Snowman from the Hal forum found these videos, I had to post them here. Snowcrash you are going to love these.
Quick overview:
They are going to be able to make a computer with processors and memory much faster and with much more memory than ours now and all on one chip. This could happen in just a few years from now.
Put me down for one of them.
I have heard of a 4th electronic parameter (in addition to resistance, capacitance and inductance)
It is memristance. Didn't know TiO2 (titanium dioxide) was a semiconductor.
TiO2 is very common. Basically anything white. White paint, white ceramic coating (toilets, sinks etc), white toothpaste).
Very interesting...
If you don't want to watch all the 2nd video then watch it from 29:14
If they get this tech to work 1st off we'll get fast, non volatile memory.
Then there are logic / processing implications.
Then it can also work as a neural network with 3d multi layered chips. Very terminator. :o
It can replace DRAM, GDRAM, hdd, CD, flash even just go next to the processor on it's die.
WOW
Quite incredible, opens lots of new doors, I think its interesting that its going to happen around about the same time as the chip manufacturers hit the limit, like the guy in the video said they cant go much further with memory and chip technology as it is now.
Watched two video's, It should solve all of man's problems.
Carl2
HP Labs teams up with Hynix to manufacture memristors, plans assault on flash memory in 2013
The link is here (http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/31/hp-labs-teams-up-with-hynix-to-manufacture-memristors-plans-as/) but the headline is more interesting. :-[
Not sure if this link is connected to memristors but it's also by IBM. Very few facts on their technology.
Brave new world here we go.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14574747 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14574747)
I'm not certain if they use memristers in those new circuits either, Snowy, but I
did find the article interesting. :)
Also found a typo, too (at least I think I did)
Quote
One chip has 262,144 programmable synapses, while the other contains 65,636 learning synapses.
I think their count of learning synapses is off by a hundred. :P
(for those not familiar with the "inner workings" of computers, 99.999999999...% of all addressing boundaries - the means by which computers know how to access specific bits of data - are binary-based, meaning that 65536 is expressed as 1 0000 0000 0000 0000 in binary - a suitable number.
65636 is 1 0000 0000 0110 0100 in binary, which... this is going to turn into a lecture in binary if I don't stop now, and such a lecture is boring, so I'll quit before I launch into "professor mode". Suffice it to say that I'm quite certain that the statement I quoted above is, indeed, a typo.)
I also wonder if these synapses use, or take advantage of, or are even possibly plagued with the effects of state-change due to nearby magnetic fields, as recent neurological research studies have found just may be the case in synapses within the human brain. It would be interesting, if they did.
262,144 is 4 X 65536, so yeah, typo indeed.
Oh, of course. I knew that. As someone who know's Jack about the internal's of a computer, could someone translate for me, and the rest of the world. In layman's, what the hell does that mean. :scratch-head:
When you play with computers several numbers keep cropping up and you get to know them.
Teacher mode on...
They are all binary / base 2 / doubling numbers (±1 'cos 0 is sometimes a number)
2/4/8/16/32/64/128/256/512/1024/2048/4096/8192/16384/32768/65536
65535/65536 is 16 bit and very common.
4,294,967,295 is 32 bit and why old machines can't have more than 4 GB of memory (see signed data below). It is also the limit of IP addresses (how many computers you can address on the net [IP4=(4x8bit=32bit)]) and was reached earlier this year. IP6 is sort of here (48 bit)
Also on a side note, k = times 1000 in normal maths but is times 1024 in computers. So 1kB = 1024 bytes. 1MB = 1024kB = 1,048,576 bytes etc.
Teacher mode off...
Hope that's clearer. Just stop me if I ramble too much.
Edited my oops was 31 bit. DOH!
To add to Snowy's excellent primer, and to point out a minor 'oops':
On the data end, there's a 'bit' (short for 'Binary digIT'), which is either 0 or 1. Eight of these bits (shown as a lower-case 'b') makes up a Byte (shown as an upper-case 'B'). Bytes range in value from 0 to 255 (which is 1111 1111 in binary) for a total of 256 possible values (including 0). From there we have the word, which is two bytes, or 16 bits (ranging from 0 to 65,535 in decimal {1111 1111 1111 1111 in binary} for a total of 65,536), and a Dword ("Double word") which is four bytes, or 32 bits, and has a maximum value of 4,294,967,295 (um, Snowy? while 2,147,483,648 is 32 bits, it's not the maximum value. In ' signed' binary {'signed' binary allows for positive/negative numbers, but it cuts the maximum 'positive' value in half} it's -1. I won't get into signed/unsigned binary, though. regular binary is confusing enough). From there we have other designations, but they're rarely used.
Ah, now that's better, I thank-you both for your explanations. I bow to you clear superior intellect and experience. I must seem a complete IDIOT, for this I apologise. :worship:
No, Diesel. not a complete idiot. Parts seem to be missing. :P
Just kidding. We all have our strengths and weaknesses.
