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HP Reports Memory Resistor Breakthrough
andy1307 writes "Hewlett-Packard scientists on Thursday will report advances demonstrating significant progress in the design of memristors, or memory resistors. The researchers previously reported in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they had devised a new method for storing and retrieving information from a vast three-dimensional array of memristors. The scheme could potentially free designers to stack thousands of switches on top of one another in a high-rise fashion, permitting a new class of ultra-dense computing devices even after two-dimensional scaling reaches fundamental limits."
Finally something that sounds like it's actually patentable.
Has been resisting me for years. I'll be damned if I can remember where I put my keys.
Sig this!
But is it so much more efficient that you could stack thousands of layers without turning your chip into a hunk of molten glass? That would probably be an even bigger breakthrough.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
But the really exciting thing is accessing that third dimension.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
This is the real difference between genuine R&D (actual breakthrough in computer science) and Cupertino R&D (Let's remove the floppy drive! Let's remove the optical drive! Let's remove the keyboard! I can't believe we're acutally being paid for this!)
The Institute of Incomplete Research has determined that 9 of out 10
There wouldn't be a excuse for tiny amounts of space even on the lowest of the low end phones.
Restore the madness of youth's lechery
As if two weren't enough.
Finally something that sounds like it's actually patentable.
And not just patentable, but good solid research. It seems to me that lately, US companies have been cutting and cutting R&D budgets. The markets are so focused on who makes their current quarter earnings marks, and sinking money into innovation does not help towards making that profits goal. And because of this, it seems that we have lost touch with planning for the future.
That always made me sick to my stomach. I am always thrilled when these big companies, that spun up and put technology where it is today, the HPs, the IBMs, the Xeroxs, the ATT/Bell/Lucents, etc., come out with something cool. I even like it when the small guys do something, but often they dont have the money to make it all the way to market.
Anyway, my point is, I hope we see corporations (and everyone else, like NASA, etc) realize how important science and innovation are to our future. I hope that we can get back to the "old days" of (literally) shooting for the moon and achieving it, rather than spending money on fluffy marketing and trying to squeeze out margins with just barely passable work.
This kinda stuff, I love. More please!
(sorry for a horribly written post)
....isn't more along the lines of "Solid State Physics"?
Over-the-top Response Guy! Giving "Over-the-Top Responses" since 1970.
This is a really big deal. Since our brains work in much the same way as an array of memristors, this brings the possibility of an artificial brain (and perhaps artificial intelligence) much closer to reality.
Maybe I will live to see Data in my lifetime.
I read about the original research and hadn't heard anything for a while and wondered if HP was still working on this.
Personally, I feel this is OUTSTANDING news. RTFA, they think they'll get 20GB on a square centimeter. And have a viable competitor to flash memory in 3 years.
Instead of "coming on Blu-Ray Tuesday!", it'll be "coming on MR-Chip Tuesday!"
Of course, when they get the 4D version working, that'll change to "coming last week on MR-Chip!"
( And yes, I just copyrighted "MR-Chip"...)
I am my own gestalt.
Why'd you post this anonymously? It was worth putting your (user)name on.
If we're now stacking in 3d, why are we still using square (instead of cubic) measurements?
USB flash drives, SDHC cards, and especially microSDHC cards still have a maximum thickness. "Gigabytes per square inch" would refer to the typical thickness of a packaged memory device.
Apple's designs should be put on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard.'
Don't you mean "Beware of the Snow Leopard?" They changed the sign last August.
10.6.
It seems like Joule heating would be a problem if the memory consists of resistors. In particular, a three-dimensional stack would build up heat fairly quickly. Of course, switching transistors requires a good deal of energy so the prospect of not needing to constantly refresh each element may be a huge advantage in this respect. Also, it depends on the on and off resistances and the currents required to read and write bits.
Does anyone know of a link to a more technical description of the technology?
So if this is the future...where's my jet pack?
( And yes, I just copyrighted "MR-Chip"...)
You're too late.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
I think HP's research could pave the way for solid-state disk (SSD) drives in the 3-4 TB storage capacity range about the size of today's 2.5" laptop drives, which will essentially end the reign of hard disk drives with spinning disc platters and moving read-write heads. Imagine being able to boot Windows 7 completely in about 5-6 seconds from the time the "disk" starts its boot sequence, or read-write access at essentially RAM speeds.
Alas, we'll start to run into this problem: current disk drive interfaces won't be able to keep up, unless we use the Serial ATA Revision 3.0 spec. We may have to go to Intel's Light Peak standard to take full advantage of these new generation of high-capacity SSD drives.
