Posted on 09/02/2011 11:19:10 AM PDT by Red Badger
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, and one of the largest manufacturers of computer memory, Samsung, have created a new kind of flash memory that uses graphene—atom-thick sheets of pure carbon—along with silicon to store information.
Incorporating graphene could help extend the viability of flash memory technology for years to come, and allow future portable electronics to store far more data.
Chipmakers pack increasing amounts of data in the same physical area by miniaturizing the memory cells used to store individual bits. Inside today's flash drives, these cells are nanoscale "floating gate" transistors. Recent years have seen the rapid miniaturization of flash cells, enabling, for example, the iPhone 4 to store twice as much data as the iPhone 3. But below a certain cell size, silicon becomes less stable, and this has the potential to halt the march of miniaturization.
Graphene-based technology like that demonstrated the UCLA team and Samsung could let flash memory continue shrinking. The group's prototypes devices are described online in the journal ACS Nano.
"We're not totally replacing silicon but using graphene as the storage layer," says Augustin Hong, who worked on the devices at UCLA and is now a research staff member at IBM's Watson Research Center. "We're using graphene to help extend the capabilities of the conventional technology."
The graphene flash memory prototypes can be read and written to using less power than conventional flash memory, and they can store data more stably over time, even when miniaturized. The UCLA researchers have also demonstrated that they meet the industry standard of 10-year projected data retention—today's flash memory does too, but future versions may not. Most important, the graphene memory cells don't electrically interfere with one another—a problem with conventional flash cells as they are made smaller that can cause them to malfunction.
Other researchers are working on radical new kinds of computer memory that promise to hold more data. However, many of these alternatives require exotic materials and totally new manufacturing processes. Replacing silicon with graphene in flash memory cells could provide a simpler, more practical solution, at least in the short term.
Must be a graphene ball. 8->
Been there. Then I did the MFM to RLL controller swap. If you were lucky you could get 60MB out of it.
I’m at work and we are ‘cleaning house’ of our old equipment and junk today. I’m tossing old 386’s and monitors, floppy drives and all kinds of dust covered relics into the pile. Old test and measurement equipment, some TUBE stuff!................
My first HD (not the first PC though) was a WHOPPING 12MB :o)
I think it was around $500..
The first mouse (1 button) was $126 >.<
Bookmark
Me too.
And I lose the darn things. But I don't have that problem anymore. I find old hard drive cases and install them in those with a cable that comes out and plugs into the computer. Much harder to misplace. ;-)
I built a computer from a kit back in I think 1976 and an 8k (That’s 8 kilobytes!) memory card cost $440. And I had to solder in the 64 2102 chips.
Here’s the instructions I found online.
The next time you load 4 gigs of memory into your $99 digital camera recall this picture.
It's Labor day weekend. Just reboot your CPU, memory leak will be fixed by itself and you'll be just fine :-)
I can't get to that link, for some reason :/ something is blocking it.. Anyway, yeah, my first was a TRaSh80 MC :p (had to buy the 300 Bd modem and cassette recorder separately ;^) ) Was 1980..
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/TRS-80_MC-10
At at least it got me into computers :) The one before my HD PC was called Apple Laser with 128KB of ram.. I could be way off.. it has been decades XD
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Laser_128
I do remember the 5.25 floppy drive and the first sim I got on it though.. Was Chuck Yeager's SR-71 flight sim... AWESOME at the time (stick graphics lol).
I help someone move an old HD about the size of a dishwasher. The thing was VERY heavy. We struggled it out of the place he got it, into my van, out of the van, and into his basement. We found, mounted on the bottom, a solid piece of lead about 4”x12”x12”. Lead weighed 100 pounds.
Since the thing was top heavy, it needed a counter weight to keep from tipping over. Removing four nuts could have saved us a lot of grief. I got the lead. I loaned the lead to someone years ago and I haven’t seen it since. He probably made 100 pounds of bullets.
The Laser was a copy of the Apple 2e, but it’s name was just Laser, since Apple didn’t make it. I’ve got one of them in the attic.
The link downloads a pdf file. Maybe you don’t have the right Adobe software for it.
Strange.. which link was it?
The only difference is it’s a secure connection (HTTPS) instead of a normal one.. maybe I should link the normal connection...
Ah.. sorry, I see what you’re talking about.. Adobe software is no prob.. I have photoshop..
I will see if I can download direct..
ok.. It is downloading fine.. maybe I just didn’t wait long enough for the PDF to load :p
Thank you for the tip ;)
Hey you guys, don’t just blindly trash that old stuff into the dumps. Some of it is valuable to us collectors of vintage computers. I recently sold a vintage Apple motherboard for $300 (could have got twice that but it cost me nothing because I originally bought 16 of them for only $10 total). Guys are buying vintage chips and tubes for big bucks. Too many are being recycled as scrap, depleting what’s left for collectors.
Drives of the vintage when I started. The removable packs held a massive 3 MB. Cost? $90K 1960's era dollars if I read the information correctly. And they needed special flooring, A/C, power supplies.
See http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/BRL64-i.html
4”x12”x12”
approx equals 10cm x 30cm x 30cm.
one liter is 10cm cubed ... so you are talking about 9 liters volume
One liter of water is one kilogram
Density of lead is around 11.5 ...
so your lead block was a bit more than 100kg ~= 220pounds
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