The Arrival of Very Small Memory

Roland Piquepaille writes "After the ages of DRAM and SRAM memories, is this time for nanotech memories? ExtremeTech says that "molecular memories" as well as memories based on carbon nanotubes are emerging. With these nanotech memories, several startup companies are envisioning future chips mixing logic, memory and reconfigurable computing elements. One of these promising startups is ZettaCore, which has built a prototype of a molecular memory designed to replace both SRAM and DRAM kinds of memories. These molecules, which are about 1 nanometer in size, are also self-assembling, meaning that they can be manufactured with existing equipment used in the semiconductor industry. This overview contains more details about the technology and includes a diagram of these molecules in a memory array."

Very small memory?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, what were you talking about?

too good to be true?

[irokie]

it seems well and good, but i for one won't be convinced until i see them in the palm of my hand.

under my electron microscope....

Smaller memory?

[Anonymous Coward]

My memory is small enough, thank you.

Now... what was I doing?

Size doesn't matter

[sdkramer]

Does this mean I'm gonna start getting spam about how HU6E my memory is? I'm starting to get memory envy.

My memory is *smaller* than yours!

[davegaramond]

Hm, doesn't sound as good, does it?

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

It's quite obvious

[revolvement]

No one will ever need less than 640mm of memory

I don't want these

[mkro]

These molecules, which are about 1 nanometer in size, are also selfassembling

and at night, after you turn off the PC and go to bed, they swarm out of your computer, heading for your pillow to EAT YOUR BRAIN.

Re:Perfect for 64bit computing.

[Stephen Samuel]

64 bit computers can have up to 18Tb of RAM, but with motherboard physical limitationss it iss not possible.

yep, yep.. Reminds me of when the MacII first came out. Based on the 68020, it would be, in theory, capable of addressing 2GB of ram. (one bit was used to switch between RAM and I/O space) I did some napkin math and figured that you could camoflage a 2GB memory unit as a desk. The memory would fit in the lid of the desk, with one pillar being a cooling unit, and the other a 16Kilowatt power supply).

I figured we could even revert back to a form of bank switched memory (if you would allow the pun) ... with banks of memory being switched off if you weren't using them. This would be a good bit worse, but roughly the same idea.

Re:Perfect for 64bit computing.

[Anonymous Coward]

Even non-realtime AI is currently more stupid then my 3 month old daugther

What did you just call your daughter?

Re:Perfect for 64bit computing.

[Odin's Raven]

The problem I would see with this is the addressing of the ram. You couldn't use straight pins to do that high of number for addressing...

Do I detect the foul stench of RDRAM's corpse rising from its grave? (A serial memory bus would certainly help address the pin-count issue.)

I can just see the future (assuming Rambus waits for "Talk Like a Pirate Day" to pounce):

Rambus: Avast, ye scurvy memory-lovers, and prepare to hand over all yer sparkling treasure. We be the Pirates of Rambus IP, and we're here to double yer prices, scuttle yer standards committees, and rape yer sheep.

Flunky: (...whisper whisper whisper...)

Rambus: Errrr...rape yer RAM.

Bad comparison

[achurch]

And one final point: even Drexler's assemblers are only machines. THEY ARE NOT ALIVE!!!! Damn it! They will not eat your brain any more than your feature-filled VCR will.

We'd have a much more intelligent populace if it wasn't for the brain-eating features on modern TVs and VCRs . . .