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IBM Creates Working "Racetrack Memory"
Posted by
kdawson
on Fri Apr 11, 2008 08:42 AM
from the and-they're-off dept.
from the and-they're-off dept.
holy_calamity writes "IBM has created the first working 'racetrack memory' device — a technology we've discussed as it's been touted as the future of memory. It works by writing bits using the magnetic domains inside a very thin wire. Those domain can be shunted along this 'racetrack' and past read heads."
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'Racetrack' Memory Could Replace Hard Drives? 149 comments
Galactic_grub writes "An experimental new type of memory that uses nanosecond pulses of electric current to push magnetic regions along a wire could dramatically boost the capacity, speed and reliability of storage devices. Magnetic domains are moved along a wire by pulses of polarized current, and their location is read by fixed sensors arranged along the wire. Previous experiments have been disappointing, but now researchers have found that super-fast pulses of electricity prevent the domains from being obstructed by imperfections in the crystal."
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Sounds like... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
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1964: Outer Limits - Demon with a Glass Hand (Score:2)
In the denouement a very important copper wire with very high density storage is central.
44 year old spoilers at the link.
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wire spool recordings (Score:2)
"I see Nuthin... I know Nuthin...."
Re:Sounds like... (Score:5, Informative)
CRT based memory was also, in a sense, a product of radar. If you've seen early radar depictions from old movies, you had this kind of linear cursor started at the center of a round CRT tube and went to the edge. The end swept around the perimeter of the display, and when a line crossed a "blip", it would be refreshed. Over the next couple of seconds the blip would fade and the sweeping line would refresh the blip in a slightly different place. The persistence of phosphors on the screen were a kind of short term memory, so it's not surprising that engineers familiar with radar hit on the idea of making CRT storage units.
Random access is not the only memory model ever used in computers, nor is it the only one that will ever be used in the future. This is one of the reasons CS students are taught to regard polynomial time differences between classes of algorithms as relatively unimportant in a theoretical sense, although they are obviously important in a practical sense.
Parent
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http://research.swtch.com/2008/04/computing-history-at-bell-labs.html [swtch.com]
Bubble memory (Score:3, Insightful)
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But you trust ours?!
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Imagine an infinite-length wire "track" (Score:5, Funny)
This sounds like such a great idea. I wish I had it already!
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Turing Machine! (Score:2, Offtopic)
Re:Turing Machine! (Score:5, Interesting)
Lego Difference Engine [woz.org]
Parent
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
For that matter, modern random access memory is really more of an abstraction than a reality.
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"Lego Turing Machine" is fun/informative.
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You mean DNA? (Score:2)
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If you play instructions to a CPU backwards, would the computer spout Satanic messages?
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Definitely Satanic on both ends.
Re:Imagine an infinite-length wire "track" (Score:4, Funny)
Cue groans...
Parent
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The old is new again (Score:2, Offtopic)
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FTFA (Score:4, Funny)
Bit 1 - Did something?
Bit 2 - ??????
Bit 3 - Profited?
this won't take off soon (Score:1)
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Re:this won't take off soon (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh! New motherboards would have to be introduced! That could take some time to switch to indeed, because it's quite rare that such a thing happens.
Except for the switch from DRAM to SDRAM. And the switch from SDRAM to DDR, and from DDR to DDR2, and from DDR2 to DDR3, and from AGP to PCI-e, and from IDE to SATA, and.. and.. ad infinitum.
Parent
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You should have stopped here:"It will be a few years before this is practical"
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Anyway, if people bothered to RTFA (hey, one can wish) they would see that they expect racetrack memory to first be used for storage - which means you will connect the stuff through sata/pci/pci-e or other existing buses. Using Racetrack as a replacement for RAM is in the 7year+ range.
Need an analogy (Score:5, Funny)
Without a proper Light -Distance analogy [slashdot.org] I have no way of being impressed by the speed of device. Is it knuckle to knee? Nose to toe? People need to know these things!
Older than Dirt! (Score:3, Insightful)
Correct me if I'm wrong, (Score:4, Interesting)
I remember my OpSys prof showing us one of these things that was new and shiny when HE was in school. Basically just a long (couple km, I think) wire wrapped up in a small coil the size of a shoebox that acted as RAM by sending pulses around the loop, reading them and then sending them again... the delay of electrons traveling the loop acted as extra space, until you were sending pulses continuously. Sort of like a circular stack.
Anyone else see some similarities here?
That's nothin' (Score:5, Funny)
Wake me when they come up with "Hot Dog" or "Crashdown" memory.
JJ
Great for Microsoft Windows. (Score:2)
This is brilliant for them!
Seriously, though. The idea of storing bits on top of each other instead of alongside each other does give a much smaller footprint, and from what I understand from what I've read some 3 years ago, also a much better speed vs thermal efficiency.
For primary storage (Score:3, Interesting)
Could be interesting.
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I'll stand by my statement.
Compared to PMC? (Score:3, Interesting)
ah... (Score:2)
From what I understand you created a circular magnetic field and then loaded a pattern into in, moving it around the field and past the read area to determine the data value. The pattern density was very high and the loops were printed onto the surface of the device, a bit like the old 80s game donkey kong they were joi
first computer memory was a "racetrack" device (Score:2)
Place your bets .. (Score:2)
Set your data running the loop and then sit back and watch the fun.
Have drunken parties as you watch you bits speed around the course.
Place bets on your bits coming in first, a place, or if you are feeling really lucky plonk your money down for a trifecta.
Its so much fun for the whole family that even if you lose you still win!!
Timeline (Score:3, Funny)
No betting (Score:5, Funny)
there are still some issues to be resolved... (Score:2)
Ars Technica picked this up yesterday [arstechnica.com] and has a pretty good run-down of how it works (complete with a pretty illustration).
They also provide Links to the Science articles themselves:
It's promising, but there are still some lingering issues:
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-Matt