Graphene-Based Memristors Inch Towards Practical Production (phys.org) 31
Longtime Slashdot reader Baron_Yam writes: Memristors are the long-sought 4th fundamental circuit element. They promise analog computing capability in hardware, the ability to hold state without power, and to work with less power. A small cluster of them can replace a transistor using less space. Working and long term storage can blend together and neural networks can be implemented in hardware -- they are a game-changing innovation. Now, researchers are getting closer to putting these into production as they can now produce graphene-based memristors at wafer scale. "One of the key challenges in memristor development is device degradation, which graphene can help prevent," reports Phys.Org. "By blocking chemical pathways that degrade traditional electrodes, graphene could significantly extend the lifetime and reliability of these devices. Its remarkable transparency, transmitting 98% of light, also opens doors to advanced computing applications, particularly in AI and optoelectronics."
The findings have been published in the journal ACS Advanced Electronic Materials.
The findings have been published in the journal ACS Advanced Electronic Materials.
But will it be practical? (Score:3)
We already had memristors, that's what 3D XPoint was. Far from being a game-changing innovation, they flopped hard. Too expensive to replace long-term storage, too slow to replace short-term storage, nobody bought them and both Micron and Intel abandoned them.
Now, this article seems to be about a new type of memristor that's supposedly better in some way, but unless they can either match NAND cost with better performance, or match RAM performance at a better cost, nobody will buy it just like previous commercialized memristors.
Re:But will it be practical? (Score:4, Insightful)
>We already had memristors, that's what 3D XPoint was.
You do not seem to know anything about memristors.
3D XPoint was not made of them, and had none of their features other than persistent state without power.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Electromigration of ions to change resistance ... yep, it's a memristor.
Re: (Score:2)
> 3D XPoint was not made of them
Aye. 3D XPoint a type of phase-change memory [techinsights.com]. It's not memristor-based.
Re: (Score:2)
3D Xpoint was what was used in Intel Optane memory.
It created the FASTEST SSD's/RAM. The reason why it failed was because the rest of our architecture wasn’t ready for it. Here we have an extremely fast, non-volatile RAM stick that literally replaces and combines RAM and storage into one, but all of our operating systems are not designed to handle that. They all have, intrinsic to their design, the idea that storage and ram (working memory) are separate.
Traditional computer architectures never had
Re: (Score:2)
I should point out that 3D XPoint is not made of memristors. It is an implementation of PCM (Phase Change Memory).
Basically, it uses much the same materials as used in a CD-RW, only instead of writing and reading optically, it does so electrically.
This means that its incredibly fast when compared to flash and totally non-volatile (like with a CD-RW meaing it can retain data for decades).
the ability to hold state without power (Score:4, Funny)
Texas Republicans?
Re: (Score:1)
Joe Rogan.... Now that is a name I haven't heard in a long time.
Is he still around even after he was revealed to be fully regarded as being a retard?!
Re: the ability to hold state without power (Score:2)
Inching? (Score:2)
Don't you mean a few NANOMETERS?
Re: (Score:2)
That's certainly more accurate. From theory in 1971 to a single physical one in the early 2000s, and here we are yet another couple of decades on and it's now "well, we can make them at some kind of scale but they're pretty fragile".
Still, it took over two thousand years from the first steam engine to one that could actually do useful work.
It's funny... (Score:4, Insightful)
...my gut reaction, when reading this story about advances in computer hardware, is anxiety.
20 years ago my gut reaction would have been mild interest and "gee, that's neat".
Re: (Score:2)
Why anxiety? I don't see anything in TFS or TFA that warrants it.
There's a mention in TFA about "mimic[ing] the synaptic functions of the human brain" but it seems to me that has been done already.
Re: (Score:2)
There's a mention in TFA about "mimic[ing] the synaptic functions of the human brain" but it seems to me that has been done already.
In theory, memristors would be more energy-efficient and faster for neural nets since they are massively parallel.
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks for that. Sure, it may be a game-changer but it's not anxiety-inducing as far as I can see. Just a more efficient way to do things that are being done now.
Re: (Score:2)
it's not anxiety-inducing as far as I can see.
Indeed. I feel no anxiety about memristors.
