Slashdot Mirror
'Breakthrough' LI-RAM Material Can Store Data With Light (ctvnews.ca)
A Vancouver researcher has patented a new material that uses light instead of electricity to store data. An anonymous reader writes: LI-RAM -- that's light induced magnetoresistive random-access memory -- promises supercomputer speeds for your cellphones and laptops, according to Natia Frank, the materials scientist at the University of Victoria who developed the new material as part of an international effort to reduce the heat and power consumption of modern processors. She envisions a world of LI-RAM mobile devices which are faster, thinner, and able to hold much more data -- all while consuming less power and producing less heat.
And best of all, they'd last twice as long on a single charge (while producing almost no heat), according to a report on CTV News, which describes this as "a breakthrough material" that will not only make smartphones faster and more durable, but also more energy-efficient. The University of Victoria calculates that's 10% of the world's electricity is consumed by "information communications technology," so LI-RAM phones could conceivably cut that figure in half.
They also report that the researcher is "working with international electronics manufacturers to optimize and commercialize the technology, and says it could be available on the market in the next 10 years."
And best of all, they'd last twice as long on a single charge (while producing almost no heat), according to a report on CTV News, which describes this as "a breakthrough material" that will not only make smartphones faster and more durable, but also more energy-efficient. The University of Victoria calculates that's 10% of the world's electricity is consumed by "information communications technology," so LI-RAM phones could conceivably cut that figure in half.
They also report that the researcher is "working with international electronics manufacturers to optimize and commercialize the technology, and says it could be available on the market in the next 10 years."
Because we all know there's no such thing as "light".
Obligatory XKCD is obligatory :D
Maybe it's because I'm turning 50 this year, but I simply don't believe it.
At a certain point I suspect "fantastic claim" fatigue has to set in, where you've heard so many promising concepts but watched the huge majority founder on realities of cost, industrial scaling, or unforseen complications.
The fact that they say it might make it to the market in ten years means it's barely more than a tenuous idea right now, and frankly probably not even worth reporting on. The hyperbolic claims by the inventor make it even less credible, while the nonsensical reporting (implying that such devices would actually run only in light) is idiotic.
-Styopa
Um, 10% of the world's electricity is not consumed by phones. And even if they actually meant all computing and networking equipment combined, how is a RAM advancement supposed to cut all power consumed by computers, switches, etc in half?
Facepalm.
Very well; let this abomination unto the Lord begin!
Hypeady Doo-Dah Hypeady Day.
My oh my I got a press release today.
Plenty of B.S. coming your way.
Hypeady Doo-Dah Hypeday Day!
AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
Well, cellphones today already have supercomputer speeds. They have the FLOP power of late 90s supercomputers. Wow!
Blinded By Science
So I did a very quick search on the internet looking for Light induced RAM and Light induced magnetoresistance and only found one article that predates the slashdot article and the one it links to. (Ok, I'm procrastinating from doing other stuff).
http://www.uvic.ca/home/about/...
This university published article is just as short on details and has no links to any published research. It's also a bit laughable: "new material allows computer chips to exist at a molecular level" which means what exactly? Computer chips currently don't exist at the molecular level? Anyway, don't mean to give their communications department a hard time, I just want more solid info.
It's clear that some of the claims from the hyped article that slashdot cites are ridiculous (at least the university release doesn't make those claims). The journalists, lacking any background in science probably called up some "experts" and said (out of context) "if you had a material that could do such and such" what would be the advantages. So, these experts, whether or not they actually know anything, just started making things up like it'll cut down on energy consumption (true but not a huge amount) and that it would prevent fires like the Samsung smart phone (probably not because the modest power savings from this RAM would not allow the battery to be designed differently which was the cause of the fires).
Unfortunately, the heat (and power) problems are not in the RAM but in the processor (amongst other things) which this technology does not address. In the university article they say that it is part of an effort to reduce the power and heat of processors but does not say this technology does this. Apparently, from the article, it is only suitable for RAM; hence the name LI-RAM. So while it may be faster (good) and not give off much heat (also good) it doesn't live up to the hype in the distorted media interpretations of the university article (which the slashdot submitter then chopped up and republished). This all assumes that they can get this to work at the fantastic performance and density levels of modern RAM all while not introducing new sources of heat and power to make it work (it requires "green light' presumably from a laser).
Anyway, if you want to waste some time, take a look at the Slashdot link and then look at the university article and you'll see how information can be mangled and hyped up by people who don't have a background in the subject. Of course, since we all like "free" (or ad supported) news, we aren't exactly encouraging accurate journalism :(
https://twitter.com/nlfrank1 is her own tweets, http://www.uvic.ca/home/about/... is the press release from the university.
davecb@spamcop.net
https://www.xkcd.com/678/
No wonder media is losing credibility. It's the ads, stupid!
To this example:
> promises supercomputer speeds for your cellphones
That's what cellphones have been doing all the time. Today's cellphone is the supercomputer of 10-12 years ago. We know that.
> She envisions a world of LI-RAM mobile devices which are faster,
Because of RAM? Is RAM speed the bottleneck in a modern smartphone?
> thinner
Thickness limit the RAM size?
> and able to hold much more data
Wohoo. This has to do with RAM.
> all while consuming less power
The main power drain the RAM, these days? Or rather CPU/GPU?
Look, ad companies: I'd be willing to look at your stuff (on and off) if you didn't insist in insulting me.
What has the University of Victoria, British Columbia ever done ? If this article announced that the research was being done at U. of Waterloo (as long as we're talking Canada), I might give it more credence.
