Posted on 05/01/2008 1:07:24 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
Sitting patiently before your computer as it boots up could soon be a thing of the past following the discovery of a new basic type of electrical circuit by electronics heavyweight Hewlett-Packard (HP).
According to the basics of electronic theory, there are three fundamental elements involved in the function of a passive electrical circuit, namely resistors, capacitors and inductors. However, after four decades of searching, HP scientists are now claiming to have found a potentially significant fourth element.
The Hewlett-Packard research team, led by Stanley Williams, has this week announced it has proven the existence of the “memristor” (memory resistor) which, until now, has only been a theoretical possibility put forth by Leon Chua of the University of California during the 1970s.
In uncovering the memristor, the team developed a mathematical model and physical example to support their find, which Williams describes in a Reuters report as “very different from any other electrical device.”
Outlining that no combination of resistor, capacitor or inductor will give the same property value as the memristor, Williams offers that the memory resistor functions by remembering the direction of the charge passing through it and expands to improve the flow, while it shrinks if current flows from the opposite direction.
In terms of incorporating the memory circuit technology into traditional computing platforms, Williams claims that having to boot the hard drive to access DRAM could soon be replaced by a system that instantly picks up where it left off when the user powered the computer down.
(Excerpt) Read more at thetechherald.com ...
Oh goody. Wait till that gets infected. how would one get ‘under’ the boot process to clean it up?
I think the more likely usage will be for laptop standby modes, or the replacement of hard drives with solid state memristor memory (which I think they say is as fast as DRAM with similar densities). Vista already has an option to standby to flash for laptops properly equipped. If the new memory is solid-state, and faster than flash, then expect a new incompatible form of SD and CF memory for digital cameras and MP3 players too.
I didn’t read that the speeds were equivalent. If they’ve spent 40 years on this, I doubt they will be as cheap to mass produce as DRAM is now.
The stand-by mode is an interesting application for this. The issue of size-to-storage will be everything for this product. If these are smaller per storage capacity than traditional DRAM, then they’ll be used. If they are larger, I cannot see them being used for the simple reason that you’d be better off just having actual Memory which could be used for the OS and all Applications.
To me, this device would have to completely replace the use of page file quota. If the Page File exists in conjuction with this device, then I really do not see how these could be justfied for use on any client. If they can replace the OS’s pagefile, then I can see the reboot benefit. However, the MB and OS would have to be modified to successfully use these.
That said, if these can replace your pagefile with DRAM (or even half DRAM) speed, I’d want one too. Eliminating those IO hits would be great.
You’re all missing the point.
This discovery is a fourth fundamental type of passive device: resistor, capacitor, inductor, memristor. Trivializing this achievement by reducing it down to something as inane as saying “you’ll be able to boot your computer faster” makes a mockery of the magnitude of the discovery. It’s as stupid as saying the result of the invention of gigahertz radio frequency generators will allow you to cook your hot dogs faster...
Read a good description (like the one in EE Times — the industry rag read by most Electrical Engineers) where they’re saying that electronics textbooks will have to be rewritten to accomodate this knowledge — it’s that significant.
Or not. My old ca 1971 auto battery charger with its selenium rectifiers still works...
Only Windows needs the reboot more often.
Indeed. It took Microsoft to convince people that it was normal to reboot computers regularly.
Here's the uptime of a few of the boxes I support.
wat10 up 172 days
wat11 up 198 days
wat12 up 198 days
wat13 up 318 days
wat14 up 318 days
sat01 up 172 days
sat02 up 172 days
w3t03 up 198 days
w3t04 up 198 days
w3s01 up 286 days
w3s02 up 286 days
was01 up 196 days
was02 up 171 days
was03 up 264 days
was04 up 285 days
was05 up 285 days
My personal desktop gets rebooted more often, but that's only because I run bleeding edge kernels, and you have to reboot for kernel changes.
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