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Nanotube Memory Finally Beats Flash For Speed

holy_calamity writes "Although flash memory that stores each bit on a single nanotube has been tinkered with in the lab for years, it has always been much slower than the devices in use today. A Finnish team has now cracked that, demonstrating single bits of nanotube memory that can be written in just 100 nanoseconds. Existing flash memory takes tens of microseconds."

86 comments

  1. And what exactly by bigattichouse · · Score: 4, Funny

    what will we do when these "tubes" become clogged, and we can't get our email?

    --
    meh
    1. Re:And what exactly by flyingfsck · · Score: 4, Funny

      Call Joe the Nanoplumber?

      --
      Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
    2. Re:And what exactly by Hordeking · · Score: 2, Funny

      what will we do when these "tubes" become clogged, and we can't get our internets?

      Fixed it for you, Convict Stevens.

      --
      Disclaimer: The opinions and actions of the US Gov't are in no way representative of those held by this author or its ci
    3. Re:And what exactly by WillyDavidK · · Score: 1

      It's not something that you just dump something on! It's a series of tubes!

      (for the less cultured of the /. readers... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cZC67wXUTs)

      --
      For lack of a better signature...
    4. Re:And what exactly by yabos · · Score: 1

      This Anonymous Coward guy is a whack job

    5. Re:And what exactly by GaryOlson · · Score: 2, Funny

      You place some absorbent material over the end of the tubes and apply some extremely high voltage thru the third gate.

      --
      Every mans' island needs an ocean; choose your ocean carefully.
    6. Re:And what exactly by anexkahn · · Score: 1

      get some liquid nano-plubmer

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    7. Re:And what exactly by narcberry · · Score: 1

      Great, just another set of tubes to tie. Like I'm made of money.

      --
      Modding me -1 troll doesn't make me wrong.
    8. Re:And what exactly by daveime · · Score: 1

      Computers are SO unneccessary, yes ....

      So how did you post this ? Chisel it out on a block of granite, and Fedex it to slashdot headquarters ?

      What a whackjob !

    9. Re:And what exactly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I actually thought it was a pretty good metaphor... something I believe anyone who's ever shared a 56K connection with 5 other users can relate to.

  2. Netbooks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This should be very beneficial to netbooks! A lot of the current crop end up having pretty slow solid state drives.

  3. Wow, that's pretty cool by Yvan256 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Call me back when it's available at Costco for 100$ per Terabyte.

    1. Re:Wow, that's pretty cool by clonan · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Heck call me when a product is availible....at ANY price

    2. Re:Wow, that's pretty cool by interkin3tic · · Score: 1, Informative

      You read /. but don't care about new hardware until its something you can buy for cheap? Okay... There are some hobbies you might consider, like stamp collecting, to more effectively use your time.

    3. Re:Wow, that's pretty cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Call me back when it's available at Costco for 100$ per Terabyte.

      "this is Johnnie calling from Costco to inform that the requested drive is now available"

      "sorry, Mr, John Doe died last year of waiting"

    4. Re:Wow, that's pretty cool by wjh31 · · Score: 1

      SSD's are more about speed than capacity at the moment, i make it about £2000/TB for current SSD's which can read/write at 250+MB/s, i cant see any rates given in TFA, but ive 100x shorter to write means even a further 10x in read/write rates, then you will again be paying for speed over capacity, and it will be this way for a long time yet

    5. Re:Wow, that's pretty cool by arogier · · Score: 1

      I just can't wait for nanotube mellowed bourbon, when lifestyle technology gathers a whole new meaning. So long as nanotube condoms stay off the market...

    6. Re:Wow, that's pretty cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      RIP John. 2009-2010.
      The waitiest waiter of them all.

