3 ms·

Not that crazy. It's about the most basic structure you can make. Hard to make a better wheel. The closest thing I can think of that's come close to maybe ch

Not that crazy. It's about the most basic structure you can make. Hard to make a better wheel. The closest thing I can think of that's come close to maybe challenging DRAM is HP's memristors but those really didn't pan out (probably too much power consumption).

gavmor 6mo ago
You're right—the wheels on the Boeing 737 are, although made of forged aluminum or magnesium to withstand extreme force and heat, pretty much the same shape and operate in the same way as the Ljubljana Marshes Wheel of 3150 BCE. Then again, flight itself has obviated—or, rather, introduced—many transit workloads that could be performed by wheeled vehicles, and operates on different principles entirely.
- m463 6mo ago
  I found it fascinating that jetliner tires are designed to blow during extreme braking. An aborted takeoff (say microburst warning goes off), or an emergency landing will heat the brakes and tires to maximum. But there are plugs that will depressurize the tires without them coming apart. That way they don't catastrophically blow and spew tire pieces everywhere to get sucked into jet engines and damaging them. pretty cool, sort of graceful (or at least planned) degradation of tires without cascading problems.
yvdriess 6mo ago
> Hard to make a better wheel. Pet peeve: stupid analogy seeing how wheels kept being improved throughout the millennia with every new technology. The only thing in common is that it's round. Similarly, DRAM in any way you see it has been improving to the point of barely being recognizable since the 70s. That said, DIMMs and the whole bus idea is in dire need of getting a new type of bearing.
- cogman10 6mo ago
  Seems like a pretty good analogy as you admit there have been advancements while the basic structure has remained the same. Not sure why you have a pet peeve when it is highly analogous. The ultimate shape of DRAM is the same, the main thing that's changed is the materials and techniques to produce it. Making it very impressive, but none the less completely recognizable by someone who was familiar with DRAM in the 70s. The wheel is the same. Pluck someone from 1000 years ago and they'll be able to correctly identify a modern wheel even though they've never seen any of the composites that go into it. The function of the wheel is identical to how they used it.
- rbanffy 6mo ago
  > That said, DIMMs and the whole bus idea is in dire need of getting a new type of bearing. IBM has been using their own memory bus technology for both their POWER and Z machines. IIRC, it’s somewhat reminiscent of CXL, trading latency for bandwidth and size.
- rayiner 6mo ago
  The latency of a DRAM cell has barely budged since the 1990s.

gavmor 6mo ago

You're right—the wheels on the Boeing 737 are, although made of forged aluminum or magnesium to withstand extreme force and heat, pretty much the same shape and operate in the same way as the Ljubljana Marshes Wheel of 3150 BCE. Then again, flight itself has obviated—or, rather, introduced—many transit workloads that could be performed by wheeled vehicles, and operates on different principles entirely.

m463 6mo ago
I found it fascinating that jetliner tires are designed to blow during extreme braking. An aborted takeoff (say microburst warning goes off), or an emergency landing will heat the brakes and tires to maximum. But there are plugs that will depressurize the tires without them coming apart. That way they don't catastrophically blow and spew tire pieces everywhere to get sucked into jet engines and damaging them. pretty cool, sort of graceful (or at least planned) degradation of tires without cascading problems.

yvdriess 6mo ago

> Hard to make a better wheel. Pet peeve: stupid analogy seeing how wheels kept being improved throughout the millennia with every new technology. The only thing in common is that it's round. Similarly, DRAM in any way you see it has been improving to the point of barely being recognizable since the 70s. That said, DIMMs and the whole bus idea is in dire need of getting a new type of bearing.

cogman10 6mo ago
Seems like a pretty good analogy as you admit there have been advancements while the basic structure has remained the same. Not sure why you have a pet peeve when it is highly analogous. The ultimate shape of DRAM is the same, the main thing that's changed is the materials and techniques to produce it. Making it very impressive, but none the less completely recognizable by someone who was familiar with DRAM in the 70s. The wheel is the same. Pluck someone from 1000 years ago and they'll be able to correctly identify a modern wheel even though they've never seen any of the composites that go into it. The function of the wheel is identical to how they used it.
rbanffy 6mo ago
> That said, DIMMs and the whole bus idea is in dire need of getting a new type of bearing. IBM has been using their own memory bus technology for both their POWER and Z machines. IIRC, it’s somewhat reminiscent of CXL, trading latency for bandwidth and size.
rayiner 6mo ago
The latency of a DRAM cell has barely budged since the 1990s.