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Texas A&M Research Brings Racetrack Memory a Bit Closer

Posted by timothy on from the a-few-bits-really dept.

MojoKid writes "IBM is one of a number of companies working on a next-generation storage memory project and a recent discovery at Texas A&M University is a step forward for the company's racetrack memory. Racetrack memory relies on a nanowire arranged perpendicular to the chip. Current pulses across the nanowires allow data to be shifted as necessary. In theory, racetrack memory could be the Holy Grail of storage, capable of replacing both traditional hard drives and SSDs simultaneously. Racetrack memory could solve multiple problems and commercial implementations could offer hard drive-level density. Performance and reliability would both be far superior to today's SSDs. To date, IBM has demo'd a three-bit racetrack configuration. It's a start, but it's far from a shippable product at this juncture." What the A&M researchers have come up with is "a way to pulse the current much more efficiently and quickly."

55 comments

  1. Delaylineish. by SuricouRaven · · Score: 2

    Somehow I am reminded of the old mercury delay line memory.
    Also, first?

    1. Re:Delaylineish. by splutty · · Score: 2, Informative

      You must've clicked through to the original article, where that's been modded up quite a bit :)

      But yes. It has similarities. The main difference as far as I can see is that this is much more '3D'. I sort of imagine a carpet waving around (funny mental image, do we now need tiny kittens to scratch their nails on that?)

      But the option of being able to store multiple bits no a relatively small footprint is of course the most interesting one, although I wonder about the heat dissipation or production of these sort of arrays..

      (And yes, it looks like you were a first :)

      --
      Coz eternity my friend, is a long *ing time.
    2. Re:Delaylineish. by SuricouRaven · · Score: 3, Informative

      A more important difference is that the old delay lines had the bits constantly moving along - when you wanted to access one, you just waited for it to pass by the transducer. This model has the bits hold still until they are made to move back or forth along their track, like a train moving one-carriage-at-a-time past a loading crane.

    3. Re:Delaylineish. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Take em on the outside Cole! Race track memory and the treacherous turn 4

    4. Re:Delaylineish. by suutar · · Score: 1

      It's a nano-turing-machine. All it needs is an infinitely long wire...

  2. New Tech - Old Architecture by careysub · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Brings back the magnetic bubble memories!

    --
    Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
    1. Re:New Tech - Old Architecture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually sounds a lot like magnetic core memory in design, just orders or magnitude smaller.

    2. Re:New Tech - Old Architecture by frank_adrian314159 · · Score: 1

      Themes for research in EECS tend to have about 25-35 year cycles while being updated with the technology du jour at each peak. I think it has something to do with the dying out/retiring of academic advisers and industrial lab directors who think a field is "mined out". Bubble memory is about that old. Mercury delay lines twice that. On the other hand, I get the distinct impression that most of the performance findings will show the same pros and cons of any cyclical memory system. It really points out the need for a really in-depth history of computation course for EECS curricula.

      Next up: A rebirth of symbolic AI in five... four... three...

      --
      That is all.
    3. Re:New Tech - Old Architecture by careysub · · Score: 1

      Themes for research in EECS tend to have about 25-35 year cycles while being updated with the technology du jour at each peak. I think it has something to do with the dying out/retiring of academic advisers and industrial lab directors who think a field is "mined out". Bubble memory is about that old. Mercury delay lines twice that...

      Magnetic bubble "racetrack" memory seems a much closer parallel than the delay lines. MBM had some things going for it - solid state, non-volatile and extremely rugged. So mostly it got used in niche military applications. Introduced in the 1970s it was "revived" in 1989 with the U. S. Army's AN/UGC-144 portable battlefield communication terminal. At the time it was said to be "the first time a high-volume, off-the-shelf magnetic bubble memory system will be a component in a production model military computer" (as opposed to specialized avionic devices for example).

      The AN/UGC-144 is still in service, BTW.

      --
      Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
  3. Plagiarize Much? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    From the summary:

    IBM is one of a number of companies working on a next-generation storage memory project and a recent discovery at Texas A&M University is a step forward for the company's racetrack memory. Racetrack memory relies on a nanowire arranged perpendicular to the chip. Current pulses across the nanowires allow data to be shifted as necessary. In theory, racetrack memory could be the Holy Grail of storage, capable of replacing both traditional hard drives and SSDs simultaneously. Racetrack memory could solve multiple problems and commercial implementations could offer hard drive-level density. Performance and reliability would both be far superior to today's SSDs. To date, IBM has demo'd a three-bit racetrack configuration. It's a start, but it's far from a shippable product at this juncture.

    From the article:

    IBM is one of a number of companies working on a next-generation storage memory project. A recent discovery at Texas A&M University is a step forward for the company's racetrack memory. Racetrack memory relies on a nanowire arranged perpendicular to the chip. Current pulses across the nanowires allow data to be shifted as necessary.

