HP Advances Next-Gen Memory Technology

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HP Advances Next-Gen Memory Technology

Posted by samzenpus on Monday May 16, 2011 @12:08AM from the newest-and-greatest dept.

angry tapir writes "HP scientists have made a small breakthrough in the development of a next-generation memory technology called memristors, which some see as a potential replacement for today's widely used flash and DRAM technologies. In a paper to be published today in the journal Nanotechnology, scientists report that they have mapped out the basic chemistry and structure of what happens inside a memristor during its electrical operation."

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what about F-RAM? by kubitus · 2011-05-16 00:16 · Score: 1

Ti introduced their new line of uControllers with F-RAM, saying it is 120 times faster than Flash.
-
except for real fast needs they have some k S-RAM.
as they are also using licensed technology like Fujitsu, we can expect more of this to come - maybe not yet for the PC!
1. Re:what about F-RAM? by vlm · 2011-05-16 01:00 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  The only real difference between FRAM and memristors, is FRAM has been licensing and shipping COTS product for over a decade, and memristors are a vaporware product from extremely deep pockets trying to bite a piece off that (admittedly very tiny) market by skating as close as possible to existing patents / copyrights / trademarks without actually being sued out of existence. Its kind of like asking what is the technical difference between a "turbo-" marketed product vs a "i-" marketed product.
  Both are basically microscopic core memories. Magnetic field hysteresis, measure magnetic state by trying to force to a given state and seeing how much power it takes, none means its already that state and a bunch means it was the other state.
  There are other theoretical uses for memristors. The killer is both devices are current mode devices, which means they'll almost certainly never be power-competitive with voltage mode devices. The other killer is they are not silicon, so that means scrap all the existing fabs and start over. Plus virtually everything out there is silicon based, so it'll be interesting seeing the hybrid devices. And the fourth killer is that memristor/fram technology is advancing, but mass produced silicon dram is also advancing, in fact for a decade or so has been advancing faster, making "modern core memory" ever less interesting.
  On the other hand, depending on their temperature handling properties, a memristor based CPU that glows dull red with heat might be OK, don't know. I do know that off the shelf silicon for a variety of reasons doesn't "like" working above a couple hundred degrees, but memristors might not have the same limitations.
  
  --
  "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
2. Re:what about F-RAM? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-16 01:29 · Score: 0
  
  NCR once made good magnetic core memory. Each bit 1/16 the size of a pinhead.
  By having a tight program loop exactly resonate each bit, were able to make the core spin, then literally 'drop out' to the bit bucket. And there will be spin forces to 'test' a bit. Make it smaller, less 'glue' to stick it in place, or a thermal crack over time. You can miniaturize things, but I expect the same problems to pop up.
  NCR , Burroughs and ICL (British) now Fujitsu should have patents or prior art sitting somewhere.
3. Re:what about F-RAM? by cats-paw · 2011-05-16 03:05 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  The killer is both devices are current mode devices, which means they'll almost certainly never be power-competitive with voltage mode devices
  you have no way of knowing that at this point in time. it doesn't matter that it's a current operated device , it's power that counts.
  if it takes 1nA @ 1V to enable/disable a memrister then a billion of them will cost you a watt. So what exactly would be the problem ? Based on my understanding of the physics I think it's completely possible that a memrister could be power consumption competitive with standard technologies.
  However your point about the fact that it can't be fabricated using silicon-based technology is a good one, but the memrister seems to me to be simpler to fabricate than a FRAM cell, so that may end up being a wash.
  Generally speaking I expect much of the PR today to be vaporware promoting, but the memrister is too new at this point. There might yet be something there.
  
  --
  Absolute statements are never true
4. Re:what about F-RAM? by Pinky's+Brain · 2011-05-16 03:39 · Score: 1
  
  The titanium dioxide material still seems to represent a significant advance from PZT even if the operating principles are the same.
5. Re:what about F-RAM? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-16 04:03 · Score: 1
  
  Memory? What are you talking about? FRAM makes oil filters MORAN.
6. Re:what about F-RAM? by AdamHaun · 2011-05-16 06:25 · Score: 2
  
  The killer is both devices are current mode devices, which means they'll almost certainly never be power-competitive with voltage mode devices.
  Are there any voltage mode devices anymore? Flash and DRAM are current mode, and my understanding is that even SRAM uses current mode sensing. I don't work in the FRAM group (I'm a flash guy), but TI's FRAM MCUs are supposed to be super low-power.
  CMOS processes always have to be modified to support nonvolatile memory. Not sure what extra steps memristors would need but I doubt it would involve throwing out all existing equipment -- more like adding one or two things.
  
