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Historically, one of the larger bottlenecks to computing performance hasn't been processor speed; it has been getting data and instructions to and from the processor. Working with memory isn't only a performance bottleneck, as the multiple layers of caches and high-speed memory add significantly to a computer's power budget. Other systems, like the extremely power-efficient neuron, mix processing and memory in individual cells.
That has inspired some computer scientists to try to figure out if we could do the same. Resistance-based memory, like memristors and phase-change memory, operate based on physics that make them amenable to performing calculations, and a few proof-of-concept demonstrations have been done using them. But a team from IBM Zurich has now gone beyond proof of concept, and it has used an array of a million phase change memory bits as an analog computer, performing tests for temporal correlations on real-world weather data.
[...] The authors note that a variety of other calculations, like factorization and matrix manipulations, can be performed using phase change memory arrays, meaning this isn't a one-trick pony. The primary limitation, in the end, may be with developing a sufficient market for phase change as memory. If it ends up being mass produced, then adapting it for calculations would probably be relatively simple. But phase change memory has been on the periphery of the market for nearly a decade now, and there's no clear indication that it will be taking off. Until that changes, using it for analog computing will be a niche within a niche.
Source: Ars Technica
Nature Communications, 2017. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01481-9
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 08 2017, @03:11PM (1 child)
Well, as with all things, its popularity will not be driven by the kinds of problems this makes possible to solve with less total power consumption (kWh), but based on whether it has a cool name.
Can it seem more high-tech and Star Treky and Star Warsy than Quantum™?
And yes, our collective failure at preventing idiots from calling themselves
programmersengineers (get ready for the next term on the euphemism treadmill, because we don't have a Profession, not when somebody can seriously suggest that the boss' nephew is just as capable as or more capable than one of us with 20, 30, 40 years of experience--compare and contrast if somebody seriously suggests that the boss' 12-year old nephew will be able to represent the company in a lawsuit as well as or better than a lawyer with 20, 30, 40 years of experience--this is why we do not have a Profession) will mean that whether it's Analog™ or Quantum™ that's trendy and cool (Digital™ has gone out of fashion! Nobody is cool or trendy or SOO SMRT! for having a Digital™ watch), all the software written for it will blow ass.(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 08 2017, @10:59PM
The elders have a well established history of not being the most useful people in computing. Sorry. It's just the way it is.
I've spoken to older "engineers" in the field of computing; they do think about things in antiquated ways that are sometimes quite anti-productive.
Innovation is a young man's game; maintenance is an old man's game. Unlike other fields of engineering, the computing industry is driven by innovation, not maintenance.