    7. Re:Wow, that's pretty cool by Chris+Burke · · Score: 4, Funny

      Heck call me when a product is availible....at ANY price

      Sure. You can order it now for the low low price of $3 billion. Shipping time is estimated at 10 years and 7 days with free standard shipping, or 10 years and 3 days with Express Shipping for $15 extra.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    8. Re:Wow, that's pretty cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stamp collecting. Bah.

      I've read about the new Ben Franklin stamp they are talking about putting out. They can call me when I can mail it for less than 42 cents.

    9. Re:Wow, that's pretty cool by clonan · · Score: 1

      COOL!

      Who do I make the check out to? BTW it is post dated Feb6, 2019.

    10. Re:Wow, that's pretty cool by mcgrew · · Score: 3, Informative

      I RTFA yesterday, it will be a while. Right now they only have a one bit memory, and TFA says a lot more work will have to be done before they can get millions or billions of them on a chip, let alone mass produce the thing.

    11. Re:Wow, that's pretty cool by Cowmonaut · · Score: 1

      Hey man, a "temporary visectemy" is just what most men desire. Condoms DO reduce the pleasure a bit...

    12. Re:Wow, that's pretty cool by Skrapion · · Score: 1

      Make it out to me. I don't mind waiting until I'm 36 to become a billionaire.

      --
      The details are trivial and useless; The reasons, as always, purely human ones.
    13. Re:Wow, that's pretty cool by Miseph · · Score: 1, Funny

      That's a very ineffective use of time. It can take minutes just to make reliable oral contact with a cock that is in the process of fucking, and once achieved this contact is rarely any improvement on the previous status of the cock even in those cases where it is not an uncomfortable hindrance.

      This is, of course, assuming that the orifice in question cannot accommodate a human head positioned such that sucking is possible from the inside. In that case, it's really questionable if what's happening can be called "fucking", or if it's really more like thrusting uselessly into a giant gaping void in reality.

      --
      Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
    14. Re:Wow, that's pretty cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      3 Billion Zimbabwe Dollar? ;)

    15. Re:Wow, that's pretty cool by BoothbyTCD · · Score: 1

      Slashdot: News for Consumers, Stuff that's at Best Buy...

      --
      snig
  4. PETA won't like this at all.... by Ritz_Just_Ritz · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I can already see the craigslist ads..."Wanted: Computer geek to come snake out my RAM."

    1. Re:PETA won't like this at all.... by Daswolfen · · Score: 3, Funny

      That's what she said!

      --
      Don't rush me, Sonny. You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles.
  5. That should... by imamac · · Score: 4, Funny

    That should be faster than anybody would ever need...

    1. Re:That should... by ByOhTek · · Score: 1

      I think I can remember a day when system memory was measured in the 100s of nanoseconds.

      --
      Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
  6. speed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    100 nanosecond are more than 10 nanosecond...

    1. Re:speed by Who+Is+The+Drizzle · · Score: 2, Informative

      Existing flash memory takes tens of microseconds.

    2. Re:speed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      100 nanosecond are more than 10 nanosecond...

      But less than "tens of microseconds".

      Reading. It helps.

    3. Re:speed by sexconker · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Where are all the fuckers who bitched about me when I said most people can't understand their beloved SI units for shit (let alone read in this case)?

    4. Re:speed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They messed up their pluralization too. That must mean that most people can't understand plurals. Down with the plural regime! (Or is it "regimes"?)

    5. Re:speed by bytta · · Score: 2, Funny

      There is no SI unit for shit, you insensitive clod!

    6. Re:speed by Kingrames · · Score: 1

      Yes there is, it's the shit-ton.

      --
      If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
    7. Re:speed by sexconker · · Score: 1

      Is that an imperial shit ton, or a metric shit tonne?

  7. Re:I would have had first post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Been hanging out with the GNAA again, have you?

  8. Does that mean... by Daswolfen · · Score: 1

    ... that Ted Stevens is a prophet and the internet WILL be a series of tubes?