  --
  Visit the
7. Re:what about F-RAM? by ChrisMaple · 2011-05-16 06:44 · Score: 1
  
  If by current mode you mean that it requires, like a tunnel diode, current to be running at all times to maintain a logic state, that is indeed a strong disincentive for many uses.
  
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  Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
8. Re:what about F-RAM? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-16 09:40 · Score: 0
  
  The only real difference between FRAM and memristors, is FRAM has been licensing and shipping COTS product for over a decade, and memristors are a vaporware product from extremely deep pockets trying to bite a piece off that (admittedly very tiny) market by skating as close as possible to existing patents / copyrights / trademarks without actually being sued out of existence. Its kind of like asking what is the technical difference between a "turbo-" marketed product vs a "i-" marketed product.
  Both are basically microscopic core memories. Magnetic field hysteresis, measure magnetic state by trying to force to a given state and seeing how much power it takes, none means its already that state and a bunch means it was the other state.
  Your summary of HP's memristor devices is completely incorrect, almost maliciously so given your comments about trying to skate close to existing patents. They are not microscopic core memories. The mechanism is nanoscale ion mobility, not any kind of magnetic effect at all. As current flows through the device, ions move one direction, and its resistance changes. At some point there are no more ions to move, so it saturates. Reverse the current flow, the ions move the other direction, up till saturation.
  IIRC, HP wasn't even intentionally looking for memresistance. They found odd unexpected hysteresis in the I-V curve of an experimental device built for another purpose. Someone on the team had read a paper about a fourth theoretical passive circuit element, the memresistor, and realized that's what was being observed.
  Since the HP discovery, other labs have begun working on other possible approaches to building memresistors, including spintronic and magnetic devices, but that doesn't make the HP devices anything other than what they are: ion mobility devices.
  
  There are other theoretical uses for memristors. The killer is both devices are current mode devices, which means they'll almost certainly never be power-competitive with voltage mode devices.
  1. On what basis do you assert that current mode devices can't be low power? Or, equivalently, that voltage mode devices are inherently lower power than current mode devices? Don't you think it might be wise to actually investigate the particulars of any given device rather than make a blanket assumption?
  2. HP seems to think their memresistor bit cell uses less power than flash. If they can achieve flash density (or better), with less power, and a better scalability story, they'll have something interesting, don't you think?
  
  The other killer is they are not silicon, so that means scrap all the existing fabs and start over.
  HP's memresistor devices are built from 2 layers of titanium dioxide. Why would it be impossible to deposit TiO2 on a silicon substrate? How is it any worse than F-RAM and other magnetic memory technologies, which also add unusual materials and process steps?
  
  And the fourth killer is that memristor/fram technology is advancing, but mass produced silicon dram is also advancing, in fact for a decade or so has been advancing faster, making "modern core memory" ever less interesting.
  So nobody should ever even so much as investigate alternative memory technologies?
  Besides, who said it has to replace DRAM to be interesting? IIRC, DRAM was already the mature steamroller technology you depict when flash memory was invented. Despite being a thoroughly unappealing DRAM replacement, flash has matured into a steamroller tech of its own.
  Why are you insisting that we should automatically pooh-pooh any attempt to research new technologies and develop them into practical products? Is it because of silly prejudiced attitudes like this?
  
  On the other hand, depending on their temperature handling properties, a memristor based CPU that glows dull red with heat might be OK, don't know.
  Yeah, because current devices are guaranteed to make things glow red hot, hur hur.
9. Re:what about F-RAM? by thegarbz · 2011-05-16 19:36 · Score: 1
  
  Except memristors aren't vapourware. Memristors both theoretically exist, have been built in a usable form, and are continuously being improved to the point where they may become useful as the 4th fundamental passive electronic device.
  By saying they are vapourware you're saying that everything was once vapourware which is a complete bastardisation of the term. Memristors like graphine and nanotubes are areas of research which are constantly expanding and developing and have both funding and a serious chance of making a difference in their respective markets.
powers of ten by necro81 · 2011-05-16 00:18 · Score: 3, Informative

FTFA:

