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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.'"
Video explaining the process.
It doesn't apply, Moore's law only applies to transistor count on processors.
You have to start worrying at quantum effects WAY before the scale which is currently in most modern computers. Interesting question though.
And while single-atom memory is an interesting feat, memory density isn't everything. It lets you get more capacity into less space, which can be nice. But if size was everything, I'd use my hard drive instead of my system memory and CPU cache. After all, it's easy to get a hard drive on the order of a couple terabytes while system memory is still typically on the order of a few gigabytes, and CPU cache is on the order of a few megabytes.
And while single-atom memory is an interesting feat, memory density isn't everything. It lets you get more capacity into less space, which can be nice.
yes, indeed, will let you get more capacity only when you fit the probe in the same space. For the time being, an STM is about this big.
As a research technique, is amazing. As an applicative discovery... a long way yet until the real-life consumer grade direct application will emerge (if ever)
But if size was everything
Hit the nail in the head here: latency and power consumption spring into my mind as well.
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
funny, but actually IBM started with punched cards for external storage, gears for internal memory, and later patch panels for ROM.
http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/tabulator.html
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.
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.
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.
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