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IBM Makes a Super Memory Breakthrough
adeelarshad82 writes "IBM says they have made a significant leap forward in the viability of 'Racetrack memory,' a new technology design which has the potential to exponentially increase computing power. This new tech could give devices the ability to store as much as 100 times more information than they do now, which would be accessed at far greater speeds while utilizing 'much less' energy than today's designs. In the future, a single portable device might be able to hold as much memory as today's business-class servers and run on a single battery charge for weeks at a time. Racetrack memory works by storing data as magnetic regions (also called domains), which would be transported along nanowire 'racetracks.' Instead of forcing a computer to seek out the data it needs, as traditional computing systems do, the information would automatically slide along the racetrack to where it could be used."
That's super-doubleplus good.
"We discovered that domain walls don't hit peak acceleration as soon as the current is turned on, and that it takes them exactly the same time and distance to hit peak acceleration as it does to decelerate and eventually come to a stop," commented Dr. Stuart Parkin, an IBM Fellow at IBM Research. "This was previously undiscovered in part because it was not clear whether the domain walls actually had mass, and how the effects of acceleration and deceleration could exactly compensate one another. Now we know domain walls can be positioned precisely along the racetracks simply by varying the length of the current pulses even though the walls have mass."
Don't get me wrong, race track memory is some pretty exciting stuff but I think we're dealing with an observation that means they can now proceed along a certain strategy for storing and retrieving bits. I don't think I would call this a breakthrough, it sounds like they set out to investigate domain walls and learned something. How is that a breakthrough? We're still in the ten to fifteen years away period which is that magic flying car period that, in many instances of exciting new technology, never seems to shrink.
... probably something like "Researchers Shitting Themselves Over New Discovery."
"Breakthrough" no longer means anything to me. I don't know what you would have to put in the title to get me genuinely excited about a real breakthrough
My work here is dung.
I hate it when people misuse the word exponentially to mean big.
At best, it will allow the current exponential growth to increase.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Sounds like Eckert and Maunchly weren't too far off with mercury-tube memory in Univac.
Racetrack memory is still years away from hitting the consumer market..
In other words, maybe in the next 20 years, right?
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
I hate it when marketing teams are the ones to explain technology. Oh it's like a beautiful miracle and data just appears when you want it!.. We push it down the "racetrack".
So it goes really fast, but the article left out the answer to the quintessential question: does it turn left?
Be relentless!
While this technology sounds great, I have a feeling this is more than five years away. Hell, I'd be happy if IBM delivered on the holographic storage they've been promising for the past 15 years.
Can I ask Slashdot to not post any more stories about Racetrack memory until something interesting happens with it? I've been hearing about it for years, but thus far it's all theoretical or early experimental work. Just like Bubble memory, by the time this actually works conventional memory may be faster and cheaper and it will end up on the sidelines of history.
I'll be intrested when they have something like a DIMM form factor that is actually better than existing memory.
I read the internet for the articles.
a new technology design which has the potential to exponentially increase computing power
P = NP
QED
I seriously doubt that such technology could be durable enough to handle more than a few hundred read/write operations.
Technology gets better over time!
"Instead of forcing the computer to seek out data." (Meaning, at the address where it was stored?) "The data automatically slides to where it can be used." (Is the data omniscient?) "Powerful and efficient computing." (OK, perhaps w/regard to data retrieval.)
I don't get it. Article needs more information, less hyperbole (ya, I know, this is /.) so it doesn't really seem like a Samuel L. Jackson moment.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Can I ask Slashdot to not post any more stories ... until something interesting happens
you must be new here. low ID aside.
20 years
Please avoid careless speculation. The SPI of racetrack memory, as with other microelectronic breakthroughs is five years.
Lurking at the bottom of the gravity well, getting old
...the information would automatically slide along the racetrack to where it could be used.
Ahhh, bring the mountain to Mohammed...
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
I'll be intrested when they have something like a DIMM form factor that is actually better than existing memory.