HP's latest breakthrough was to use highly focused X-rays to pinpoint a channel, just 100 nanometers wide, where the resistance switching takes place. A nanometer is about a millionth of a centimeter.
[smacks forehead and groans]

If by "about" you mean "about ten times smaller than".
1. Re:powers of ten by xMrFishx · 2011-05-16 00:22 · Score: 2
  
  I hate centimetres. They make everything really annoying. All hail engineering notation.
2. Re:powers of ten by jez9999 · 2011-05-16 00:22 · Score: 2
  
  The real WTF is 'about'. No, it's EXACTLY that. You're too used to your vague imperial rounding. ;-)
  
  --
  == Jez ==
  Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
3. Re:powers of ten by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-16 00:28 · Score: 0
  
  and the real WTF is that they say it is "about" 1e-6 smaller than 1e-2 meters when in fact it *is* 1e-9. Hence the original comment was really spot on, as it
  is exactly one tenth of a millionth of a centimeter.
  Just stating the obvious, of course.
4. Re:powers of ten by stranger_to_himself · 2011-05-16 00:28 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Much better article summarising this for the lay person (ie begins by explaining what memresitors are).
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13392857
5. Re:powers of ten by Dunbal · 2011-05-16 00:28 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Er no, a nanometer is a BILLIONTH of a meter, which would make it a 1,000,000,000/100th (a ten millionth) of a centimeter. The guy who wrote TFA somehow thinks a centimeter is a thousandth of a meter. Funny how cent comes from the latin centum meaning 1/100th (which is why there are 100 cents in a dollar, for example), and milli means thousandth, and still people who write "sciency" articles manage to screw them up. THE METRIC SYSTEM IS NOT HARD, PEOPLE.
  
  --
  Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
6. Re:powers of ten by TrueSatan · 2011-05-16 00:54 · Score: 0
  
  Strange as it may seem it appears to have an odd quirk when put into practice in the UK...we have landed up with meters and millimetres as legal units but not centimetres. When I was studying for my "A" levels (many, many years ago) we were warned that use of centimetres might cause an adjudicator to drop us some marks in exams so it stuck in my mind rather well. Maybe the system was too hard for the legislators to grasp?
7. Re:powers of ten by tepples · 2011-05-16 01:08 · Score: 1, Troll
  
  THE METRIC SYSTEM IS NOT HARD, PEOPLE.
  Then why is it so dang hard for Americans to switch from inches and pounds?
8. Re:powers of ten by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-16 01:16 · Score: 0, Funny
  
  Could it be because they are so used to being routinely "pounded" by a 5 inch object by their nations glorious leaders?
9. Re:powers of ten by PhilHibbs · 2011-05-16 01:30 · Score: 1
  
  It's only one order of magnitude. "A centimeter" is something small that everyone can get their head around. "A millionth" is also something that's easy to take in. So he writes, "about a millionth of a centimeter", and he's right. To the general public, it doesn't matter if that's the correct size or if it's actually ten times smaller than that, "about a millionth of a centimeter" is just a way of saying "really, really, really small" in terms that everyone can grasp. "A billionth of a meter", "one ten millionth of a centimeter", and "a millionth of a millimeter" are less easy to grasp.
10. Re:powers of ten by korgitser · 2011-05-16 01:43 · Score: 2
  
  Then why is it so dang hard for Americans to switch from inches and pounds?
  From Wikipedia: Inertia is the resistance of any [physical object] to a change in its state of motion or rest, or the tendency of [an object] to resist any change in its motion. It is proportional to an object's mass.
  
  --
  FCKGW 09F9 42
11. Re:powers of ten by Bengie · 2011-05-16 02:04 · Score: 1
  
  Nearly all devices and recipes are in the english system over here. We have no relation to the metric system. When doing math, I convert to metric, do the math, then convert back because it's easier. But when someone says something is 30c, I have no idea if that's hot or cold.
  Not to mention how many hand-written recipes are in english. Who is going to go back through every note written by their relatives/friends/etc and convert it all to metric. To be effective, you would have to convert every oven/book/measuring-device/etc all at the same time.
  People complained about the dTV transition because their 60 year old TVs no longer worked, even though everyone in the USA got 2 free vouchers for converter boxes. This would be much much worse.
12. Re:powers of ten by tepples · 2011-05-16 02:07 · Score: 1
  
