News - Hynix and HP sign agreement to develop memristors

[HEXUS]

Next-gen storage just got a little closer to commercial availability.

Read more.

[Funkstar]

I was reading about this earlier, it's a really fascinating technology.

This could fundamentally change computing if it's full potential is realised. They have said it could be as fast as DRAM but used like an SSD. So if that is right, then does there need to be a "hard drive" as well as RAM in a PC? Why not just have a few hundred GB of ReRAM and install everything into the system memory?

That would be like having every application on your PC loaded and in RAM at the same time including the OS and all your files. Want to load photoshop and every other Adobe app at the same time? That would be pretty much instant.

Press the power button or pull the plug and as long as you can flush the processor cache* when you turn it on again you are back where you left it. No spooling to disk on suspend and no need for power for sleep mode.


*how about the cache made from this stuff, so then you wouldn't loose a single thing when you loose power.

Or have I got the complete wrong end of the stick on this?

[Fraz]

I believe you are holding the correct end of the stick.

[BullDogg]

Or have I got the complete wrong end of the stick on this?

I think you're probably right. There's may be a capacity/speed trade off, though. I'm sure they could make DRAM speed SSDs, but it would cost so much to make decent capacity that it would be prohibitive.

The other barrier may be connecting an SSD like capacity drive over a fast enough interface that it wouldn't be a bottle neck. It would have to be incredibly high density to fit a few hundred gigabytes into traditional RAM slots.

Of course, by the time this comes out, the tech may exist to make it happen, who knows.

[Steve]

Press the power button or pull the plug and as long as you can flush the processor cache* when you turn it on again you are back where you left it. No spooling to disk on suspend and no need for power for sleep mode.


*how about the cache made from this stuff, so then you wouldn't loose a single thing when you loose power.

Or have I got the complete wrong end of the stick on this?

If, as you say, it can be as fast as DRAM, then what about SRAM? That's what you need for caches. Obviously the refresh requirement for DRAM goes away, not sure about the space saving vs SRAM though (but seeing as SRAM is made from <= 6 transistors, I expect a saving can be had).

As for sleep mode, it's a little more complicated that just keeping the state of your RAM and caches consistent, as you need to tell all your I/O what to do when power is cut, and what to do when power comes back, so that they behave properly when you resume activity.

But apart form that, yes it would be great. But Magnetic RAM was supposed to be great too...

[scaryjim]

Why not just have a few hundred GB of ReRAM and install everything into the system memory?

I'd guess for the same reason that we currently don't have more than a handful of MB of L3 cache on our processors - cost Also, given that it's a nascent technology, I'd question whether it will be able to maintain speed parity with DRAM in the short to mid term. I think storage is the right short term goal as that's where the consumer is unlikely to flinch away from non-volatile RAM storage.

But if this stuff is as good as it sounds, then I don't see any reason it couldn't become ubiquitous in time... and that's another scary thought for PC security right there...

[Steve]

I'd guess for the same reason that we currently don't have more than a handful of MB of L3 cache on our processors - cost

And size, and I don't mean that in a chip yield kind of way, I mean that in a "the signal can't get there in time" kind of way, which is why we have multi-level caches.

[Funkstar]

I believe you are holding the correct end of the stick.

Phew! Well I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later

[gaby de wilde]

holding the stick like that, the next step would be to have many moar processurs share the same mehmory.

We could have fragmented catch just like our multi TB drives! Rebooting would no longer be a valid excuse for making stuff that doesn't work. And moar layers of emurlators, compilors and virtualizators for eazy bug fixin.

Yeah! I can totally see where this is going.