

Fab plants are now making superfast carbon nanotube memory - empy
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2929471/emerging-technology/fab-plants-are-now-making-superfast-carbon-nanotube-memory.html

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Animats
The article appears to be a rehash of this Nantero press release:[1] That says
"Signaling a new era in memory, Nantero’s NRAM has already been installed in
multiple production fabs..."

This technology has been around for a while. Lockheed Martin built a 4MB NRAM
back in 2008, and sent it up with a memory tester on a Space Shuttle flight in
2009.[2] That was done in conjunction with Nantero; they had an arrangement
for government products. The technology is inherently rad-hard, so it's useful
for space operations.

This technology has been two years from volume production since 2008.[3] It's
not clear why it hasn't reached production yet. It clearly works. It may just
cost too much.

[1] [http://nantero.com/nantero-closes-30m-series-e-round-its-
nex...](http://nantero.com/nantero-closes-30m-series-e-round-its-next-
generation-memory-nram-now-installed-in-multiple-production-fabs-around-the-
world/) [2]
[http://www.nsti.org/events/NNI/sld/pdf/65.pdf](http://www.nsti.org/events/NNI/sld/pdf/65.pdf)
[3] [http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-
talk/semiconductors/devices/na...](http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-
talk/semiconductors/devices/nantero_sells_business_unit_to)

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mark-r
It's being produced at 7 different fabs, but will still take 2 years for them
to "begin rolling off production lines"? Something doesn't add up.

~~~
Semiapies
From TFA: "They are sample chips/test chips in preparation for mass
production, which requires the product designs to be completed."

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sgt101
Is this bad news for HP - others will have access to something like/as good as
a memristor?

~~~
aidenn0
FWIW, this predates the memristor. There are several types of RAM all trying
to replace NAND and DRAM. It seems likely that one will win, with a couple
others for niche uses (IIRC MRAM is already favorable for some aerospace
applications due to its resistance to switching from cosmic rays).

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hellbanner
"Almost infinite number of write cycles" is the subtitle. Really now?

~~~
danmaz74
Inside the article: "According to Nantero, NRAM can withstand 10^12 write
cycles and 10^15 read cycles -- an almost infinite number."

~~~
rayiner
What's hilarious is calling 10^12 "almost infinite." Your CPU clock cycles
that often in 10 min.

~~~
prewett
You write to your RAM, or even more pertinently, your SSD, on every CPU clock
cycle?!

How many times _have_ you written to the same cell on your SSD? Current NAND
chips have a write cycle limitation of somewhere around 10^6. Apparently a
Taiwanese firm got it to 10^9 in 2012, but I'm guessing that hasn't arrived in
production yet. So they have raised the write cycle limit by somewhere between
1000 and 1,0000,000. If you're wearing out your SSD once a year (I'll assume
you are using it for swap or something), they've increased it to 1000 yrs.
That's pretty much the minimum. So "almost infinite" seems reasonable.

~~~
msandford
It's almost infinite by disk standards, but still fairly finite by RAM
standards.

The fastest DDR3 is PC3-17000 which has a write speed of 17000MB/s peak. Or
roughly 16GB/s.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR3_SDRAM](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR3_SDRAM)

Assuming that you re-write your entire RAM every second, that's 10^12 seconds
or about 32000 years.
[https://www.google.com/search?q=10%5E12%20seconds&rct=j](https://www.google.com/search?q=10%5E12%20seconds&rct=j)

But if you're writing to your RAM at a 10 microsecond interval (say you're
doing something like a firewall or HFT) and you keep re-using the same few
megs of RAM then instead of 32000 years it's more like 4 months.

So it's fantastic for "durable" storage, but definitely not as good as SRAM or
DRAM in general. The lifetime of SRAM and DRAM are both going to be based on
the lifetime of the silicon which is roughly related to the temperature of the
chip and the thermal migration of dopants. Hotter means more energy for
dopants to move, but generally measured in many years or decades.

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a1b2c3
See the last comment on that page about this being mechanical in nature.

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cordite
So, something akin to magnetic relays at the nanometer level?

I have a hard time believing the durability presented (especially with remarks
on how it might as well be an infinite number) for a process that involves
movement and contact points.

So, if it's been tested continually for 10 years, why are the fabrication
technologies behind? This sounds like marketing for vapor ware with as much
hype shoved between the specs.

~~~
schiffern
>I have a hard time believing the durability presented for a process that
involves movement and contact points.

Since the contact points are CNTs I would believe it. Only diamond has a
stronger lattice binding those carbon atoms.

