Gecko's Feet Power New RAM Chips 81
An anonymous reader writes "IT Week has a story about carbon nanotubes being used to make memory chips. As the name suggests, carbon nanotubes are extremely small cylinders of carbon, and they have some similar properties to the extremely fine hairs on the feet of Geckos that enable the lizards to climb walls and hang from ceilings. The new chips work faster than current technologies, and hold their data without needing a power source." We've previously discussed this technology.
Misleading Title (Score:5, Insightful)
This article could more aptly be titled, "New technology happens to reflect Gecko trait."
Another Misleading Thing... (Score:2)
ROFL! "Today my brand new Gecko-Brand PC, installed with Windows Vista and all the latest Service Packs
Those chips had BETTER be equipped with some sort of Clear All Memory functionality.
Re:Misleading Title (Score:2)
You know, Slashdot titles aren't aimed at being perfect - they are aimed at being catchy, and most do a good job of it.
Since this is not particularly a scientific journal, I'd rather have the former and have it catch my eye than being drab and something that I'd skip over.
Re:Misleading Title (Score:2, Funny)
If all you want is an article that will grab attention and get people to read and respond to it, then all articles on Slashdot should just be titled "Linux sucks" and you will be guaranteed everyone will read them. :-P
Re:Misleading Title (Score:1)
I agree the title is kind of mesleading. It's actually the first time I heard about this comparison. Nanotubes are studied because of the electrical properties that thay have in relation of their small size. In other words they are the perfect candidate to substitute metal wires in circuitry. They are under study as possible hydrogen storage systems.
So apart from the fact that they are "small", I don't really see any fitting comparison with the Gecko. Unless we could use a Gecko as the next RAM. Ah that'
NOT a Misleading Title (Score:5, Informative)
Well, then it would be just as accurate... (Score:3)
Re:Well, then it would be just as accurate... (Score:2)
Re:Well, then it would be just as accurate... (Score:2)
Re:NOT a Misleading Title (Score:3, Funny)
Re:NOT a Misleading Title (Score:2)
Re:NOT a Misleading Title (Score:1)
Re:NOT a Misleading Title (Score:2)
Misleading First Post (Score:1)
Re:Misleading Title (Score:2)
Re:Misleading Title (Score:1)
So any similarities to carbon tubes was mostly accidental.
Great News! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Great News! (Score:2)
Re:Great News! (Score:2)
Re:Great News! (Score:1)
Re:Great News! (Score:1)
That's nothing
Re:Great News! (Score:1)
Re:Great News! (Score:2)
And I thought EDO RAM was expensive ($640/GB in today's prices). That's 1994 technology (an old old Gateway computer).
Modern memory runs at around $100/GB in comparison.
Good news! (Score:2)
Re:These Firefox guys are everywhere (Score:1)
Re:These Firefox guys are everywhere (Score:1)
Re:These Firefox guys are everywhere (Score:3, Funny)
Re:These Firefox guys are everywhere (Score:2)
No all the engergy from keystrokes, mouse movements, and mouse clicks are captured. There's no need for external power or heavy batteries. And no, this doesn't pay for the time, it's pretty much break even, the power generated keeps the system going. This goes along way to explain code bloat.
Gecko developers are paid in warm fuzzies.
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Q
Nothing new (Score:3, Insightful)
I'll grant you that yes, prices have come down recently but surely every geek wants our scientific research budgets spent on a much worthier use for nanotubes. [space.com]
Re:Nothing new (Score:2)
Or are we forgetting that strong industry = more taxes and that NASA gets the shaft most readily when the government feels the need to trim down its budget?
It's escaped (Score:3, Funny)
Shipping this year? (Score:3, Informative)
This seems somewhat unlikely, but would be cool if it was true. High speed USB pendrive anyone?
Little short on technical detail though. How many read-write cycles can these things do?
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http://www.jarfinder.com/ [jarfinder.com]
Re:Shipping this year? (Score:1)
It really is remarkable. Revolutionary technologies that will completely change the way computers are made have been promised and promoted for years, always with ridiculously optimistic (Duke Nukem Forever style) timelines. Yet here we are today, using computers that are largely evolutions of old technologies.
Re:Shipping this year? (Score:2)
Indeed, just for RAM, we have MRAM [wikipedia.org], FRAM [wikipedia.org], Z-RAM [wikipedia.org] and now Carbon Nanotube RAM ... did I forget any?
And yet, all computers are still running on conventional DRAM.
