5 ms·

This is so big, it's tough to imagine our memristor based future. Please speculate wildly about humanity in the Memristor Age. I don't think we'll have any kee

by rms 19y ago

This is so big, it's tough to imagine our memristor based future. Please speculate wildly about humanity in the Memristor Age. I don't think we'll have any keeping up with Moore's Law. In 5 years memristor storage will be everywhere. IBM will develop memristor processors for the Blue Brain project.

icey 19y ago
I need someone with a strong understanding of free markets to help me out here; but if this is really so big, why hasn't HPQ skyrocketed? I'm not being a smartass, I just really don't understand why we haven't seen financial implications of this find. Edit In the interest of disclosure, I've bought some shares to put my money where my mind is.
- hugh 19y ago
  I don't know. Does anyone know if HP managed to patent it before they published it?
  - icey 19y ago
    It looks like it: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&p=1&p=1&S1=7203789.PN.&OS=pn/7203789&RS=PN/7203789 http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sec..., http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&p=1&p=1&S1=7359888.PN.&OS=pn/7359888&RS=PN/7359888 http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sec..., And another company has a related patent based on the usage of a memristor: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&S1=memristor&OS=memristor&RS=memristor http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sec...
    - hugh 19y ago
      Actually those seem to be related to a very different device which was in development in the same group -- an array of nanowires with single molecules at the intersections forming logical elements. Very cool, but very hard to fabricate, and not a memristor. Updated: Actually only the second one has molecules at the intersections, the other two seem to be more general.
      - icey 19y ago
        Eh, I must have been confused by the "pictures" posted of the memristor, because the patents describe the image that was getting shown in the articles. I'm not an EE by any stretch of the imagination, so I'd be inclined to take your word over mine. Edit I think this might be the correct one: http://www.google.com/patents?id=mWcGAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=mWcGAAAAEBAJ
        hugh 19y ago
        Now I come to look at the image, you're right in that the new memristor architecture seems to a similar crossbar-style geometry similar to some of their previous inventions. It's possible that the first or the third one you posted might be general enough to encompass the memristor system as implemented, but I don't think either of them is specifically related to the new let's-diffuse-ions-across-a-thin-semiconductor-film memristor idea.
- icey 19y ago
  Okay, I took the time to do some asking around with some finance friends of mine. Their opinions were that: 1) People in that sector don't really understand why this is a big deal. 2) It looks like just another "Breakthrough" in hi-tech; which is to say, a regular every-day occurrence. The fact that all articles point to nothing coming to the market for at least five to ten years also means that finance people aren't interested in the tech yet.
mxh 19y ago
"This is so big, it's tough to imagine our memristor based future. Please speculate wildly about humanity in the Memristor Age." Not since the inductor was discovered has there been such cause for rejoicing. My guess is that people in this glorious new age will continue to be, by turns, noble, venal, kind, warlike, selfish, generous, stupid, wise, thoughtful and ignorant, and that life will go on much as it always has. I find it hard to believe that this discovery/invention (as opposed to, say, the transistor, fission, the steam engine, the telegraph, quantum mechanics, et-bloody-cetera) is really going to alter the human experience for all time. We will, however, have smaller iPods. And this is a cool discovery. From a narrow, self-interested perspective, I wonder if this will end up having any impact on how computers look to the programmer. I'd guess not; I think this stuff will be used to make faster/smaller versions of what we already have, in much the same way the last 30 years of advances in processor design were used to make really fast IA instruction set chips. If I'm wrong, though, it'll be interesting learning how to program the things.
- aswanson 19y ago
  Not since the inductor was discovered has there been such cause for rejoicing. Hilarious. I think that depending on the noise immunity properties they may increase storage density signifcantly, but it will be more along the lines of a sustaining rather than revolutionary product, in terms of impact. I doubt, due to imperfections in the manufacturing process, that we will ever be able to store a continuous analog signal with perfect fidelity. In fact, Shannon's law forbids it has to be sent along a channel, which it does. Analog computing has been with us forever, we'll see if this makes it commercially viable.
- aswanson 19y ago
  Not since the inductor was discovered has there been such cause for rejoicing. Hilarious. I think that depending on the noise immunity properties they may increase storage density signifcantly, but it will be more along the lines of a sustaining rather than revolutionary product, in terms of impact. I doubt, due to imperfections in the manufacturing process, that we will ever be able to store a continuous analog signal with perfect fidelity. In fact, Shannon's law forbids that if it has to be sent along a channel, which it does. Analog computing has been with us forever, we'll see if this makes it commercially viable for some applications. Good news, in any case.

