HP: Memristors on the Shelves in Maybe Three Years

"Making computer memory work like the human brain"
John D. Sutter, CNN (August 31, 2010)

"How do computers remember things?

"It's something most of us never think about. But you may start to take notice if HP Labs is successful in commercializing a new version of computer memory, which would make our electronics dramatically faster and more energy efficient.

"The technology is called memristor, and it is designed to work more like our brains and less like the electronic on and off switches that run computer memory now.

" 'The memristor has properties very similar to synapses in a brain,' said Stan Williams, a senior fellow at HP Labs, which has been working on this technology since 1998.

"Unlike conventional computer memory, which stores data with electronic on and off switches, Hewlett-Packard's memristor technology works on the atomic level. As electrons move across a titanium dioxide memristor chip, they nudge atoms ever so slightly, sometimes no more than a nanometer...."

That means that memristors can be smaller than their contemporary equivalents, run faster and use less energy. All of which make for smaller, more powerful, more energy-efficient - and faster - computers.

According to the CNN article, memristor technology should be on the shelves in about three years.

John D. Sutter mentions other new(ish) technologies, like Intel's phase-change memory, that uses crystal glass. (Glass isn't normally crystalline. It's more of a supercooled liquid. And that's another topic.)

Related posts:

• "More About the Marvelous Memristor"
  (May 1, 2008)
• "Memristor: Cool New Technology from HP Labs"
  (April 30, 2008)

More:

• "The Future: Just Like Today, Only Different"

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A tip of the hat to CNN_Networks, on Twitter, for the heads-up on their article.

The BBG: Brooklyn's Botanic Garden

Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Most folks have heard of the BBC - British Broadcasting Company, England's official media outlet.

The Lemming's guess is that not so many have heard of the BBG - Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

From the BBG's "About" page:

"A century ago, Brooklyn Botanic Garden's founders had the vision to transform a city ash heap into a premier botanic garden in the heart of the borough. Since the Garden first opened its gates to the public, it has been a vibrant place for education, research, world-class horticulture, and sanctuary...."


(from Brooklyn Botanic Garden, used w/o permission)
"Magnolia Plaza. Photo by Medi Blum."

For folks who aren't near Brooklyn, the website has a selection of photos. The Lemming may want to revisit that page in a few months, when central Minnesota's frozen over. It gets cold in Brooklyn, too, by the way: two of the photos show winter scenes.

Commercial Flight to Mars: Maybe, in 15 Years or So

"Will a Commercial Flight be First To Mars?"
Ray Villard, Analysis, Space News, Discovery News (August 18, 2010)

"Both President Obama and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden have expressed optimism about seeing a manned Mars landing happen within their lifetime.

"The way to finally get to Mars may be to fly the friendly skies aboard a commercial spaceliner (luggage and food costs extra) and, for the first time, a private aerospace contractor is setting their sights on the Red Planet. Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) recently unveiled a long-range plan that would evolve their rocket booster fleet up to Saturn V class heavy lifters.

"SpaceX's biggest rocket so far is the Falcon 9 that can put a 12-ton payload into low Earth orbit. But SpaceX is envisioning a booster development program culminating in the Falcon XX, a 300 foot-high behemoth that could hoist a whopping 155 tons into low Earth orbit...."

"...What I find the most exciting about SpaceX's plans is that they are going back to the future. Back in the 1960s the U.S. tested nuclear rockets under the highly successful NERVA (Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application) program between NASA and the Atomic Energy Commission. If the Nixon administration hadn't killed the R&D effort in 1970, we could be walking on Mars today...."

I'm inclined to agree with Ray Villard: SpaceX's approach to space transportation, from low Earth orbit to interplanetary expeditions, is very promising. What I don't know is how the usual crowd of (technophobes?) will react when word gets around that someone's thinking of using nuclear power in spaceships.

Maybe lessons learned in the 1954 movie "Godzilla" are fading: "The Atomic Space Bug" (1999) doesn't exactly take mysterious dangers of atomic stuff seriously.

There's a quick look at SpaceX's existing fleet and the company's plans: and a short description of how a NERVA rocket works.

The Lemming's take on the safety of rocket engines powered by nuclear reactors? Crash - or even a hard landing - of a nuclear-powered vehicle that's used for passenger and freight runs between Earth's surface and orbit could make a very serious mess.

Atomic shuttles don't seem like a good idea to me.

Risking one flight from Earth's surface to orbit - and then using the nuclear rocket engine in an interplanetary vehicle: A failure of the engine might be very bad news for the crew and passengers - but wouldn't spread dangerous debris here on Earth.

I'm glad to see that some folks are dusting off some of those old, promising, ideas and giving them a second look.

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More, in this blog:

• "Humanity in Space: The Next Few Decades"