

Computer memory that can store about 1TB on device the size of a postage stamp - rpm4321
http://www.kurzweilai.net/rices-silicon-oxide-memories-catch-manufacturers-eye

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ghshephard
The Popular Science article referenced suggests we should start to see
products with RRAM coming out in 2015, and we should see existing flash
product supplanted by 2017.

Anybody in the Flash Memory Industry know if it's really that close?

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rasz_pl
Currently only HP has something that appears to be working, and they are
unwilling to be a commodity manufacturer. HP announced The Machine as the only
way to get your hands on a computer with memristors (someday, if/when tehy
finally ship it).

Basically HP knows they are sitting on something big, and so they want to
build whole mainframes based on it, like its 1970 again.

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jonahx
Wouldn't the consumer market be a bigger money maker for them? If not, do you
know why?

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rasz_pl
-razor thin margins outside of server room

-pride

-if they deliver, they could take over whole industry, at least for a few years, ala IBM 5150

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ChuckMcM
That is an interesting result, normally conduction paths in your dielectric
mean your capacitor is dead :-) I look forward to seeing the first commercial
implementations of this technology.

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hliyan
According to the original 2010 announcement (1), that's exactly why the
phenomenon went unexploited for so long:

“Most people, when they saw this effect, would say, ‘Oh, we had silicon-oxide
breakdown,’ and they throw it out,... It was just sitting there waiting to be
exploited.”

It's so simple it sounds too good to be true. Two terminals (not three),
dielectric in between. High voltage to write (create/destroy the conduction
path), low to read (at least the way I understood it). This thing can be
stacked in 3D without a problem.

(1) [http://news.rice.edu/2010/09/01/nanocrystal-conductors-
could...](http://news.rice.edu/2010/09/01/nanocrystal-conductors-could-lead-
to-massive-robust-3-d-storage/)

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dwshorowitz
if this actually does come to market in or around 2015, would it be feasible
to replace sql databases with blazing fast redis databases entirely?

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enjo
Or blazing fast sql databases? Those are two technologies solving rather
different problems, I'm not sure how the underlying storage is going to affect
things very much.

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dsugarman
Redis is so fast because it sits in memory, sql relies heavily on hard disk

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LesZedCB
Getting good relational DB schemas on REDIS is hard (read: not designed for
that). It's mostly for flat data.

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deeviant
Coming soon, in 10-15 years...

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manojlds
Color me excited when we have similar sized batteries that can power
smartphones for a week.

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oakwhiz
Or regular sized batteries that can power smartphones for a month.

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ghshephard
Or any battery that will last a full day on my damn iPhone.

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seanp2k2
OT, but I'd GLADLY trade 2-5mm of phone thickness for a longer-lasting
battery; one that can still make it through a long day of heavy usage in a
city with lots of interference to power over after the phone is a year old.

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ghshephard
That's kind of the idea behind the Mophie - it's ironic that Apple goes to all
the trouble to shave off some thickness, and as a result, everyone has to
connect huge honking plastic shells with spare batteries to them..

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hrktb
The point on apple pushing thinness is often put forward as pure design
decision, but I am more and more convinced the manufacturing costs might have
at least an equal part.

Battery is the same on every model, and bumping the battery amount would force
them to split the line in two models, which would need a separate fabrication
line just for the bigger model, or have a cheap one with the same amount of
battery, wich would significantly bump the entry model price.

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pilsetnieks
So how much is a postage stamp in terms of real size? Because I can think of
many different sizes. Also, 1TB is kind of vague, they should've given the
size in Libraries of Congress.

[https://xkcd.com/1257/](https://xkcd.com/1257/)

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pilsetnieks
Also, eight 128GB MicroSD cards are a large-ish postage stamp size, too.

