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Carbon Nanotube-Based NVRAM In 2-3 Years?

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the nano-ram dept.

According to NanoWerk, UC Riverside researchers have come up with a memory device based on telescoping multi-walled carbon nanotubes. According to one of the researchers, 'This finding leads to a promising potential to build ultrafast high-density nonvolatile memory, up to 100 gigahertz or into the terahertz range" and a prototype could be demonstrated "in the next two to three years.' Similar devices from UCLA and Caltech based on bistable rotaxanes are farther along in being integrated into actual memory circuits, but tend to break after a fairly small number of position changes. Carbon nanotubes may promise more durable switches.

16 of 66 comments (clear)

  1. Forgot to post link to paper by Stile+65 · · Score: 5, Informative

    So here it is...

    http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/0957-4484/18/9/0957 05/

    --
    I claim first use of "Error No. 0B" - or "No. 0B error." It'll be the new ID 10T!
  2. So, if this were extended to a... by StressGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Backend Architecture, Nano-RAM, type A" it would be called BA-Nano-RAM-A? ....it's ok....I'll just go now....

    --
    A goal is a dream with a deadline
    1. Re:So, if this were extended to a... by ashridah · · Score: 4, Funny

      It could be worse, it could be a gate and switch scam

  3. Simulations or something concrete? by haluness · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A brief scan of the paper seemed to indicate that their results were based on simulations. Do they have some working model that justifies it coming out in 2 or 3 years?

    Or did I read the paper to fast (hey, at least I *did* RTFA)?

    1. Re:Simulations or something concrete? by MightyYar · · Score: 3, Informative
      The working model would be the prototype that they are speculating could be built in 2-3 years. From TFA:

      Jiang predicted a likely functioning prototype of a molecular processor could be demonstrated in the next two to three years.
      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    2. Re:Simulations or something concrete? by Shad_the_protector · · Score: 3, Informative

      The title is sightly wrong here, they plan on having a proto in 2 or 3 year..... not a wide-spread product.

      But it is still a good news to know that there is something coming for NVRAM better than flash memory

  4. who knew by President_Camacho · · Score: 5, Funny

    According to NanoWerk, UC Riverside researchers have come up with a memory device based on telescoping multi-walled carbon nanotubes.

    Who would have guessed that, in the future, your computer would be a series of tubes?

    --
    Wizard Needs Food, Badly
    1. Re:who knew by ch-chuck · · Score: 2, Informative

      I think it did a lot of work as a serial processor. From this description:

      "The ENIAC was controlled through a train of electronic pulses."

      --and--

      "because the various units of the ENIAC could operate simultaneously, the ENIAC could perform calculations in parallel. (BUT!) ENIAC programmers tended to avoid this use because the impressive but limited reliability of the ENIAC favored the use of as few units as possible for a given application."

      --
      try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
  5. Nano Abacus? by Radon360 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It looks to me like they've essentially created what could be compared to a nano-abacus. I wonder how immune this system would be to physical movement (i.e. jarring). In a similar vein, I would imagine that it would be just as static sensitive as most other memory devices even though.

    Did I miss something, though? How is the position of the telescoping tube read? Applying a current to it would change the position, would it not?

    1. Re:Nano Abacus? by unc0nn3ct3d · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I imagine this would be just as immune to physical jarring as say blood cells in your blood vessels would be wouldn't it? Or as resiliant as the atomic bond in elements are.. At this scale the physical movements that we create as humans wouldn't be felt, similar as the molecules in your hand don't feel it when you wave at someone, but the hand as a whole feels it.. or at least that is what I would think

  6. 2-3 years? Vapourware alarm! by mark-t · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I've just seen that figure too many times now... 2 years is still a short enough time that it might seem feasable but still long enough away that by the time it has gone by, most everybody will have forgotten about it and moved on to something else.

    It'd be really neat if this turns out to be genuine, but I'm not holding my breath. Been disappointed too many times already.

    --
    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
  7. Prescient SF FTW by JesseL · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sounds vaguely similar to the nano-scale rod-logic of Neal Stephenson's stories.

    --
    "Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!"
  8. How do you interface with a 100Ghz device? by LM741N · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Memory and/or processors running at 100Ghz sounds great, but how is such a chip going to be connected to the outside world of peripherals? Beams of light? Waveguides? Or will everything have to be contained on one chip?

  9. Re:Pronunciation: bistable rotaxanes by Rethcir · · Score: 2, Funny

    Rotaxaaaaane! You don't have to put on the red light!

  10. Re:Weren't we supposed to have this last year? by chrisb33 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I wouldn't condemn Nantero to vaporware status just yet - it seems that they've been making progress. Here's a list of their press releases - notice that they successfully fabricated a switch in April and have made their processes compatible with current CMOS fab lines.

  11. Movements wouldn't bother it at all by IdahoEv · · Score: 3, Informative

    At the nano scale, momentum of objects is near zero and friction forces, van der waals, and the like dominate entirely. Macro-scale motion, and even intense vibration, simply won't move things around relative to each other.

    --
    I stole this sig from someone cleverer than me.