By the time this hits the market, we won't be using desktop computers anymore.You'll just hit a button on your cell phone and your monitor, keyboard and mouse will turn on and interface with it automatically.
Bottom line is I don't think they'll bother making full-size components anymore; it'll be integrated-or-nothing by the time this technology arrives. We're certainly headed that way anyway.
"Instead of forcing a computer to seek out the data it needs, as traditional computing systems do, the information would automatically slide along the racetrack to where it could be used." :)
So it's serial then
why not connect the racetracks directly to the internet tubes. then the information could slide along the racetrack into a series of tubes and ultimately slide right into your own personal racetrack.
-Lod
Sounds a whole lot like bubble memory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_memory
I'd like to know how this differed.
Here is a press release from a couple of years ago basically trumpeting the same thing. I think it is policy to recycle this every so often to prop up their stock price.
I'll be happy enough when it's up to competing with rotating memory, which is a lot more likely.
Serial memory is serial memory, and promising to replace Random Access Memory in latency-critical applications like main memory is just nonsense. Either the people putting out these claims are stupid or they think we are.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
To this old fart, it looks the same, just a different way to fab the thing. But hey what do I know?
One thing I do know. Current scientists aren't very well educated on what has gone before. About a year ago I saw the "breakthrough" development of a "plasma transistor" that I also had in a 1950's book on my shelf....happens pretty frequently these days. These guys are so specialized they don't even know the history of their own fields anymore, much less a broad history.
Reminds me of Hari Seldon and "the galactic empire is crumbling" to be frank. Not even up to Heinlein standards!
Why guess when you can know? Measure!
If I can carry around all my data in a little pod, then all I'll need is access to input and output devices.
That would be far out. Thanks IBM, for the neat science fiction story of the day!
I worked on magnetic bubble memory at T.I. in the Dallas corporate research labs back in the mid-70s and it used a "racetrack" architecture where magnetic bubbles (domains) were stored in very long shift registers with the shifting accomplished by rotating magnetic fields. I hope it does better this time around.
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
I watch car races on TV for the same reason most people do. To see the crashes. What happens if the data in these memory chips fails to make the turn? Getting implaled by ones and zeros doesn't sound like much fun. I'm just glad we're not using Roman Numerals, because those dots on the i's flying about, and those x's look a lot like those Japanese surikans, and those L's winging around like boomerangs.
Just how safe are we?
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
I'm still waiting for my holographic bubble memory cubes.
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
Riiight. I welcome our long-lasting, battery powered overlords...if they ever transcend marketing fiction and appear IRL.
Imagination drew in bold strokes, instantly serving hopes and fears, while knowledge advanced by slow increments...
before magnetic disks and tapes were perfected
I read this:
Racetrack memory works by storing data as magnetic regions (also called domains), which would be transported along nanowire "racetracks." Instead of forcing a computer to seek out the data it needs, as traditional computing systems do, the information would automatically slide along the racetrack to where it could be used."
And I'm focused on the word "automatically". Um, so racetrack memory is clairvoiant? No, it appears to be a FIFO method. So it appears "automatically" when it's time for it to appear. The 'seek time' is the speed of the loop. Sort of like watching your favorite race car coming down the stretch. The rest of the time, it's circulating. You get to see it "automatically" when it completes a lap, though RM apparently doesn't use a loop, so it shuttles the bits back and forth on a wire. The more I understand this, the more "automatically" becomes so much oversimplification.
Whatever, they didn't have to make it sound cooler than it already is.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
This was interesting. Determining whether or not the domains has mass is very exciting.
Just because you only care about crap that you can buy doesn't mean others aren't interested in scientific breakthroughs.
The pre-millennium jandrese called, he want's to know why you killed his curiosity.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I didnt realize they were still in the business of developing new stuff.
Seems the core of their business is acquiring other technology companies, and injecting red tape and excess bureaucracy into other enterprises through proliferation of their "Architectural Thinking" workshops.