Re:Shipping this year? (Score:1)
Re:Shipping this year? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Shipping this year? (Score:1)
Re:Shipping this year? (Score:3, Interesting)
I admit I'm just speculating here, but most sorts of application carbon nanotubes are damn-near indestructible. Admittedly this operation involves physical bending and flopping back and forth and would normally rais issues on mechanical wear and tear, but nanotubes are single molecules. A single molecule does not "wear and tear". I don't think these would have any meaningfull read-write cycle issues like Flash memory has.
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Re:Shipping this year? (Score:2)
Re:Shipping this year? (Score:2)
Not informative (Score:3, Informative)
We had been covering Nantero for a long time on slashdot:
Carbon Nanotube Memory on the Way [slashdot.org]
Nanotube Non-Volatile Memory Entering Production [slashdot.org]
Nanotube Applications Grow And Grow [slashdot.org] (mentions about NVRAM)
Buckminsterfullerene Strikes Again - Nanotube RAM [slashdot.org]
Mandatory (Score:2, Funny)
Carbon nanotube and Flashes don't mix (Score:2)
(Yeah, I know you didn't mean that kind of flash, but the video is kinda cool.)
The real story: "later this year" (Score:2)
The article isn't clear about whether these will be engineering samples or full production products. But if they are full production products, and can be produced at volume soon after, this will be huge.
For at least four years I've been following news about non-volatile memory technologies like MRAM (Magnetic RAM) and FeRAM (Fero-Electric RAM). The common availability of these RAMs will have massive
Re:The real story: "later this year" (Score:1)
Re:The real story: "later this year" (Score:1)
This is exciting! (Score:2)
If these guys manage to make this work, they'll be increidbly well off and famous.
I love how the stuff is hundreds of times smaller than the state of the art!
Upcoming lizard related technology... (Score:5, Funny)
"Chameleo-browser" - A new plugin for firefox which will allow porn pages, when seen from a distance to blend in with spreadsheets and become unnoticable.
** Note - In response to these advances the LOST (Lizard Open Source Team) has chosen to patent their genetic makeup to prevent futher abuses of their technology. NTP will be handling the patents.
Re:Upcoming lizard related technology... (Score:2)
Gecko's Feet Power New RAM Chips (Score:3, Funny)
Boycott... (Score:2, Funny)
As a long standing representative of the International Gecko Consortium, I am here by boycotting the sales of these supposed "RAM chips" for the implication and devaluing of the inherent value of our feet. We of the IGC will not stand idly by and watch you non reptilians continue to mount slanderous comments on our good name. Additionally we call into question the nature of this 'research' done by The Man - no upstanding Gecko would allow themselves to be poked, prodded, or subjected to any scientific res
lizards (Score:1)
Re:lizards (Score:3, Funny)
This gives the evolutionaries a problem "why did geckos evolve to stick to things in a vacuum". It also gives the ID-believes a different problem "why did the intelligent designer give geckos the ability to stick to things in a vacuum"?
it also raises another question: what experiments were done to determine which animals can stick to walls in a vaccuum, and which cant. I can imagine a large glass contai
Re:lizards (Score:1)
Re:lizards (Score:2)
This gives the evolutionaries a problem "why did geckos evolve to stick to things in a vacuum"
They didn't. They evolved in a way that sticks to things in the atmosphere, that also happens to stick to things in a vacuum.
Re:lizards (Score:1)
That'd make a great Joe Cartoon sketch.
Re:lizards (Score:2)
Re:lizards (Score:1)
Re:lizards (Score:2)
Who says God couldn't subcontract to the ambphibians... um... reptiles. Which one are they anyway?
Finally! (Score:3, Funny)
"Wall mounted keyboards... It must be.... the FUTURE!" - Crow T. Robot
So... (Score:1)
Gecko's "feet" (Score:1)
Not that I actually notice Gecko being a memory hog or anything...
The Writer of TFA clearly doesn't know much (Score:5, Interesting)
Would this benefit current computers (Score:1)
OB Invader ZIM (Score:1)
I fear something terrible has happened... (Score:1)
RFC 1149 (Score:2)
What, you don't like Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers?
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Not Interested (Score:2)
Then forget it.
Re:Not Interested (Score:1)
Using ordinary old spatulas spread over a couple of human hands you could hold 40kg (Dr. Kellar Autumn. Associate Professor Department of Biology 227 BioPsych Lewis & Clark College from BBC Sci/Tech 7 June 2000). Now lets go multiplying that gripiness by 200 times and I think we can call this dude Spiderman.
Now wouldn't that stuff, as a nice big splat, at the end of a nice long nano tube rope make a lovely web swing; with the added bonus of being able to turn all those li