    --
    Don't rush me, Sonny. You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles.
  9. Nano-Tubes?!?!?! by mandark1967 · · Score: 1, Funny

    Is this like some sort of scaled down version of the internet?

    --
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  10. nano internet? by wjh31 · · Score: 1

    =0.1 library's of congress

    1. Re:nano internet? by wjh31 · · Score: 1

      this was meant to be a reply to the 'Nano Tubes?!?!?!' thread

    2. Re:nano internet? by jd · · Score: 5, Funny

      No, it would be 10^-9 LoCs. You're thinking of deci-internets.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    3. Re:nano internet? by wjh31 · · Score: 1

      im pretty sure the internet>LoC

    4. Re:nano internet? by Yetihehe · · Score: 1

      You imbecile! Or was it decibel? I'm don't remember, I have this german word... Asperger!

      --
      Extreme Programming - Redundant Array of Inexpensive Developers
    5. Re:nano internet? by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      That's libraries.

      "The library's open today"

      "The libraries are all open"

      "The library's books are all open"

      "All the libraries' patrons the world over are open"

    6. Re:nano internet? by jd · · Score: 1

      Hmmm. I'm Asperger only on days with at least two vowels in the name.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  11. Low OPs lifetime by NuclearRampage · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "The device managed to withstand 18,000 operations, which is a reasonable lifetime for a memory device, she adds."
    Is that good for experimental chips or do I not understand how such a low number is reasonable?

    1. Re:Low OPs lifetime by eln · · Score: 1

      18,000 operations should be more than enough to fill this thing full of porn, there's no need to get greedy.

    2. Re:Low OPs lifetime by marcansoft · · Score: 5, Informative

      Your average Flash chip does 100k erase/write cycles. 18k is certainly reasonable for new tech, which will certainly improve over time. The number refers to the number of operations per erasable block (or it will in the future), so in practice you get a much larger number of total I/O operations on the entire chip, given a reasonable wear leveling algorithm.

    3. Re:Low OPs lifetime by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's what she said.

    4. Re:Low OPs lifetime by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Flash memory has lifetimes in the 10s of thousands of operations. Wear leveling algorithms are used to lessen the impact of this limitation.

      These devices see operation similar to Hard Drives in that data is often written to them once then left there for a considerable period of time. If you were to attempt to use them in a fashion similar to RAM that would be a bad thing, as they would quickly wear out.

    5. Re:Low OPs lifetime by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wear leveling! It's been around for ages and used on all recent flash drives. I can't believe how many people seem to have never heard of it.

    6. Re:Low OPs lifetime by Telvin_3d · · Score: 2, Informative

      Let's say they make this into a thumb drive. Now, let's say that you read/write the entire drive twice a day. That's four operations. 18,000/4/365 gives you twelve years of this. Even if you are filling and then erasing the drive ten times every day it is still two and a half years of use. Less than you can do with current flash memory, but fine as a proof-of-concept.

    7. Re:Low OPs lifetime by Tweenk · · Score: 1

      CD-RW will only last for 100 writes. Have you ever seen a failed CD-RW? I didn't. Even if you had a nanotube drive that you completely overwrote every hour, it would last for 2 years. An USB drive with 100k writes would last for 11 years. In real life scenarios drives are rarely written to more than a few times a day, and certainly not in the same places. This can be further reduced with wear leveling filesystems. The only reason we don't use those widely is that it's extremely hard to write a filesystem driver for Windows.

      --
      Those who would give up liberty to obtain working drivers, deserve neither liberty nor working drivers.
    8. Re:Low OPs lifetime by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      CD-RW will only last for 100 writes. Have you ever seen a failed CD-RW? I didn't.
      I used packet writing quite a bit for a while and I think I killed a few CDRWs with it over the years when I used it.

