Posted on 08/31/2010 12:58:52 AM PDT by neverdem
Scientists at Rice University and Hewlett-Packard are reporting this week that they can overcome a fundamental barrier to the continued rapid miniaturization of computer memory that has been the basis for the consumer electronics revolution.
In recent years the limits of physics and finance faced by chip makers had loomed so large that experts feared a slowdown in the pace of miniaturization that would act like a brake on the ability to pack ever more power into ever smaller devices like laptops, smartphones and digital cameras.
But the new announcements, along with competing technologies being pursued by companies like IBM and Intel, offer hope that the brake will not be applied any time soon.
In one of the two new developments, Rice researchers are reporting in Nano Letters, a journal of the American Chemical Society, that they have succeeded in building reliable small digital switches — an essential part of computer memory — that could shrink to a significantly smaller scale than is possible using conventional methods.
More important, the advance is based on silicon oxide, one of the basic building blocks of today’s chip industry, thus easing a move toward commercialization. The scientists said that PrivaTran, a Texas startup company, has made experimental chips using the technique that can store and retrieve...
--snip--
In contrast, the Rice advance must still be proved. Acknowledging that researchers must overcome skepticism because silicon oxide has been known as an insulator by the industry until now, Jim Tour, a nanomaterials specialist at Rice said he believed the industry would have to look seriously at the research team’s new approach.
“It’s a hard sell, because at first it’s obvious it won’t work,” he said. “But my hope is that this is so simple they will have to put it in their portfolio to explore.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Great... Billions spent for a better way to store porn.
>>> Great... Billions spent for a better way to store porn.
Show some respect when you say that. If not for the quest of geeks seeking the sight of a nekkid Sandra Bullock, we’d still be using punchcards and mainframes.
Sorry... But all I got out of your post was ‘Punching a card into Sandra’s mainframe’ or something... Now, I need a shower...
As long as they don’t get so small, that I start inhaling them when I pass government buildings, then it’s okay.
The skin disease that cures itself
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
And I rest my case!
Programmers at Microsoft breathe a sigh of relief as they now begin planning the next Office suite, which will be 1000 times larger than their current offering.
Great now Windows 10 can have an 800 Gig mouse driver.
Jim Tour, a nanomaterials specialist
uh .. ((head scratching) ... which Univ do you go to to get you BS for Nanomaterials Specialist (BSNS)? Or is it just like Truck Driving School?
And is that anything like being a 'Greif Counselor'? (talk about a sweet gig.)
LOLOL!
Well, obviously Zero needs to appoint a czar to make sure this gets shared with the 57 states of Islam. Thanks neverdem.
Greif? As in Greif Erickson? ;’)
I like SiO2....if I had a nickel for every time I.......
;’)
Every time I read an article like this I recall something I read back in ~1980 or so, declaring that (at most) computing speeds would no more than double or quadruple before they ran into the limits of physics...
You go to BSNS school, of course, and get a BSNS degree.
And if you go into management at such a firm, it's always good to have a Masters in BSNS Administration.
LOL. Yeah Leif’s great grandfather.
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