    The later:

    In theory, racetrack memory could be the Holy Grail of storage, capable of replacing both traditional hard drives and SSDs simultaneously. ... Racetrack memory could solve multiple problems simultaneously; commercial implementations could offer hard drive-level density. Performance and reliability would both be far superior to today's SSDs.

    Then later:

    To date, IBM has demo'd a three-bit racetrack configuration—it's a start, but it's scarcely ready to ship.

    Plagiarize much?

    1. Re:Plagiarize Much? by noidentity · · Score: 2, Informative
      That's nothing! Your post has exact copies of everything you cited.

      But yeah, Slashdot summaries these days are almost always just copy-and-paste from the article.

    2. Re:Plagiarize Much? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, and Slashdot comments these days are almost always just copy-and-paste from the parent.

    3. Re:Plagiarize Much? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      as a website, sometimes people take things from other sites and copy them!

      what an idea!

      it's almost like we call this publishing, or something.

    4. Re:Plagiarize Much? by TapeCutter · · Score: 1

      "Plagiarize much?"

      Not much, in fact not at all. It's a summary, the poster picked out the bits that they thought summarised the article. To be considered plagiarisim the poster would have to be claiming it was their own work.

      Some "plagiarised" dictionary definitions:

      Summary: A summary, synopsis, or recap is a shorter version of the original.

      Plagiarisim: A piece of writing that has been copied from someone else and is presented as being your own work

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    5. Re:Plagiarize Much? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      MojoKid writes

      Sounds like presenting ownership to me ...

    6. Re:Plagiarize Much? by noidentity · · Score: 2

      Yeah, and Slashdot comments these days are almost always just copy-and-paste from the parent.

      Really?

    7. Re:Plagiarize Much? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, and Slashdot comments these days are almost always just copy-and-paste from the parent.

      Really?

      Really.

    8. Re:Plagiarize Much? by TapeCutter · · Score: 1

      FFS, it's a SUMMARY, how can "a shorter version of the original" be claiming ownership?

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
  4. Off Topic. by splutty · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    This is very off topic, but why on earth do I have 15 moderation points??

    --
    Coz eternity my friend, is a long *ing time.
    1. Re:Off Topic. by chichilalescu · · Score: 0

      obviously, there's been a mistake. we are monitoring your situation and will advise.

      --
      new sig
  5. 3-bit racetrack? by LostCluster · · Score: 4, Funny

    Are the bits named Win, Place, and Show?

    1. Re:3-bit racetrack? by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 1

      Are the bits named Win, Place, and Show?

      No, they are named, Moe, Larry, and Curly.

      "Oh, a wise bit, eh?"

      "Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!"

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    2. Re:3-bit racetrack? by ziggyzaggy · · Score: 1

      I'd prefer Who, What and I Don't know.

      "Who is set True, What is set False".
      "I don't know"
      "That's also False"

      "Abbooooottttttt!!!!!!!!"

    3. Re:3-bit racetrack? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here I figured it was sort of like this:

      No. (False)
      Yes. (True)
      Maybe? (?!?)

    4. Re:3-bit racetrack? by ebuck · · Score: 1

      Finally they've developed a memory that can keep those race conditions perfect!

    5. Re:3-bit racetrack? by doogledog · · Score: 1

      True
      False
      FileNotFound

    6. Re:3-bit racetrack? by TemporalBeing · · Score: 1

      I'd prefer the Who, What, and Where. It'd be a "Who's True" comedic relief.

      --
      Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
    7. Re:3-bit racetrack? by MrNiceguy_KS · · Score: 1

      Abort
      Retry
      Ignore?

      --
      Redundancy is good And also good.
  6. Any new tech needs a theme song by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The Kingston ladies sing this song.
    Do-dah, do-dah.
    The racetrack memory's five mils long.
    Oh, do-dah day.

    Goin' to write some ones.
    Goin' to see them stay.
    I bet my money on some Corsair DIMMs.
    Somebody boot up the Cray.

  7. Racetrack Memories by digitaldc · · Score: 2

    Hopefully, the motto of this new storage device will not be "I lost EVERYTHING!"

    --
    He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
  8. QM by neo12 · · Score: 1

    Well...wait till guys from the quantum memory research teams publish their research.

    1. Re:QM by TemporalBeing · · Score: 1

      So you string together some quantum-nanobits and call it a day.

      --
      Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
    2. Re:QM by cyclomedia · · Score: 1

      if they publish, what happens to the cat?

      --
      If you don't risk failure you don't risk success.
  9. A *Bit* closer? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Memory. Bit.

    Raising the standards for editors everywhere.

  10. Storage vs. Memory by pr0t0 · · Score: 1

    I already have enough problems with users being unable to distinguish between memory (RAM) and storage (HDD/SSD). I will now have to deal with a type of storage called Racetrack Memory?!

    This is only a half-hearted joke. Does this new form of storage/memory obviate the need for RAM by simply allocating one of the racetracks to that type of storage/retrieval?