  Who is going to go back through every note written by their relatives/friends/etc and convert it all to metric.
  If people in other countries could, including people in other English-speaking countries, why can't Americans?
13. Re:powers of ten by glebovitz · 2011-05-16 02:10 · Score: 1
  
  Then why is it so dang hard for Americans to switch from inches and pounds?
  Why do we spell favorite, behavior, color differently? Because we can. Does anyone really care?
14. Re:powers of ten by CronoCloud · 2011-05-16 02:13 · Score: 1
  
  Actually we did...back in Lincoln's time. And our current Inch/pound standards are mathematically derived from the meter/kilogram ones. It's just the inertia of the citizenry and in part...they still blame Jimmy Carter for the metric system..even though it's been official here for ages. (The carter administration heavily promoted metricization to bring us into modernity....the Reagan dopes put an end to that)
15. Re:powers of ten by _0xd0ad · 2011-05-16 02:25 · Score: 2
  
  But when someone says something is 30c, I have no idea if that's hot or cold.
  Double it and add 30; that gets you close enough for most normal temperatures.
  0C = about 30F (32F, to be exact)
  20C = about 70F (68F)
  40C = about 110F (104F)
16. Re:powers of ten by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-16 03:04 · Score: 0
  
  Memristor disapproves of this post.
17. Re:powers of ten by DarkOx · 2011-05-16 03:41 · Score: 1
  
  You know what though. We have a huge investment in customary system tooling and you know what the metric system sucks every bit as hard, in the modern world. People who need to do lots of conversions between our customary units learn how and they learn good rules of thumb and math tricks to do so, its no big deal. Nobody does arithmetic by pen and paper any more; its either simple enough to do in your head or its reach for a calculator or computer; many people carry a phone all the time with these features anyway.
  A base 10 system has just about as many problems for a computer as our customary units have. So there is no real value in converting. If anything we should create a base 2, system switch to that and then make everyone else follow.
  
  --
  Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
18. Re:powers of ten by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-16 03:54 · Score: 0
  
  I hate centimetres also. They are really annoying especially when company comes by to visit and they go running across the floor. People start thinking you don't clean up cause these bugs are running all over the place. They serve no purpose, just like mosquitoes.
19. Re:powers of ten by partyguerrilla · 2011-05-16 04:13 · Score: 1
  
  The problem is the system itself, not the base. Imperial does not use a base, and its units don't relate to each other in any significant way. I find it hard to believe someone is still purposefully oblivious enough to sidetrack like hell and defend the imperial system with semantics.
20. Re:powers of ten by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-16 04:27 · Score: 0
  
  Cost, plain and simple. There is no viable economic drive to switch. We are capitalists, remember?
21. Re:powers of ten by Surt · 2011-05-16 04:44 · Score: 1
  
  Then why is it so dang hard for Americans to switch from inches and pounds?
  Why do we spell favorite, behavior, color differently? Because we can. Does anyone really care?
  http://articles.cnn.com/1999-09-30/tech/9909_30_mars.metric.02_1_climate-orbiter-spacecraft-team-metric-system?_s=PM:TECH
  How about the 125 people who could have been millionaires instead of throwing away money on an orbiter that was destroyed thanks to our non-conversion to metric.
  
  --
  "Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
22. Re:powers of ten by doug · 2011-05-16 05:06 · Score: 1
  
  It isn't that I can't use metric. It is that I don't want to use metric. I am reasonably comfortable using metric with no (or just minimal) conversions to Imperial units. I know the two systems well enough, and I know which system I prefer.
  The bit I've never gotten is why those who use metric assume that we don't because we are too stupid to do so. It really comes off as being needy and lacking in self confidence. Since there is someone who made a choice different than you, you collectively feel some need to insult and claim superiority. Ooh. Using metric makes a better person. Pathetic, really. Why do you care which system we use?
  ob jackass comment: We should have forced Europe to convert to Imperial in 1945. It would have meant that I wouldn't have had to listen to so many pro-metric wankers.
23. Re:powers of ten by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-16 05:56 · Score: 0
  
  Convert the UK to Imperial from.... Imperial? :)
  "It was only in 1965 that Britain formally commenced a program of metrication, a program that is not yet complete."
24. Re:powers of ten by ChrisMaple · 2011-05-16 06:49 · Score: 1
  
  latin centum meaning 1/100th
  Wrong! Centum means 100. That's why percent means "per 100".
  
