Digital files stored and retrieved using DNA memory

[Bleipriester]

This is amazing!
Digital files stored and retrieved using DNA memory - physicsworld.com

 

[waltky]

Million year computer memory possible with quartz...

Quartz May Be Used to Store Memory for Millions of Years
July 11, 2013 > British scientists say they have discovered a method for storing and retrieving huge amounts of digital data that could last for over a million years.

Using extremely short and intense pulses of laser light, researchers at the University of Southampton assembled structures in fused quartz glass that can withstand temperatures up to 1000 degrees Celsius. The data, written in three layers of nanometer sized structured dots, can be read by an optical microscope with polarized lenses. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter.

An August 26, 1999 of a Japanese researcher showing a 200-gigabyte memory disc, jointly developed by National Institute for Advanced Interdisciplinary Research and Sharp Corp at the Japanese government's research center in Tsukuba,

Scientists say the new method opens the possibility of creating memory discs with an unprecedented memory capacity of up to 360 terabytes, with an almost unlimited lifetime. Present long-time digital storage capacity based on hard-drive memory storage has to be updated every five to ten years.

The new technology offers the possibility of preserving data forever. The discovery was presented at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, in San Jose, California.

Quartz May Be Used to Store Memory for Millions of Years

 

[waltky]

3-D memory on the horizon...

Toshiba, SanDisk to mass produce ‘3D’ memory chip
Thu, May 15, 2014 - Japan’s Toshiba Corp is teaming up with US chip giant SanDisk Corp to produce a “3D” memory chip they hope will allow users to save up to 50 hours of ultra-high-definition video.

In a deal worth a reported ￥500 billion (US$4.84 billion) the companies are to build a factory to make flash memory consisting of several layers of semiconductors stacked together to give as much as a terabyte — 1,000 gigabytes — of storage. That is about 16 times bigger than the largest 64-gigabyte Toshiba memory currently available in smartphones and tablet devices.

Toshiba will demolish its existing plant in Japan to build a new facility that will house production apparatus using technologies from both firms and which the firms hope will start operating in 2016, a statement said. “In about five years [from the planned start of the factory], we would like to produce one-terabyte products,” a Toshiba spokeswoman said. The plan comes at a time of increasing competition among the world’s technology firms to meet demand for ever-higher capacity memory chips for consumers increasingly using mobile devices such as smart phones, tablet computers and wearable gadgets.

The spread of high-definition video, with so-called 4K-resolution screens at the leading edge, is boosting demand for computing memory to store content. “Small, high-capacity memories can of course be applied to smartphones, but they could also be used for wearable devices,” the Toshiba spokeswoman said. Manufacturers have traditionally competed with regular chips by trying to make the physical object smaller.

Toshiba, along with major rivals such as Samsung, believe they are reaching the physical limit, and are shifting toward 3D memories, where layering — effectively a third dimension — is used to boost the capacity of objects the same size. “Our determination to develop advanced technologies underlines our commitment to respond to continued demand [for] flash memory,” Toshiba senior vice president Yasuo Naruke said in a statement. SanDisk president and chief executive Sanjay Mehrotra said the plant “will advance our leadership in memory technology into the 3D ... era.”

Toshiba, SanDisk to mass produce ?3D? memory chip - Taipei Times

 

[waltky]

New Memory Chips Emulate Human Brain; Browsing the Ad-Blocked Web...

Memory that learns could help tomorrow's intelligent computers
January 20th, 2016 - Knowm hopes its new memristors will lead to new types of computers

As researchers try to build more complex computers that get closer to emulating the way the human brain works, one of the areas of focus is memory. Existing chips, hard disks and tape drives are great at storing large amounts of data, but a new breed of memory chip called a memristor could go a step further: helping the artificial intelligence systems of tomorrow actually understand the data and make more use of it. Memristors could help computers connect the dots to identify diseases or help self-driving cars recognize objects based on probabilities and associations. Memristors are best used in machine-learning models to make predictions based on patterns and trends culled from large stacks of information, said Alex Nugent, CEO of Knowm.

Knowm is a New Mexico-based start-up and one of the companies working on memristor technology. Knowm's memristors are designed around human brains, in which a synapse that connects two neurons gets stronger the more often a signal is passed. Similarly, the learning and retention of information on Knowm memristor circuits are determined by data flow characteristics and the current. Knowm doesn't yet have a fully functional memristor chip. But it has introduced prototype test kits for researchers and academics on which its memristor design can be emulated. Knowm's test kit will include a chip with analog and digital circuits, software packages and algorithms.

Knowm's memristor module could lead to intelligent computers.​

Knowm's current memristor is a "learning processor" that works alongside CPUs, GPUs and other processors, Nugent said. The company is going up against some big competitors, including HP. HP plans to use them in a new type of computer called The Machine. It believes memristors could potentially replace both storage and memory in computers and is partnering with SanDisk to make the components. SanDisk says memristors could be 1,000 times faster and durable than flash storage.

Nugent believes memristors will lead to new computers that are better at learning and extracting intelligence from data patterns. Machine-learning is possible on today's computers, but it is not efficient and draws a lot of power, Nugent said. It could be many years until the first chips based on Knowm's architecture appear in commercial products. The startup is being funded through equity investment and government grant programs, and will receive more equity funding from an undisclosed partner in the coming months.

Memory that learns could help tomorrow's intelligent computers