    --
    I'm sorry, but your opinion seems to be wrong.
    1. Re:Storage vs. Memory by ziggyzaggy · · Score: 1

      let's just bring back old-fart terminology. Primary storage and secondary storage. Your HDD and SDD and USB Memory stick and Racetrack are all secondary storage. RAM is primary storage.

    2. Re:Storage vs. Memory by gman003 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Actually, the predicted speeds for racetrack memory are rather close to RAM speeds. It could be possible to operate it as primary storage - it would be a bit sluggish for calculations, but it would eliminate the need to read in chunks of files to be operated on. Given the increasing size of L3 cache, it could be possible for racetrack memory to replace SSDs and RAM while pushing hard drives into the "long-term storage" role, and have the L3 cache take the role of RAM.

      This isn't a firm prediction - I'm not even sure racetrack memory will come to anything, but if it does, "the death of RAM" is entirely possible.

    3. Re:Storage vs. Memory by TemporalBeing · · Score: 1

      Actually, the predicted speeds for racetrack memory are rather close to RAM speeds. It could be possible to operate it as primary storage - it would be a bit sluggish for calculations, but it would eliminate the need to read in chunks of files to be operated on. Given the increasing size of L3 cache, it could be possible for racetrack memory to replace SSDs and RAM while pushing hard drives into the "long-term storage" role, and have the L3 cache take the role of RAM. This isn't a firm prediction - I'm not even sure racetrack memory will come to anything, but if it does, "the death of RAM" is entirely possible.

      I'll agree the death of RAM is certainly possible if its fast enough. However, it will likely have a lot better life with less moving parts than a traditional hard drive. So I would see traditional hard drives definitely going away - SSDs will do that by themselves once they get cheap enough even without Racetrack memory taking on hard drives and SSDs. So I could see the long-term storage going to SSDs or Racetrack memory-based hard drives; but traditional hard drives will certainly die at some point. It's just a matter of the cost coming down enough to make it worth it on the other forms first.

      --
      Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
  11. a funny start ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    To date, IBM has demo'd a three-bit racetrack configuration. It's a start, but it's far from a shippable product at this juncture

    They could try selling a 3 bit product, but it would have to be pretty inexpensive !!!

    1. Re:a funny start ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To date, IBM has demo'd a three-bit racetrack configuration. It's a start, but it's far from a shippable product at this juncture

      They could try selling a 3 bit product, but it would have to be pretty inexpensive !!!

      Hey, it could run 1 1/2 copies of Windows...

  12. I wonder by NEDHead · · Score: 1

    Will on-line betting be legal?

  13. "Tech" site by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Story about some copy written works getting put on project gutenberg? 400 comments

    Story about actual memory tech? 25 comments

    1. Re:"Tech" site by Teun · · Score: 1

      It seems worry more about copy rights etc. then about technical advances.

      --
      "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
    2. Re:"Tech" site by thedonger · · Score: 1

      The copyright story has the "scifi" tag.

      --
      Help fight poverty: Punch a poor person.
    3. Re:"Tech" site by Ferzerp · · Score: 1

      Wow, you mean that stories that have at this point existed for much longer have more comments? Shocking!

  14. Whoop! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Gig'em!

  15. A link to the explanation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    More information can be found here
    http://physics.aps.org/articles/v3/96

  16. The 1960s called by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It wants its memory technology back.

    http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/11/storing_data_in_waves_delay_line_me.html

    I'm not criticizing the '60s, they were the greatest era in terms of change, innovation and just plain gee-whizzery.

    I mean, IBM had TERABIT storage in 1967.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_1360

    (Sort of puts the lie to the old Space Nutter chestnut that we only have computers because of rockets.)

    1. Re:The 1960s called by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Indeed. We have them because of business.

    2. Re:The 1960s called by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You do realize the space age began *before* 1960?

    3. Re:The 1960s called by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You *do* realize that we had computers *before* the Space Age?

      And to the other post:

      "Indeed. We have them because of business."

      Oddly enough, business only saw fit to use computers once they were proven by other people. Scientists, mathematicians, navigators....

      http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/history/

      "In the 1821 vignette of Babbage and his friend, the astronomer, John Herschel, checking manually calculated tables, Babbage, finding error after error, was driven to exclaim 'I wish to God these calculations had been executed by steam'. The grindingly tedious labor of manually checking tables was one thing. Worse was their unreliability. Babbage embarked on an ambitious venture to design and build mechanical calculating engines (...)"

      But true enough, once computers were in banks and businesses (which they were en masse by the '60s), business really took over. Space Nuttery was at best a tangential *user* of computers, not a creator of them like Space Nutters want you to believe.

  17. nononono by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They're named Win, Execute and Team !

    [ C'mon former IBMers, mod me up ! ]

  18. 1950s computer used delay lines by peter303 · · Score: 1

    Memory in UNIVAC . Then Forrester perfected magnetic core memory and IBM magnetic disk memory.

  19. Gig 'em! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I hope this is not like the Cold Fusion fiasco.