Then, the stupid article overhypes the potential and makes the whole thing a joke. U. Victoria, the researcher, and the article author--all jokes.
This was a miss, EditorDavid.
FTFA:
Wow. Just how easy is it to get a job as a tech analyst at CTV? This seems to be attributed to CTV tech analyst Carmi Levy. Was it her or the author that screwed this up?
... which is very very far from any practically working piece of hardware. At least the text of the university itself clearly states this is a "proposed procect":
"The objective of this research is to explore new classes of compounds that exhibit multifunctional magnetic properties of fundamental importance to high-density storage methods and molecular electronics. The scope of the proposed projects cover a broad range of fundamental topics in chemistry, including organic and inorganic synthesis, structure and bonding, electronic structure, magnetochemistry, photochromism, photophysics, and materials chemistry."
they aren't the ones with a tendency to brag about the size of their dicks.
Oh look, more marketing copy on slashdot!
It increases usage. Jevons Paradox
As a simple example, do you think bitcoin miners are going to pocket the savings, or expand operations to leverage the savings?
"devices which are faster, thinner..."
I guess they will continue to make them thinner until they cut.
An we'll just use bigger and bigger cases.
I think the guy/organization in China who effectively owns the Bitcoin network will upgrade just enough to ensure they remains in control, while not owning the network obviously and entirely to reduce the cultist's confidence in it to the point he can't keep extracting wealth from the US.
It's not about maximizing Bitcoin mining, it's about maximizing net profits and keeping the scam going for as long as possible.
> how is a RAM advancement supposed to cut all power consumed by computers, switches, etc in half?
Cutting it in HALF is probably overstating it, but all of those devices use RAM, and would benefit from more efficient RAM.
Generally, routers (real routers, as opposed to consumer wireless access points) process 99.9% of the packets with RAM tricks, using almost no cpu. The cpu is mostly there to process commands to the router, such as configuration changes, while packets flowing *through* the router are directed by memory tables and a specialized chip.
This is just hilarious. Its was developed by a chemist, meaning we're only talking about the actual material rather than anything resembling a working memory element. It needs to be hit with green light which then changes it's magnetic properties. So to use this as RAM you need to somehow integrate a green light source and a magnetic sensing mechanism that are bit accessible......how can they even TALK about power reduction (of 10%?) until a solution for both of those has been at least suggested? Not to mention that they've COMPLETELY missed the concept of how information is stored in this material. It is not STORED using light, it's MODIFIED using light. Just like a CD-R doesn't store data using light, it is modified using light. Even ignoring the misplaced hype, most of the information here is WRONG!
...the tubes found in older electronics? Kind of steampunkish. I didn't think you could have light without electrons.
I am so sick of slashdotters throwing around the word PATENT and not knowing what it is. They filed a god damn PATENT APPLICATION. Get it fucking right next time.
Uhh, my phone is easily as powerful as a Cray, so.... already there!
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
So, in other words, they're trying to sucker some VC's into giving them their money?
Facebook. And modern Slashdot, alas.
Light-induced chemical memory: photographic films/papers, typically subject to fading but it can be "fixed" to last decades or longer.
Light-induced biological read-only memory, very short-term/fades fast if not refreshed: photoreceptors in the eyes
Light-induced biological read-only memory, fades after a few days or weeks if not refreshed: sunburn/tan-lines
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
At the level this research is, storing a bit, CAM is just like bog-standard DRAM. What sets CAM apart is basically more addressing lines. That's external to the memory cells themselves. The other difference of CAM is how the output is interpreted, since you're reading all addresses at once. Again, that's quite external to the individual bit memories.
which describes this as "a breakthrough material" that will not only make smartphones faster and more durable, but also more energy-efficient.
This RAM enables us to more rapidly obsolesce your phone so you can throw it in the trash faster!
Switches use binary CAM to map MAC addresses to interfaces, and for other purposes. Very similarly, routers use ternary CAM to map ip addresses to interfaces, and for other purposes.
When processing packets/frames through the device, switches and routers do essentially the same thing - select the outgoing interface by looking up the destination address in a CAM table. The difference between switches and routers is how those CAM tables are built.
The University of Victoria calculates that's 10% of the world's electricity is consumed by "information communications technology," so LI-RAM phones could conceivably cut that figure in half.
Really? So I spend 10% of my electricity bill charging my phone? Er ... no. Not even close. My phone consumes about 4kWh per year. I mean, yeah, I wish my entire electricity consumption was 40kWh per year; my annual electricity bill would only be £4, instead of over £1,000.
Obviously the 10% isn't phones, it's servers. LI-RAM phones won't cut server power consumption at all. So no, it is utterly inconceivable that LI-RAM phones can cut global electricity usage by half. No improvement in phone efficiency will ever do anything except give me a longer time between recharges.
Indeed. All the "light" hogwash aside, all the proposed benefits are also moot. RAM or memory in general do not consume a great amount of power. Compared to other components, they already consume probably the least amount of power. So should the improvement even be astronomical, in real terms it is moot.
Depending on your device, your consumers of power are going to be your GPU or your CPU, or on something like your phone, your display, by many orders of magnitude over whatever the memory might be using. While memory does generate some heat, again it isn't anything like the above.
So while perhaps it might be interesting, and even a breakthrough in a number of ways, it's impact it terms of power consumption and heat generation in most devices will be very small. Even faster, or thinner, you start running into bottlenecks (i,e. RAM is already one of the fastest parts of your device likely), when you start interacting with actual storage, or having to do scheduling and timing with GPU/CPU etc... Cool that it's Canadian at least, hopefully it pans out.