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> “Our partner, Hynix, is a major producer of flash memory, and memristors will cannibalise its existing business by replacing some flash memory with a differen

> “Our partner, Hynix, is a major producer of flash memory, and memristors will cannibalise its existing business by replacing some flash memory with a different technology,” he said. “So the way we time the introduction of memristors turns out to be important. There’s a lot more money being spent on understanding and modeling the market than on any of the research.” Surely if they wait too long purely for profitable reasons the market will punish them by someone else beating them to it?

smoyer 14y ago
But HP would never attempt to maximize for profit right? The memristor is going to be its gift to humanity in the same way they've kept ink-jet and toner prices right above their costs. I think that statement about spending more (time or money?) studying the market than doing research is pretty sad.
pillock 14y ago
That passage leapt out at me too. In my simplistic geek mind this is totally arse-about-face, like the tail wagging the dog. Are these companies more interested in money than what they're actually doing? But to answer your point: Patents.
- zokier 14y ago
  > Are these companies more interested in money than what they're actually doing? Their [HP] interest in what they're actually doing is demonstrated in their investment in research that has enabled memristors. Commercialization, what the quote was about, is obviously more about money. Money that eventually ends up funding more research like this.
  - pillock 14y ago
    Of course you're right, but surely there's a balance to be found between delaying the launch of this product vs. maximizing profits. If the company involved is more interested in money they'll tend to err towards delaying release, if they're more interested in the impact of their product they'll tend to release sooner. Clearly, at a societal level, we'd prefer to have this product sooner, so we have to constantly question the leverage that patents afford large corporations and question their methods and motives.
- deleted 14y ago
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wtallis 14y ago
As bad as that sounds, I don't think that HP is currently making much money off flash memory, so they still have an incentive to get the memristors to market soon. They just have chosen to make enough concessions to secure the cooperation of a DRAM manufacturer so that HP doesn't have to build the whole memristor business themselves. (The way HP's been managed in recent years, I wonder if they would be able to get and hold on to enough capital to mass produce memristors and bring them to market without help.)

smoyer 14y ago

But HP would never attempt to maximize for profit right? The memristor is going to be its gift to humanity in the same way they've kept ink-jet and toner prices right above their costs. I think that statement about spending more (time or money?) studying the market than doing research is pretty sad.

pillock 14y ago

That passage leapt out at me too. In my simplistic geek mind this is totally arse-about-face, like the tail wagging the dog. Are these companies more interested in money than what they're actually doing? But to answer your point: Patents.

zokier 14y ago
> Are these companies more interested in money than what they're actually doing? Their [HP] interest in what they're actually doing is demonstrated in their investment in research that has enabled memristors. Commercialization, what the quote was about, is obviously more about money. Money that eventually ends up funding more research like this.
- pillock 14y ago
  Of course you're right, but surely there's a balance to be found between delaying the launch of this product vs. maximizing profits. If the company involved is more interested in money they'll tend to err towards delaying release, if they're more interested in the impact of their product they'll tend to release sooner. Clearly, at a societal level, we'd prefer to have this product sooner, so we have to constantly question the leverage that patents afford large corporations and question their methods and motives.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

wtallis 14y ago

As bad as that sounds, I don't think that HP is currently making much money off flash memory, so they still have an incentive to get the memristors to market soon. They just have chosen to make enough concessions to secure the cooperation of a DRAM manufacturer so that HP doesn't have to build the whole memristor business themselves. (The way HP's been managed in recent years, I wonder if they would be able to get and hold on to enough capital to mass produce memristors and bring them to market without help.)