4 ms·

Both memristors and 3D XPoint aka Optane are in a patent limbo. The current patent holders tried them, and found the current crop too hard and unprofitable, but

by nine_k 2y ago

Both memristors and 3D XPoint aka Optane are in a patent limbo. The current patent holders tried them, and found the current crop too hard and unprofitable, but further research and commercialization would require either buying the key patents or waiting for them to expire.

pklausler 2y ago
Commercialization, yes, but not necessarily further research.
- jahewson 2y ago
  Hard to get research funded when it can’t be commercialised sufficiently to merit the risk.
- nine_k 2y ago
  Fundamental research is likely unhindered. But any research of incremental improvements in an attempt to make the tech commercially viable is stymied. And I would love to see some accessible and available non-volatile RAM measured in gigabytes. It means computers that never get switched "of, no more than a paper book can be switched off. It would take a radically different approach to operating syssystems to reap the benefits though.
LarsDu88 2y ago
That one's on Intel. They marketed Optane poorly and created a subpar product for the market they were tackling. The whole point of memristors is to make something better than DRAM and SRAM. Perhaps even blow up the dichotomy between storage and memory altogether (as memristor MRAM can store information even when powered down, unlike DRAM and SRAM). Let here we are in 2024 with no viable memristor products on the market.
Balgair 2y ago
Holy crap! Someone else knows about memristors! Oh man, coming neuroscience I had no idea why these weren't being more researched. Thanks for the info there. Just as an FYI to y'all, a memristor is essentially how a synapse works. In that it's an electrical element that counts the change in charges across the leads over time (dCharge/dFlux or dq/dPhi). And all for very little power and it survives power cycles. Like, we talk about AI these days, but memristor incorporating hardware would really get us there. You'd just, you know, need to invent the solid state memristor first, and then make it commercially viable, and then redesign all of computer architecture from the transistor on up. Easy-peasy.

by nine_k 2y ago

pklausler 2y ago

Commercialization, yes, but not necessarily further research.

jahewson 2y ago
Hard to get research funded when it can’t be commercialised sufficiently to merit the risk.
nine_k 2y ago
Fundamental research is likely unhindered. But any research of incremental improvements in an attempt to make the tech commercially viable is stymied. And I would love to see some accessible and available non-volatile RAM measured in gigabytes. It means computers that never get switched "of, no more than a paper book can be switched off. It would take a radically different approach to operating syssystems to reap the benefits though.

LarsDu88 2y ago

That one's on Intel. They marketed Optane poorly and created a subpar product for the market they were tackling. The whole point of memristors is to make something better than DRAM and SRAM. Perhaps even blow up the dichotomy between storage and memory altogether (as memristor MRAM can store information even when powered down, unlike DRAM and SRAM). Let here we are in 2024 with no viable memristor products on the market.

Balgair 2y ago

Holy crap! Someone else knows about memristors! Oh man, coming neuroscience I had no idea why these weren't being more researched. Thanks for the info there. Just as an FYI to y'all, a memristor is essentially how a synapse works. In that it's an electrical element that counts the change in charges across the leads over time (dCharge/dFlux or dq/dPhi). And all for very little power and it survives power cycles. Like, we talk about AI these days, but memristor incorporating hardware would really get us there. You'd just, you know, need to invent the solid state memristor first, and then make it commercially viable, and then redesign all of computer architecture from the transistor on up. Easy-peasy.