Slashdot Mirror
IBM Demos Single-Atom DRAM
An anonymous reader writes "A single-atom DRAM was demonstrated by IBM recently with a slow-mo movie of the atomic process of setting and erasing a bit on a single atom. Videos of atomic processes inside chips were not possible until now, leading to IBM's claim that its pulsed-STM (used to make the movie) will lead to a new atomic-scale semiconductor industry, and not just for memory chips, according to this EETimes story: 'The ultimate memory chips of the future will encode bits on individual atoms, a capability recently demonstrated for iron atoms by IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif., which unveiled a new pulsed technique for scanning tunneling microscopes (STMs). Pulsed-STMs yield nanosecond time-resolution, a requirement for designing the atomic-scale memory chips, solar panels and quantum computers of the future, but also for making super efficient organic solar cells by controlling photovoltaic reactions on the atomic level.'"
Does microwaving it make it go faster?
are we talking H or Uuq sized DRAM? because I don't want to be obsolete within a year.
Video explaining the process.
One atom ought to be enough for anybody.
(Sorry)
WALSTIB!
So this has not already happened (as the article implies) but is an idea for future development.
"Maybe this world is another planet's hell"
Aldous Huxley
A movie that you view? A movie that "moves you"?
I eat only the real part of complex carbohydrates.
Don't electronics become more susceptible as they become smaller? How much redundancy would be needed now that you only have a single atom to hold a bit of memory?
the processor on my computer runs on a single Atom already. I'm not impressed.
This gives new meaning to atomic writes.
Moore's Law.
It just means we'll start looking at sub-atomic particles as new storage methods...
Does that mean we're finally entering that 'atomic age' I've been reading so much about?
This is a fantastic technical achievement. However, it has no meaningful direct link to ANY deployable technology. It is a measurement technique, and although the article does not say so, I'm sure it requires a temperature of somewhere below 1K, maybe below .001K. That is the only way they could be getting signals of these phenomena without getting swamped by thermal noise. All the stuff about single atom storage is boilerplate marketing hype. I assumes that they have a hot key to paste in how a new technology can be used for memory storage, or solar cells, or green technology or ...
Why is Snark Required?
At that scale, don't you have to start worrying about quantum effects messing with your data?
I have enough trouble reading the print on MicroSD cards.
It doesn't apply, Moore's law only applies to transistor count on processors.
I got chills reading this. I think my only regret in death was that I could not see what was to be.
...the memory of Richard Feynman! I cannot help thinking of him (well, through his books, I am too young to have met him personally) when I hear news like this. I find his teachings and ideas absolutely inspiring.
We Haskellers already use STM since a long time.
Call me when the sense hardware is only an atom per bit.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
...who misread this as "single-atom DRM?"
"... on the next Science"? Hmm... Maybe that means on the next cover of Science? Maybe a little editing could fix that? And maybe typographical errors like "moview" could be fixed? Perhaps by actually reading the summary, Timothy?
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
Slackers! Most atoms have way more electrons than that!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
but also for making super efficient organic solar cells by controlling photovoltaic reactions on the atomic level
Where did that quote come from? All I saw was a vague mention of measuring the efficiency of solar cells. Not sure why they can't measure the efficiency of the ones they have already.
For which we'll need new physics rather than new technology, unfortunately.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
And by Moore's Law in 2 years it will be stored in a single proton.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
One baby step closer to Skynet. Long live our new immortal overlords.
Says we should skip atoms and go directly to cospatial nudged quanta.
This is fucking awesome!
I thought the atom was a processor and by intell, i thought ibm onlY supported risk architechture not x87 so I'm kind of cunfuesed?
Now where did I leave the interwebs?
Dynamic? The atom needs a refresh cycle?
Random Access? It is addressed by a row/column or similar structure?
Memory... ok, one bit, yes?
Doesn't "DRAM" strike anyone else as almost entirely not applicable?
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
...which would quash Moore's Law. Hint: moving from hitting an engineering target of improving a well-understood process to inventing an entirely new one will change the rate of progress.
No-one has invented a buzzword to cover this yet, alongside all of the curve-jumping bullshit. I nominate progress-refraction as a suitable misunderstanding of a physical process for MBAs
Slashdot: where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php
Next up on Slashdot, the RIAA is now demoing a single-atom DRM. Will the minuscule security it provides make a difference? Find out three redirects from the blog post we link!
I don't know if I should be up or down, but I definitely feel strange about your ideas.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
It actually might not. The thing about Moore's law is it's something of a self fulfilling prophesy. Semiconductor companies start designing CPUs before the processes that they're going to be using are available, with a reliable expectation that the process will be available by that time. The fabs aren't going to offer a process that nobody yet wants. So both of them assume a doubling in transistor count every 18 months. If this remains possible with some sort of subatomic process it will very likely continue at that rate.
And that single atom in a RAM cell doesn't count as a transistor?
If it performs the same functions, there is no reason to not apply the same law.
Oh, hey, look, we've got Transistors with THREE atoms.
ONE atom shouldn't be a problem. If it acts like a transistor, it's a transistor.
A transistor either acts as an amplifier or an electrical signal switch.
Therefore, a single-atom DRAM cell would be using single-atom transistors.
Want to try making this argument against someone *NOT* deeply involved in this industry?
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
TFA referes to "capability recently demonstrated for iron atoms by IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif"
I remember that place. It used to be one of the biggest research parks in the are. Then an few years ago it became Hitachi, say "Inspire the Next", research after Hitachi bought that division of IBM many years ago. I think they shut it down a few years ago, because it all became tall weeds, and now a brand new Lowe's store emerged in its place.
BTW, someone should collect slogans of Japanese companies: "Inspire the Next", WTF does that mean?
don't cut it off www.mgmbill.org
The article is about IBM's new pulsed STM tech, and notes that "it may enable atom-scale memory in the future". They did NOT demonstrate single-atom DRAM.
What a depressingly stupid machine.
And that single atom in a RAM cell doesn't count as a transistor?
No, it counts as a capacitor.
Want to try making this argument against someone *NOT* deeply involved in this industry?
Aren't we already doing that?
This is so horribly old hat. I mean, we know atoms for ages now so IBM needn't be smug about them. IBM, stop wasting our time and give the world a call as soon as single Higgs boson DRAM is available to retailers!
Now, what was I doing again? Yes, studying Xiph' Digital Media Primer For Geeks and appreciating sample videos with scarcely clothed women.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
Actually, Moore's law applies to the number of components on an integrated circuit (for a fixed cost). The original paper makes no mention of processors, and only talks about transistors as an example of the components you put on an IC. It directly applies to RAM, and any other kind of IC, because it's talking about process technology not about what you do with the ICs.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Nope, there are lots of subatomic places where we could store information. The spin on electrons, for example. Another simple alternative would be to use the photovoltaic effect to move electrons up and down energy levels. Fire a photon at the atom to move the electron up one energy level, measure its charge to find the current one.
Of course, when I say simple, I mean in terms of theoretical physics. In terms of engineering, it's quite the opposite.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Single-atom DRM.
A quick computation tell me that we could backup the entire internet 40000 times using a single piece of 1 cm3 of diamond (5 carats) :
That will be a really cool gem !
I wouldn't have considered either spin or energy level of the electron subatomic.
I was wondering where you were going to store information on a quark, for example.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
It's going to take a lot more then one atom to connect the memory and make it do something useful.