by rms 19y ago

icey 19y ago

I need someone with a strong understanding of free markets to help me out here; but if this is really so big, why hasn't HPQ skyrocketed? I'm not being a smartass, I just really don't understand why we haven't seen financial implications of this find. Edit In the interest of disclosure, I've bought some shares to put my money where my mind is.

hugh 19y ago
I don't know. Does anyone know if HP managed to patent it before they published it?
- icey 19y ago
  It looks like it: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&p=1&p=1&S1=7203789.PN.&OS=pn/7203789&RS=PN/7203789 http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sec..., http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&p=1&p=1&S1=7359888.PN.&OS=pn/7359888&RS=PN/7359888 http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sec..., And another company has a related patent based on the usage of a memristor: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&S1=memristor&OS=memristor&RS=memristor http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sec...
  - hugh 19y ago
    Actually those seem to be related to a very different device which was in development in the same group -- an array of nanowires with single molecules at the intersections forming logical elements. Very cool, but very hard to fabricate, and not a memristor. Updated: Actually only the second one has molecules at the intersections, the other two seem to be more general.
    - icey 19y ago
      Eh, I must have been confused by the "pictures" posted of the memristor, because the patents describe the image that was getting shown in the articles. I'm not an EE by any stretch of the imagination, so I'd be inclined to take your word over mine. Edit I think this might be the correct one: http://www.google.com/patents?id=mWcGAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=mWcGAAAAEBAJ
      - hugh 19y ago
        Now I come to look at the image, you're right in that the new memristor architecture seems to a similar crossbar-style geometry similar to some of their previous inventions. It's possible that the first or the third one you posted might be general enough to encompass the memristor system as implemented, but I don't think either of them is specifically related to the new let's-diffuse-ions-across-a-thin-semiconductor-film memristor idea.
icey 19y ago
Okay, I took the time to do some asking around with some finance friends of mine. Their opinions were that: 1) People in that sector don't really understand why this is a big deal. 2) It looks like just another "Breakthrough" in hi-tech; which is to say, a regular every-day occurrence. The fact that all articles point to nothing coming to the market for at least five to ten years also means that finance people aren't interested in the tech yet.

mxh 19y ago

"This is so big, it's tough to imagine our memristor based future. Please speculate wildly about humanity in the Memristor Age." Not since the inductor was discovered has there been such cause for rejoicing. My guess is that people in this glorious new age will continue to be, by turns, noble, venal, kind, warlike, selfish, generous, stupid, wise, thoughtful and ignorant, and that life will go on much as it always has. I find it hard to believe that this discovery/invention (as opposed to, say, the transistor, fission, the steam engine, the telegraph, quantum mechanics, et-bloody-cetera) is really going to alter the human experience for all time. We will, however, have smaller iPods. And this is a cool discovery. From a narrow, self-interested perspective, I wonder if this will end up having any impact on how computers look to the programmer. I'd guess not; I think this stuff will be used to make faster/smaller versions of what we already have, in much the same way the last 30 years of advances in processor design were used to make really fast IA instruction set chips. If I'm wrong, though, it'll be interesting learning how to program the things.

aswanson 19y ago
Not since the inductor was discovered has there been such cause for rejoicing. Hilarious. I think that depending on the noise immunity properties they may increase storage density signifcantly, but it will be more along the lines of a sustaining rather than revolutionary product, in terms of impact. I doubt, due to imperfections in the manufacturing process, that we will ever be able to store a continuous analog signal with perfect fidelity. In fact, Shannon's law forbids it has to be sent along a channel, which it does. Analog computing has been with us forever, we'll see if this makes it commercially viable.
aswanson 19y ago
Not since the inductor was discovered has there been such cause for rejoicing. Hilarious. I think that depending on the noise immunity properties they may increase storage density signifcantly, but it will be more along the lines of a sustaining rather than revolutionary product, in terms of impact. I doubt, due to imperfections in the manufacturing process, that we will ever be able to store a continuous analog signal with perfect fidelity. In fact, Shannon's law forbids that if it has to be sent along a channel, which it does. Analog computing has been with us forever, we'll see if this makes it commercially viable for some applications. Good news, in any case.