The overwhelming consensus SPI for flying cars is twenty years.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2004/tc20040825_4462_tc119.htm
http://www.kurzweilai.net/forums/topic/why-flying-cars-are-a-long-way-off
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:TuZyTN2xWuwJ:www.slideshare.net/RichStrong/magic-dragon-flying-car-project-presentation+flying+car+20+years+-%22your+flying+car+awaits%22&cd=11&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://www.davinciinstitute.com/papers/where-is-my-flying-car/
http://www.cobizmag.com/articles/flying-cars-just-give-it-20-years-or-so/page-2/
http://markctu.blogspot.com/2007/08/failed-prediction-flying-car.html
Lurking at the bottom of the gravity well, getting old
The domain mass thing is somewhat interesting, but the whole story is about how Racetrack memory is going to be totally awesome in the future because mumble mumble. A link to the paper about the magnetic domain experiments would have gone over much better IMHO.
I read the internet for the articles.
I read it more for the corporate-mood stories, following who's deciding what on existing tech. For things like the Ubuntu Unity announcement, I note that as like a calendar date to revisit in the future to see if it still happens, and if it does, to pay attention then.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Rambus will probably just amend one of their submarine patents to cover it.
Courtesy of a better writeup at:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9202379/IBM_s_racetrack_memory_moves_closer_to_the_checkered_flag?taxonomyId=147
In a paper published in the Dec. 24 issue of Science Magazine, the IBM researchers report that domain walls have mass and do indeed take a bit of time to speed up to peak velocity, and to slow down. Knowing this, they'll be able to move and retrieve data on a racetrack trip accurately. There's still a lot of work to be done before racetrack becomes a reality, but according to Parkin, the biggest questions -- whether an electric charge would move these domain walls, and whether or not they have mass -- have now been answered. Now the problems are more practical and less theoretical: how do you build a racetrack chip that works reliably with millions or even billions of these racetracks, for example. "Those are the questions that we can only address by building prototypes and testing them for a period of time," Parkin said.
And the official IBM press release:
https://www-304.ibm.com/jct03001c/press/us/en/pressrelease/33291.wss
I see more data center utilization for this technology rather than consumer devices. Be nice if I could get a home NAS on one of these in 5-10 years.
So what's the difference between this and the old TI bubble memory concept?
Can I ask Slashdot to not...
HEY! Can I ask you not to masturbate in you basement while fondling your sister's granny panties, and then for some bizarre reason, telling us all about it? I would really like that...
Sounds promising but would like a lot more information. I doubt they could give out more info at this time due to competitors looking into their type of racetrack memory right away. With the limitation of solid state drives, we need a breakthrough in some form or fashion.
"Instant gratification takes too long." - Carrie Fisher
"C++0X adds the same thing, re-using the auto keyword, and of course there's no connection to linq there. C++'s problem was that the standard library clases were ending up with type names so long no one wanted to type them" by lgw (121541) on Wednesday December 29, @03:57PM (#34703180) Journal
Ever heard of saving your code - & maybe cut/paste your routines already prebuilt, if not having premade classes/objects/containers for yourself in a toolkit you made, with at most, a few settings to reset easily, via cut & paste mostly, if not entirely?
Alternately, don't you have a library of templates already built??
With your statement quoted above, You've got to be the stupidest coder I've ever met if you're complaining about typing. It's part of the job, compiler IDE / CASE tool generation + prebuilt objects or not.
Fact is, because of what you said? I don't think you've actually professionally done the job in fact, ever, with your statement quoted above.
This device, the magnetic race-track, is a powerful storage-class memory which promises a solid state memory with the cost and storage capacities rivaling that of magnetic disk drives..."
In otherwords, new technology Y to replace technology X will give results >= X and cost = X. I've heard that marketing mumojumbo way too many times, especially for Ys that don't exist yet. Show me just one storage technology that has come out in the past 30 years that makes that a true statement. I dare you.
Delay line memory.
