Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by takyon on Thursday June 20 2019, @09:05PM   Printer-friendly
from the real-deal? dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Discovery of a 'holy grail' with the invention of universal computer memory

[An] electronic memory device -- described in research published in Scientific Reports -- promises to transform daily life with its ultra-low energy consumption. [...] The device is the realisation of the search for a "Universal Memory" which has preoccupied scientists and engineers for decades.

Physics Professor Manus Hayne of Lancaster University said: "Universal Memory, which has robustly stored data that is easily changed, is widely considered to be unfeasible, or even impossible, but this device demonstrates its contradictory properties."

A US patent has been awarded for the electronic memory device with another patent pending, while several companies have expressed an interest or are actively involved in the research.

The inventors of the device used quantum mechanics to solve the dilemma of choosing between stable, long-term data storage and low-energy writing and erasing. The device could replace the $100bn market for Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), which is the 'working memory' of computers, as well as the long-term memory in flash drives.

[...] Professor Hayne said: "The ideal is to combine the advantages of both without their drawbacks, and this is what we have demonstrated. Our device has an intrinsic data storage time that is predicted to exceed the age of the Universe, yet it can record or delete data using 100 times less energy than DRAM."

Room-temperature Operation of Low-voltage, Non-volatile, Compound-semiconductor Memory Cells (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-45370-1) (DX)


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by bob_super on Friday June 21 2019, @12:07AM (5 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Friday June 21 2019, @12:07AM (#858318)

    > intrinsic data storage time that is predicted to exceed the age of the Universe

    Well over 95% of the storage is used for redundant and asinine bullshit that should be forgotten within a week.
    At least another 4% is obsolete within a decade at most.
    Hardly anything from the rest would be worth keeping more than a millenium, and tech changes usually mean that your fancy storage is unreadable anyway.

    Great. We now have a tech which could be used to send messages to the other end of the universe, if the low activation doesn't make it excessively sensitive to radiation.
    Yippee.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   0  
       Insightful=1, Overrated=1, Total=2
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 21 2019, @12:22AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 21 2019, @12:22AM (#858325)

    Well over 95% of the storage is used for redundant

    An instruction over in Nicaragua already documents which buttons to push on my computer monitor to reset the visual settings is redundant to the same manual next to me in the US. I'd still prefer a second copy.

    asinine bullshit that should be forgotten within a week.

    Who considers what to be worthless varies quite a bit. I'm guessing you wouldn't want to be subject to the interests and wills of a random homeless woman in Dehli.

    At least another 4% is obsolete within a decade at most. Hardly anything from the rest would be worth keeping more than a millenium

    There is anthropological value in obsolete things. Historians love this stuff. As an example, if there were documented proof of Jesus's life and what he did on a daily basis, it'd be "obsolete" but I think there'd be a great deal of interest in that.

    tech changes usually mean that your fancy storage is unreadable anyway.

    Yes, but less than you think. You can still buy Jaz drives, for example, which I imagine that many people don't even know existed. See here. [amazon.com] Actually, I'd challenge you to find five types of storage medium which I cannot find buy a reader for (albeit possibly for a very expensive price).

    The obvious exception is if a language outright dies out pre-history, but if literally your language is dead, bigger things have happened than "this disc is no longer readable."

    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday June 21 2019, @12:41AM (3 children)

      by bob_super (1357) on Friday June 21 2019, @12:41AM (#858337)

      Somebody does not realize the scale of modern data creation ...

      https://www.domo.com/solution/data-never-sleeps-6 [domo.com]

      Over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created every single day, and it’s only going to grow from there. By 2020, it’s estimated that 1.7MB of data will be created every second for every person on earth.

      My 4% decade-long category, or 68kB per second per human might have been overly optimistic.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 21 2019, @12:59AM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 21 2019, @12:59AM (#858346)

        That's a lot of porn.

        • (Score: 2) by takyon on Friday June 21 2019, @01:10AM (1 child)

          by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday June 21 2019, @01:10AM (#858360) Journal

          1.7 MB/s = 13.6 Mb/s per person. Everyone can have their own 1080p60 camshow.

          --
          [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
          • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday June 21 2019, @01:27AM

            by bob_super (1357) on Friday June 21 2019, @01:27AM (#858365)

            Call me picky or jaded, but I wouldn't want to watch 99.9% of them, even the naked parts.

            Comcast would also like to remind you that any "channel" has to fit in 5MB/s, even HD.