  --
  Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
25. Re:powers of ten by ChrisMaple · 2011-05-16 07:00 · Score: 1
  
  That's why we need measurement units that are easy to understand. Small atoms are about one Angstrom, 10^-10 meter. The next convenient unit is a hair's diameter, about 25*10^-6 meter (1 American mil).
  Henceforth, the units for linear small measurements in the popular press should be Angstroms and hairs.
  
  --
  Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
26. Re:powers of ten by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-16 08:15 · Score: 0
  
  It probably has something to do with what system you "think" in. I use both metric and english, but when I look at something I estimate its dimensions in inches not centimeters, I feel in pounds not kilograms, and I gauge temperature on Fahrenheit. I know what 80 degrees F feels like but I have no clue what 30 degrees C feels like. The switch to metric will take a long time.
  I have a friend who was a missionary to some of the traditional Mayan groups in northern Guatemala. He says that it takes 3-4 generations for a given culture to change a given way of thinking.
27. Re:powers of ten by mattack2 · 2011-05-16 08:48 · Score: 1
  
  People complained about the dTV transition because their 60 year old TVs no longer worked, even though everyone in the USA got 2 free vouchers for converter boxes.
  No, we got $40 rebate coupons. Also, it wasn't everyone in the USA. At least according to the Wikipedia page, it "would only supply half the 73 million analog TVs not using a pay service", not everyone in the USA.
  (I let mine lapse, twice, since there weren't any of the converter boxes around here for approximately the coupon price.)
28. Re:powers of ten by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-16 09:14 · Score: 0
  
  Are you saying we're fat?
29. Re:powers of ten by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-16 09:23 · Score: 0
  
  That has less to do with an entire country's standards and more to do with good old notdoingtheresearchtryagain.
30. Re:powers of ten by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-16 13:42 · Score: 0
  
  in any significant way? There's lots of 2xs and 4xs.. Yes, there are 3xs too (I think teaspoons->tablespoons).
31. Re:powers of ten by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-16 19:26 · Score: 0
  
  Have you ever tried to teach a retarded person to speak proper english?
32. Re:powers of ten by tepples · 2011-05-17 00:50 · Score: 1
  
  And inertia is measured in kilograms. It's also measured in slugs (which weigh about 32 pounds on earth), but the American public is probably more familiar with the kilo than the slug.
Link to original article by zrbyte · 2011-05-16 00:19 · Score: 3, Informative

Here's a link (paywall) to the research paper and a free preprint, if anyone cares to read. These *** news sites are never able to publish a link to the original paper.
1. Re:Link to original article by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-16 00:39 · Score: 0
  
  Can't link to this article too many times:
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/the-lay-scientist/2010/sep/24/1
2. Re:Link to original article by vlm · 2011-05-16 00:43 · Score: 2
  
  These *** news sites are never able to publish a link to the original paper.
  Then we wouldn't need the news sites, (sarcasm tag) unless the reader wants real value added like "A nanometer is about a millionth of a centimeter." (/sarcasm tag)
  
  --
  "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
3. Re:Link to original article by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-16 10:12 · Score: 0
  
  I'm afraid you've got the wrong paper. The paper discussed in this article (with focused x-rays observing a hundred nanometer channel) is this one:
  http://iopscience.iop.org/0957-4484/22/25/254015
Nano, Ju-Ju, and Voodoo by retroworks · 2011-05-16 00:39 · Score: 1

What I find amazing, according to the article, is that the breakthrough is understanding why it works. In nano engineering, they are making things so small that they themselves have to observe what the creature does and then try to discover what they have appeared to have discovered.

--
Gently reply
1. Re:Nano, Ju-Ju, and Voodoo by elsurexiste · 2011-05-16 00:53 · Score: 1
  
  So that's the piece of news? I remember hearing about HP's memristors since 2007/8, and was intrigued by this reporting...
  
  --
  I rarely respond to comments. Also, don't ask for clarifications: a brain and Google are faster, believe me!
2. Re:Nano, Ju-Ju, and Voodoo by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-16 02:02 · Score: 0
  
  That's not unique to the nano world by any means. Lots of discoveries start out as an accident, and we're left wondering "why the hell does THAT happen?!" And then we go investigate.
Re:8 Cups a Day by Calydor · 2011-05-16 00:42 · Score: 1

Wow, that's the equivalent of 16 girls!