But I'm a techno-optimist, so I rarely feel anxiety about anything.
Just a more efficient way to do things that are being done now.
With neural nets, more energy efficiency, density, and parallelism means bigger models and more training, which leads to more capability.
Re: (Score:2)
Why anxiety? I don't see anything in TFS or TFA that warrants it.
There's a mention in TFA about "mimic[ing] the synaptic functions of the human brain" but it seems to me that has been done already.
The only point to my (rather off-the-cuff) post is that, when I was growing up in the 80s, computers seemed fun and exciting-- something that would make our lives better and more interesting. For a while there, I think they really did make our lives better and more interesting. But lately, I feel that they are having exactly the opposite effect, and every year brings a fresh trainload of news stories which reinforce that impression. So I've gotten to the point where when I read stories like this, I actua
Re: (Score:1)
Have you considered that you're just a short-sighted idiot?
In the 1950s, the Powers That Be were quite open about using computers to do... exactly what they're doing right now: tracking everyone, serving ads, and "influencing" pleb decision making.
Un(?)-fortunately, they underestimated the level of compute required by several orders of magnitude (optimism does blind people sometimes), which bought us two generations of reprieve: long enough for people to forget the original purpose and forge a counter-narra
Re: (Score:2)
Have you considered that you're just a short-sighted idiot?
In the 1950s, the Powers That Be were quite open about using computers to do... exactly what they're doing right now: tracking everyone, serving ads, and "influencing" pleb decision making.
Un(?)-fortunately, they underestimated the level of compute required by several orders of magnitude (optimism does blind people sometimes), which bought us two generations of reprieve: long enough for people to forget the original purpose and forge a counter-narrative while we dragged out the cold war.
"Tracking everyone", "serving ads" and "influencing decision making" are not the main things I am worried about. I'm worried about those things, sure, but it's about 5% of what worries me.
I'm more worried about the journalists from the Polish radio station who were replaced last week with AI-generated voices. I'm worried about the other journalists who have lost jobs to ChatGPT. I'm worried about the guy I argued with on Slashdot last month, who thought it was perfectly reasonable for graduate students t
Re: (Score:1)
It's really worse than that in a way.
They replaced the journalists with cartoon characters because no one was watching anyway. And they weren't watching anyway because journalists just read the news off a teleprompter making it the most boring play ever. Local news is already obsolete, and that just might have something to do with the enormous information control system...
Re: (Score:1)
Read "The Human Use of Human Beings" by Norbert Wiener, a very prescient individual who saw this coming way back in 1950 (while contributing to it).
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks for this. I certainly wasn't expecting a "5,000-word essay" nor are you required to "logically justify" your anxieties.
I also have anxieties, but not about computers. I'm anxious about information. There's far too much of it that is just crap. Deceptions from bad actors can destroy us. We have seen examples in history. And I'm hoping that technology can be part of the solution, even if currently it's part of the problem.
A description floating around the web (Score:2)
"A memristor is like a water a pipe that changes diameter with the amount and direction of water that flows through it. If water flows through this pipe in one direction, it expands (becoming less resistive). But send the water in the opposite direction and the pipe shrinks (becoming more resistive).
Further, the memristor remembers its diameter when water last went through. Turn off the flow and the diameter of the pipe "freezes" until the water is turned back on. That freezing property suits m
Re: (Score:2)
Hmm, could a Tesla Valve that somehow changed geometry fit the bill here?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Remarkable transparency... (Score:1)
On a simple read, the article's phrasing would suggest graphene is very transparent. However, graphene is an exceedingly opaque substance. It's"remarkable transparancy" is remarkable primarily because it's really not very transparent at all.
That 'transmits 98% of light' is what happens when sending light through just a single-atom-thick layer of graphene.
Photo of single atomic layer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Graph
Excellent! (Score:2)
I've been waiting for these.
Finally we can unify the segnemted nature of computer memory (storage and working memory become one). This paves the way for devices that can literally be turned off for years, in the middle of running a program, and years later be awakened as if nothing happened, continuing from where they left off. No need for all that mucking about with saving RAM to disc etc, your RAM is your disc, and vice versa.
Then these will help replace flash, which I consider a stop-gap technology, wa