      However the vendors fucked up on thier software. Adaptec and ahead came up with incompatible packet writing software and even if they had been compatible bundled copies of nero didn't generally come with incd. So as the burner vendors switched to bundling nero packet writing died out at least among those of us too tight to buy burning software retail (and who wouldn't or couldn't pirate it)

      --
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  12. Well, which Flash are we talking about here? by JoshDM · · Score: 3, Funny

    Jay Garrick isn't as fast as Wally West or Barry Allen...

    1. Re:Well, which Flash are we talking about here? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jay Garrick isn't as fast as Wally West or Barry Allen...

      Would probably have to agree...

      _______________________________________
      http://perpetualcapitalist.blogspot.com/

    2. Re:Well, which Flash are we talking about here? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah but are they faster than superman or Silver Surfer?

    3. Re:Well, which Flash are we talking about here? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah but are they faster than superman or Silver Surfer?

      I can't believe I am replying to this. Superman is faster than The Flash. Even though The Flash is very fast (so fast, that he can accelerate his particles and "vibrate" through solid material), Superman has the speed advantage. Unfortunatly, when the two race, a bad guy like Lex Luthor invariably tries to do evil, which causes Superman to stop early and save the day.

    4. Re:Well, which Flash are we talking about here? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Superman is faster than The Flash.

      You're showing your age. Pre-crisis Superman was faster than the Flash, post-crisis Superman most certainly is not.

    5. Re:Well, which Flash are we talking about here? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, but which crisis? And which Superman? After a few sucky DC extravaganzas, this still isn't properly resolved

  13. Regressing by flaming+error · · Score: 4, Funny

    ENIAC was orders of magnitude faster. These guys do 100 nanoseconds/nanotube -> 100 seconds/tube!

  14. Nantero... by katz · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What ever happened to Nantero? Weren't working on this a few years ago?

  15. Analog by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Are we going back to analog?

    1. Re:Analog by narcberry · · Score: 1

      Since "digital" usually is an interpretation of analog, I'd get used to seeing both of them around for a long time.

      --
      Modding me -1 troll doesn't make me wrong.
  16. Not there yet... by hurfy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    How much latency does that algorithm add? They are only testing one bit. Won't a controller and the wear-reducing slow it down a fair amount?

    Still a ways to go:
    "The next challenge is to join an array together into a working memory chip, as the team has so far only tested single carbon nanotube elements. And although they have only proved capable of "remembering" data for several days after the power is cut, the team are confident this can be extended."

    Several days is a pretty short life for SSD...and longer than i want my RAM to last ;)

    1. Re:Not there yet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How much latency does that algorithm add? They are only testing one bit. Won't a controller and the wear-reducing slow it down a fair amount?

      Not really, since the wear-leveling will generally be done in blocks, and the speed-up is per byte/word/whatever.

  17. So, how long to build a fab plant? by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    Say for about 1 million units a year, with continuous production ...

    What, you can't get the loan for a fab plant for this non-production memory?

    And it will take 4-5 years to build it?

    I'm thinking we better make the plant design fusion powered ... cause it's going to be a while, and we might as well be pie in the sky about it.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  18. You can have my iron oxide coated plates... by Cprossu · · Score: 1

    (works up an old man's voice)
    When you pry them from my cold, dead hands!

    All that's left to see is how reliable it ends up being, and what outside forces can cause a data change and how easily.
    Flash is only now starting to approach the reliability that it was advertised to have inherently when it was developed, so sorry for being a stick-in-the-mud.

  19. Nano-micro by BubbaDoom · · Score: 1

    Can't we keep the same unit when comparing something? e.g. " ... that can be written in just 100 nanoseconds. Existing flash memory takes 100,000 nanoseconds"

  20. Luxury! by pjt33 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    100s of nanoseconds? Luxury! When I were young you had to store your data as sound pulses in a tube full o' mercury. You had to wait 100s of milliseconds for the pulse to reach the other end. Tell that to kids nowadays, they won't believe you.

  21. OR.. by qreeves · · Score: 1

    To be totally OT; 0.01 nanobits per nanosecond.