 square inches — assuming cubic elephants (there's a phrase you don't hear every day!).

      Given these figures, a reasonable first guess would be that you could fit approximately 4,400 Libraries of Congress into an elephantine memory circuit. Or, if you prefer to work with more manageable quantities, 4.4 megalocs per kilophant.

      How long before Google add LoCs to their calculator?

      --
      Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
    3. Re:The real question is... by skribe · · Score: 4, Funny

      African or Asian elephant?

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      Blog
    4. Re:The real question is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Don't you mean African or European? Wait...what? Oh...wrong species, move along, nothing to see here.

      Its a question of weight ratios

    5. Re:The real question is... by Drooling+Iguana · · Score: 4, Funny

      But African elephants are non-migratory!

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      ... I'm addicted to placebos
    6. Re:The real question is... by maxume · · Score: 2, Funny

      O.K., but how many elephants can you fit into a Library of Congress?

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
    7. Re:The real question is... by bozendoka · · Score: 1, Funny
      4.4 megalocs per kilophant

      That's it. I'm turning off my PC and going to bed. There's no way I'm going to see anything funnier than this today.

      Well done.
      --
      "You will soon be more aware of your growing awareness." - My first recursive fortune cookie!
    8. Re:The real question is... by kalpaha · · Score: 2, Funny

      Sorry to rain on your parade, but according to this page, the volume of blood in an elephant is: about 9.5% to 10% of body weight. Using this page to get an estimate of an elephant's mass, we learn that they are on average 5000kg. So they contain roughly 500 liters of blood.

      As per my calculations in another post, we can fit a library of congress into 0.0191739611 liters of blood. So we can fit roughly 26,000 libraries of congress into 500 liters of blood.
      (500 liters) / (0.0191739611 liters) = 26 077.0321

      We have to take into consideration that I used an estimate of 20 terabytes for the LoC, if we half the number, then we get the figure 13,000 LoCs per elephant, which is already closer to your estimations. If we furthermore use a lower figure of 3500kg for the weight of an elephant, and consider that it's blood volume is 9.5% of it's weight, that yields 3 500 * (9.5%) = 332.5 liters of blood.

      Enter into google: ((332.5 liters) / (0.0191739611 liters))/2
      (remember, we divide by two because your estimate was 10 terabytes per LoC, whereas my earlier results went with 20 terabytes) and the result is
      ((332.5 liters) / (0.0191739611 liters)) / 2 = 8 670.61319

      In other words, I'd say we can fit between 8670 and 26,000 Libraries of Congress in an elephant. I guess your results fit within the margins of error: Elephantology (much less LibraryOfCongressology) is not an exact science.

    9. Re:The real question is... by OldManAndTheC++ · · Score: 2, Funny

      assuming cubic elephants

      You know, if elephants were cubic, they would be much easier to store and transport.

      Which reminds me of an old joke: a dairy farmer wanted to increase the milk output of his cows. A friend suggested he ask the local university for advice, and he eventually found a physics professor who was willing to help. After a few weeks of waiting, the farmer got a call from the professor, who claimed to have found a way to triple the milk production! The farmer raced to the university, where the professor sat him down in front of a blackboard, upon which he had drawn a circle. And then the professor said:

      "First, we assume a spherical cow..."

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    10. Re:The real question is... by jonasj · · Score: 2, Funny
      they define a kilo-Library of Congress to be 1000 LoCs
      You can implement a kilo-Library of Congress in a thousand lines of code? Impressive.
      --
      You know, Microsoft's street address also says a lot about their mentality.
  5. COMPARISONISTICS! by adam.dorsey · · Score: 5, Funny

    The cell is capable of storing a file the size of the United States' Declaration of Independence with room left over. Yeah, but how many 747s does it weigh? ...no, wait, how many Sears Towers is its height?

    Damn, none of my vague comparisons fit...

    WAIT! How many angels can dance on it? That one is for small stuff, right?
    --
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  6. Says nothing about the size of support circuitry by Cracked+Pottery · · Score: 4, Funny

    However, 32 of them should be enough for anybody.

  7. Re:Yeah, thanks by Wooloomooloo · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yeah, comparing the size of things to lined up schoolbuses is pointless unless you specify whether they're european or african schoolbuses...

    *stings on drums*

  8. Re:Yeah, thanks by MyLongNickName · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah, I wish they would have said something like: "...developed the 160-kilobit memory cell say it has a bit density of 100 gigabits per square centimeter"

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  9. Re:"Most dense"? by Iamthefallen · · Score: 2, Funny

    Because "most dense" is more gooder grammar.

    --
    Wax-Museum Fire Results In Hundreds Of New Danny DeVito Statues
  10. Re:Which words? by chris_eineke · · Score: 3, Funny
    n bits to a word. Then I thought "wait a minute, which architecture?".

    Since they're red blood cells, which are essential to life, to the universe, and everything, I would say it's going to 42 bits to a word. :P
    --
    "All you have to do is be fragile and grateful. So stay the underdog." Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
  11. Re:DNA-memory and computer bio-viruses by SP33doh · · Score: 5, Funny

    oh god the science fiction! IT BURNS!

  12. Sorry have to finish it by painQuin · · Score: 3, Funny

    Really? Are you sure? What do you have between the third and the fifth then?

    --
    A guilty conscience means at least you've got one.
  13. Amazing compression stats on the Constitution by Eternal+Vigilance · · Score: 2, Funny

    The Bush Administration says it can now represent the whole thing with a single "NOT" gate.

  14. Everybody, be careful! by cheezfreek · · Score: 2, Funny

    Don't accidentally swallow these things. Too many, and you might end up with the Library of Alexandiarrhea.