Ah, so that would make me an incomplete, complete Idiot. I have worked hard to accomplish complete status, must try harder. :sign-lol:
Quote from: Diesel on August 20, 2011, 10:47:25 AM
Ah, so that would make me an incomplete, complete Idiot. I have worked hard to accomplish complete status, must try harder. :sign-lol:
I'm going to join you Diesel in that incomplete Idiots room ???
If we work hard we should make complete Idiots soon enough :thumbsup:
I'm not really that well keyed up on the fundamentals of what makes a computer work but give me some of this new technology and I will soon work out what not to do with it and pass that information on to others. ;D
The latest I've found on memristors. From RSS feeds here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18103772# (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18103772#)
Not a working technology yet but getting there.
Flash still has the market but memristors will hopefully be snapping at their heels later this year.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/03/memristor_and_photonics/ (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/03/memristor_and_photonics/)
Can you believe it, this thread was started almost 5 years ago :o where did the time go ?
Time for a small refresher and a little update.
Here is a video that explains what a memristor is in plain talk, it's made by Snowman and was originally posted on Ai Dreams.
Memristors - How it works! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsLJyijsA2A#ws)
And a link to http://www.memristor.org/ (http://www.memristor.org/) which seems to home the latest buzz.
I got only halfway through before I had to stop watching. Another second or so and I would have damaged my monitor.
"slows the electrons down"??? Seriously? Electrons DO NOT slow down! :headbang: The speed of an electron is constant. ALWAYS! The volume may change, but the velocity does not!
{sigh!} some people's kids. :sign-sad:
OK I admit "Slow down" was an unfortunate term to use but the video was meant to be in "plain talk" and does explain the basics of the Memristor to those who have no idea.
I guess he should have said "reduce the flow" or "reduce the volume" of electrons ?
I'm glad you are here Dave to pick us up on these errors :)
lol sorry about the rant. I'll "borrow" a valium from somewhere and watch the video again at some point. :)
My impression was that this video was not about electrons. Talking about electrons may get tricky. For example, electrons don't flow or download like a river. Just sayin' ... But, who cares about that right now? I want to solder some circuits together. The video is about an introduction to electronic components. Personally, I enjoyed it.
For the sake of discussion, what's the easiest circuit to build? Well, a short circuit of course! Despite the fact it may heat up or explode the power source, it is still a circuit. While it may be dumb to intentionally build a short circuit, the fundamentals are the same for other circuits once you add components.
So, that's a good enough reason as any to learn about these electronic components, so you got something in the middle there preventing a short circuit. Good luck, wear eye protection, get a small fan to blow the solder smoke away, and happy circuit building to you.
Been looking for info and found this from late last year.
http://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2015/10/hp-and-sandisk-join-forces-to-finally-bring-memristor-like-tech-to-market/
Seems I never put this info in, ages ago Raython coupled a light source with a photo resistor (Not sure if that is the name) a light sensitive resistance, I liked the device and used it in audio work to control volume, also used it control the gate of a triac for turning ac on and off.
Guess I'm much more interested in a tri state computer, a + state, o state and a - state. I'm not even sure if it would make things quicker, I'm probably used to using 2 power supplies for the plus and minus or on a battery use a voltage divider for a ground and you have the plus and minus.
With 3 states you would transfer less digits and the transfer is what takes time.
Carl2
Star Trek canon hints that by the time of the Enterprise D (Next Generation), computers used some sort of "trinary" (base 3) logic, but it's never actually said outright, nor are the mechanics of it explained. the electronics involved to utilize trinary computing would be at least an order of magnitude more complex than what we have currently, I believe. It would be interesting to see, though. :)
I do believe FLASH RAM does this a bit already. Wiki. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-level_cell)
We were initially taught that you can have a number system to whatever power you would like, you just have to assign symbols to the numbering system. As an example here is one I've heard of hexadecimal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexadecimal
Carl2
Being not only a computer tech, but also a web developer and general programmer, I'm quite familiar with hex, as well as binary and (though not often) octal (base 8 ). There was once a time when I could recite my (then) current age in any of those number systems, right off the top of my head. Sadly, this is no longer true. :sign-sad:
Since I'm retired I sometimes don't know what day of the week it is but I've got my SS number and military number down pat. Really bad that Radio Shack is gone.
Carl2
There is still at least one Radio Shack in Reno, but there used to be seven. We had 3 here in Carson when they closed. I miss being able to go there. That was my first "go to" hobby store, back in the 70's.
Dave, I'm glad you put that in, I just did a search for them and there are still stores within a reasonable distance. The nearest one is gone but I thought they were all gone. I'll have to make a list and visit one of them soon.
Carl2