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Scientists Turn Memory Chips Into Processors To Speed Up Computing Tasks (sciencedaily.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Science Daily: A team of international scientists have found a way to make memory chips perform computing tasks, which is traditionally done by computer processors like those made by Intel and Qualcomm. This means data could now be processed in the same spot where it is stored, leading to much faster and thinner mobile devices and computers. This new computing circuit was developed by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) in collaboration with Germany's RWTH Aachen University and Forschungszentrum Juelich, one of the largest interdisciplinary research centers in Europe. It is built using state-of-the-art memory chips known as Redox-based resistive switching random access memory (ReRAM). Developed by global chipmakers such as SanDisk and Panasonic, this type of chip is one of the fastest memory modules that will soon be available commercially. However, instead of storing information, NTU Assistant Professor Anupam Chattopadhyay in collaboration with Professor Rainer Waser from RWTH Aachen University and Dr Vikas Rana from Forschungszentrum Juelich showed how ReRAM can also be used to process data. This discovery was published recently in Scientific Reports. By making the memory chip perform computing tasks, space can be saved by eliminating the processor, leading to thinner, smaller and lighter electronics. The discovery could also lead to new design possibilities for consumer electronics and wearable technology.
More closely to FPGA from my understanding since it is special ICs that use "Ternary number system" (IE: 0,1,2 instead of binary 0,1) Which actually would allow a LOT of different types of 'in-place' calculations to take place on data via FPGA subsets of the memory IC.
The problem with this is.... We already have the technology to allow in-place memory access via FPGA subsets... it just isn't very secure (would require a lot of kernel level access to manage who can write to the FPGA section) etc. and honestly doesn't have a lot of -practical- applications.
This is a great proof of concept, but don't expect any device to have this within 7~10 years easily. This research is impressive, but I don't see it being useful until additional research/algorithms/(god I hope security)/programs are designed to make use of it in specialized hardware Then (MAYBE) into consumer grade equipment.
Please don't confuse research papers with journalists' descriptions of research papers.
Here's the original paper: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...
In it's conclussion, the paper clearly states "0, 1, 2".
Without the "3" that the journalist seems to have added out of his own ignorance for some inexplicable reason.
Popular science journalism more often than not badly fucks up perfectly reasonable research papers.
Remember that the people writing up these pieces are journalists, not experts or even trained in the fields they write about.
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A memory chip is not a processor.
The *summary of* the article didn't say what the article did.
Nothing the summary says is close to what is true.
NO MEMORY UNIT WILL PERFORM CPU FUNCTIONS at less than 2 orders of magnitude worse (that's 1/100 performance/power) today.
There's no "discovery" here. You can use stones and sticks to compute. Using a memory chip is far more advanced. And just as stupid.
Slow day on slashdot?
Yes. I signed this post. Because I'm in the industry. I'm not a troll. I get to call out when people put out stupid articles where they summarize stupid research papers that have nothing to do with reality land. Like this one.
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Both the summary and the article don't know what they are talking about. Reading these will only confuse you.
Read the paper here instead : http://www.nature.com/articles...
To summarize :
- ReRAM is a promising type of non-volatile memory.
- Earlier, it was discovered that ReRAM cells could be used to perform computations. This is not news.
- Multi-level ReRAM, which is able to store more than 2 states per cell exist. This is similar to MLC/TLC for flash memory. This is not news.
- The new thing is that with using 6-state cells, they managed to do calculations in base 3 directly. More generally, they said it would be possible to do base-n using 2n-state cells. This is good because higher bases means less cells are required for the same computation.