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General Discussion => Science & Nature => Topic started by: sam on June 30, 2011, 13:57

Title: IBM develops 'instantaneous' memory, 100x faster than flash
Post by: sam on June 30, 2011, 13:57
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You've got to hand it to IBM's engineers. They drag themselves into work after their company's 100th birthday party (http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/16/ibm-turns-100-brags-about-bench-pressing-more-than-companies-ha/), pop a few Alka-Seltzers and then promptly announce yet another seismic invention. This time it's a new kind of phase change memory (http://www.engadget.com/tag/Phase+Change+Memory/) (PCM) that reads and writes 100 times faster than flash, stays reliable for millions of write-cycles (as opposed to just thousands with flash), and is cheap enough to be used in anything from enterprise-level servers all the way down to mobile phones. PCM is based on a special alloy that can be nudged into different physical states, or phases, by controlled bursts of electricity. In the past, the technology suffered from the tendency of one of the states to relax and increase its electrical resistance over time, leading to read errors. Another limitation was that each alloy cell could only store a single bit of data (http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/13/moneta-onyx-phase-change-memory-prototype-can-write-some-data-7x/). But IBM employees burn through problems like these on their cigarette breaks: not only is their latest variant more reliable, it can also store four data bits per cell, which means we can expect a data storage "paradigm shift" within the next five years. Combine this with Intel's promised 50Gbps interconnect (http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/29/intel-touts-50gbps-interconnect-by-2015-will-make-it-work-with/), which has a similar ETA, and data will start flowing faster than booze from an open bar on the boss's tab. There's more detailed science in the PR after the break, if you have a clear head.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/30/embargo-ibm-develops-instantaneous-memory-100x-faster-than-fl/
Title: Re: IBM develops 'instantaneous' memory, 100x faster than flash
Post by: Rodders on June 30, 2011, 14:01
This means we can bin the current generation of SSDs.  I can hear the Luddites sniggering, now.    8-)
Title: Re: IBM develops 'instantaneous' memory, 100x faster than flash
Post by: sam on June 30, 2011, 14:03
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[racist term]

 :)x :)x :)x :)x :)x :)x
Title: Re: IBM develops 'instantaneous' memory, 100x faster than flash
Post by: sam on June 30, 2011, 14:04
This means we can bin the current generation of SSDs. 

I guess they won't be on the shelf until they have all made enough money out of the current generation, then again I don't think IBM are big pushers of those so...

SSDs are still the way forward for OS speed in the short term.
Title: Re: IBM develops 'instantaneous' memory, 100x faster than flash
Post by: GillE on June 30, 2011, 14:44
Does the 'PC' in 'PC-Pals' stand for 'politically correct'?


 :laugh:
Title: Re: IBM develops 'instantaneous' memory, 100x faster than flash
Post by: Rodders on June 30, 2011, 14:48
...I can hear the Luddites s[racist term]ing, now.    8-)   

I take it we can no longer call a spade a spade.    :o

Might be best to modify our filter parameters so that particular word needs to be followed by either a space, hyphen or other form of punctuation, before it qualifies as un-PC.
Title: Re: IBM develops 'instantaneous' memory, 100x faster than flash
Post by: sam on June 30, 2011, 14:51
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Might be best to modify our filter parameters so that particular word needs to be followed by either a space, hyphen or other form of punctuation, before it qualifies as un-PC.

I'll have to have a look at the list... actually should be simple fix.. though I imaging SMF won't work like that.  But will give it ago, if not I'll code in a fix. Still it's funnier like this as it only happens every so often.
Title: Re: IBM develops 'instantaneous' memory, 100x faster than flash
Post by: sam on June 30, 2011, 14:52
Does the 'PC' in 'PC-Pals' stand for 'politically correct'?


 :laugh:

If so I'm f*** out of here. f***ing w**kers geting me to work on this piece of s**t.
Title: Re: IBM develops 'instantaneous' memory, 100x faster than flash
Post by: Simon on June 30, 2011, 14:52
Oddly enough, it's always been like that!  We'll get it sorted.  ;D
Title: Re: IBM develops 'instantaneous' memory, 100x faster than flash
Post by: sam on June 30, 2011, 14:52
Oddly enough, it's always been like that!  We'll get it sorted.  ;D

yeah.. by we I'm taking that as *you* this time ;-)