Since spinning off Agilent and Avago. Always thought that those would be the divisions involved with something like this?
Figured since then all HP did was slap far east junk into cases. Does the server/etc portion still do a lot of RnD?
Sent from my PDP-11
As if two weren't enough.
Fuck everything, we are doing 5 dimensions
Current microSDHC cards are already 16GB, so 20 GB in a square centimeter in 3 years isn't impressive at all.
Never mind how dense or how long it'll be until we have these devices in our gadgets. How about something about how long it'll be until they can show a functional part? There's a HUGE difference between "proof of concept" in a lab and an actual manufacturable part. Most companies wouldn't even dream of announcing their partly baked research this early.
I miss real engineering and science. OH, and by the way, definitely check out the latest south park episode.
. Are you a subtle troll, or did you just "woosh" yourself?
Welcome to humanity, engineer. :)
http://www.beanleafpress.com
Why'd you post this anonymously? It was worth putting your (user)name on.
Why would anyone write something that they didn't feel comfortable putting their (user)name on? To me, that's probably a sign that you shouldn't be writing it*...
* whistleblowing and revolts against government excluded.
Last time I checked one major reason for you being able to leave that comment on this website is Software.
Or are you telling me you're blowing bits and bytes out of your ass to submit on /.?
Why would anyone write something that they didn't feel comfortable putting their (user)name on? To me, that's probably a sign that you shouldn't be writing it*...
Because your real name is "thePowerOfGrayskull", right? Either way, why do you need to know the identity of a poster? Isn't the important thing the quality of their argument not their identity?
maybe 'a isn't a regular
Should we start worrying that devices based on this tech can start developing psychological issues?
Great Cthulhu is Their cousin, yet can he ping Them only intermittently?
Though the HP confusion gets worse when you get reader programs for the blind involved. Some of them autoexpand HP into "horsepower". Model numbers can add yet another layer of weirdness to that particular mistake, since the computer then seems to be talking about a printer with more power than a Formula One race car.
i guess the sooner we get software that can handle context, not just direct translation, the better...
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
Why would anyone write something that they didn't feel comfortable putting their (user)name on? To me, that's probably a sign that you shouldn't be writing it*...
Because your real name is "thePowerOfGrayskull", right? Either way, why do you need to know the identity of a poster? Isn't the important thing the quality of their argument not their identity?
Actually, my real name is "Marc Paradise" which is pretty easy to deduce since my web site and sig both point to "marcparadise.com" ;)
That aside, you raise a good point and I agree. But in context of what I was replying to, OP said that the GP's post was "worthy" of using his registered name for. My reply to that is that if you're posting anything you feel you *must* hide or distance yourself from, perhaps there's a reason you feel that way and you should think twice before posting it at all.
First - my real name is "Marc Paradise", which isn't exactly a secret considering that my sig and web site both link to "marcparadise.com".
That aside, I agree with you. But in context of the conversation, I was trying to say that if you're making a post that you feel you *must* distance yourself from, then perhaps you should look at why that is so and think twice before making it. What I didn't say was "everyone should post with their real names everywhere" (though life would be more interesting if we did ;)
Shit. Alternatively, I already posted the first comment, and forgot that I did so when I hit "back" by accident... At least my reply was consistent ...
From TFA:
"We believe that [20 GB/cm^2] is at least a factor of two better storage than flash memory will [] have [three years from now]"
I wouldn't be too thrilled with that proposition. This is an ambitious new technology introduction. It won't take much for that time frame to slip by a year or two, in which case your edge is shot and your price structure is unlikely to be competitive.
Suppose you get 5% initial market share where the difference in feature set is "just right" for some set of early adopters. Now with 5% of the revenue base, your business requirement is to scale faster than a mature competitor sitting on 95% of the revenue base, funded by infinitely deep pockets (Intel, to name one).
Even if this new technology is fundamentally sound and has scaling headroom to burn, it could easily be a decade before it pulls into the passing lane once and for all. Maybe there's a 10% chance all the arrows line up and it arrives on schedule three years from now cheaper, denser, and faster than existing flash. That prospect alone is enough to fund a serious market push, if the up front R&D is not outrageous.
OTOH, if it arrives late or expensive or slow in performance, this could play out more like the Thrilla in Manilla, with one or the other of the heavyweights collapsing on their stool at the end of the 14'th round.
Time to check out the spot price on Froogle Futures for April 2013. All I'm getting is "HP 404". What does that mean?