Completely different form of energy, of course.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
Damn, forgot to use the ampersand-l-t-semicolon to show a < for cost <= X. Oh well, you get the idea.
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That's a pet peeve of mine. People often say that software just gets heavier and larger and the vendors don't put much effort into refactoring/optimizing old products... But that certainly isn't true. At least, not as any sort of general rule.
One of the most common (and yet, furthest from truth) examples is Adobe Flash. When Adobe introduced ActionScript 3, they added some new functionality but more importantly, the speed increased ten times when compared to ActionScript 2. New flash applications take only a fraction of the resources the same applications would have required half a decade ago. Most of the bad reputation that Flash has is from three factors: Old applications (Even if the new applications are faster, bad reputation wears off slowly and old applications can still be found all around the web), incompetent developers (Many ad agencies create complex applications without employing a single software engineer...) and people not understanding how complex the platform is (I think that most people on /. still don't grok that Flash is a full scale virtual machine with object oriented programming language, automatic garbage collection, etc., etc... It doesn't justify all the security holes that there have been but makes them easier to understand).
The another common example used to be JavaScript. But anyone who has observed the situation for the last two years or so has noticed that all major browser vendors have increased the execution speed of JavaScript by A LOT. They're not concentrating just on adding new functionality: They want to do the same things with less resources.
We could look at Java, too. Compare the performance of Java half a decade ago and now. Advanded JIT compilation and similar optimizations have increased the performance by a lot. And while old, crappy classes still exist (I'm looking at you, URL), there has been a lot of new and better libraries to replace the obsolete ones.
I could go on and on but I guess there wouldn't be a point. The thing simply is that the usual chain for vendors seems to be this: 1) Come up with a cool idea for new functionality. 2) Implement it before the competitors (even if the quick and dirty implementation ends up as slow and heavy). 3) Optimize it 4) Go to step 1.
There are some vendors that don't pay step three enough attention. And often old code isn't optimized immediatelly but rather after a few more features have been added... But it's certainly there.
Didn't RTFA to know this: At least IBM is still doing R&D, and has been for quite some time. That is usually the first budget item to be slashed in economic downturns and I am grateful that big blue (notice not capital B on those) is still doing it's part to better our computing environment. On a personal note I joined a banking company years ago, one of the reasons was because they had an R&D division (not to date myself but that was the Windows NT era). That was an early goal of mine to strive towards that division plus I liked the philosophy of the company that had a R&D aspect - you can grow your core business while still pursuing (chasing?) something big. As good or as bad as IBM is, it is still in the R&D game while living off, correct me if I'm wrong, it's mainframe fortunes.
in the form of a car analogy?
Their they're doing there hair.
In the future, a single portable device might be able to hold as much memory as today's business-class servers and run on a single battery charge for weeks at a time.
That's not exactly profound. At any given time you can get the desktop hardware capabilities of 10 years ago in some pocket-sized form today.
How does racetrack memory compare to that other favourite - the memristor? What are the main disadvantages/advantages of either?
Why OpalCalc is the best Windows calc
"run on single battery" is misleading as they don't specify cell chemistry or density. It could be an industrial style cell with ultra high density but many will probably think in terms of a single commonly available commercial cell like alkaline primaries or something. Even then they may mean pack of cells since many act like mobile phones, cameras, flashlights, laptops and so on run off a single Li cell when in fact those packs are comprised of multiple single cells of some kind of rechargable Li chemistry (such as ion, LiFe, poly, LiCo and so on). The other thing is even if it was off a single cell (eg. small but high capacity regular commecial cell such as an 18650) then we're talking about running the memory alone and plenty of present day appliances manage to run memory off such small amounts of power too. Even if we compare it to regular comp memory which has low power requirement (mine uses 2.5v) and doesn't draw that many amps really it isn't much different although it's not quite few weeks on single cell level admittedly, under load at least.
The /. summary forgot to describe the breakthrough. It only described what racetrack is, which I happened to know already.