--
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
Re:Much faster! by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-16 01:14 · Score: 0

I would ask for a refund if I were you.
Re:8 Cups a Day by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-16 01:18 · Score: 0

Girls not included.
That's all well and good, but... by jcr · 2011-05-16 01:25 · Score: 1

Someone wake me up when I can get a non-volatile petabyte storage device that operates at today's DRAM speeds. Also, I want it to sell for under a hundred bucks, draw less than a watt of power in use, and fit in a one-centimeter cube.
-jcr

--
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
1. Re:That's all well and good, but... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-16 04:24 · Score: 1
  
  No, we'll just leave you asleep since none of us particularly care about satisfying your desires.
2. Re:That's all well and good, but... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-16 07:50 · Score: 0
  
  www.nantero.com for every request besides the pricepoint.
3. Re:That's all well and good, but... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-16 14:46 · Score: 0
  
  www.nantero.com for every request besides the pricepoint.
  Let's compare to jcr's list...
  Non-volatile: Check
  Petabyte: They talk about a 10Gbit prototype chip. 10x10^9 bits 8x10^15 bits. Maybe density will improve if they survive till they make something real, but for now let's assume 10Gb. This is not exactly petabyte territory.
  DRAM speed: Who knows, they aren't real specific.
  $100, 1W, in a 1cm cube: Flatly impossible. They would have to improve bits per chip by about 5 orders of magnitude to meet any of these requirements. Probably a full 6 orders of magnitude (1PB on a single chip) to get it under one watt. (Driving signals between chips costs power, alas.)
  (Implicit jcr requirement) Availability: Very, very unavailable. Guarantee you these guys have years (and several rounds of funding) to go before they can make anything suitable for purposes other than R&D. And there's no guarantee they've got something which will prove to be viable technology either.
  You didn't actually look at jcr's requirements at all, now did you?
Article misses the point.... by OwenTheContrarian · 2011-05-16 02:03 · Score: 1

Memristors are most interesting not because of their ability to store data after power is removed, but for their ability to store any value between one and zero (on - no resistance, and off - no current). The non-volatile nature of the circuit will probably lead to early commercialization, but the really cool stuff will happen when people like Stanford's Professor Boahen get their hands on these things. The ability to store data in a non-discrete way will surely help to speed the development of processors that are very efficient by emulating biological methods of processing data. I have been following the development of memristors with great interest, and I would like to be the ten-millionth person to hail the imminent invention of our AI Overlords!
Porque se deletrean "favorito" y "color" by tepples · 2011-05-16 02:37 · Score: 1

Why do we spell favorite, behavior, color differently?
Commonwealth English borrowed the -our spellings from French because France is across the channel from England. The United States, on the other hand, borders Mexico, which spells favorite "favorito" and color "color"; American English then analogized "behavior" from the other two because Spanish uses a different word ("comportamiento", meaning "comportment") for the concept.
From the highly generalized article by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-16 03:00 · Score: 0

Isn't this just static ram(two capacitors entwined) miniaturized, and probably sustainable on a lithium battery? Haven't they considered that memristors is a fucking ridiculous name?
1. Re:From the highly generalized article by UnknowingFool · 2011-05-16 04:07 · Score: 1
  
  From what I understand, the memristor was theorized long ago and not by HP. The first use of the term was in 1960 by Bernard Widrow and the theory behind it was proposed by Leornard Chua in 1971. It is supposed to be the 4th fundamental basic circuit component with the resistor, capacitor, and inductor. To your point, the functionality of the memristor has been accomplished using the other three. The theoretical advantage of a memristor is that being a basic component, it should require less space and complexity to build in an IC.
  
  --
  Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Re:HP tech? by partyguerrilla · 2011-05-16 04:20 · Score: 1

4) be "supported", if that's the right word, by a bunch of illiterate indians and

BROTIP: Just because they speak a different language, or an accent different to your pure-inbred Iowan, it doesn't mean they're illiterate.
Yawwwnnnn. by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-16 06:59 · Score: 0

Wake me up when it gets here TOMORROW, because. I have to do work TODAY with YESTERDAY's tech.
Global capitalists at that by tepples · 2011-05-17 00:48 · Score: 1

Anonymous Coward wrote:

There is no viable economic drive to switch.
Other than making it easier to use less expensive parts produced in low-cost-of-living foreign countries. We are global capitalists, remember?