IBM's "The Machine" Is Pushing Into Photonic Computing - Memristor Commercialization? - Polidicks

[video=youtube;JzbMSR9vA-c]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzbMSR9vA-c[/video] [QUOTE]HP has unveiled a new machine that has the potential to revolutionise computing and cope with the massive amounts of data generated by mobile devices and the Internet of things (a network composed of household appliances, cars, vending machines and many other devices). The Machine is designed to cope with tonnes of information by using clusters of special-purpose cores that are more efficient than generalised cores. It is wired with [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photonics"]photonics[/URL] instead of copper wires, meaning it consumes 80 times less energy and is much faster. According to HP, it can handle 160 petabytes of data in 250 nanoseconds. The Machine is six times more powerful than existing servers. However, the first models powered by this technology won’t be commercially available until 2018.[/QUOTE][URL="http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/184165-hp-bets-it-all-on-the-machine-a-new-computer-architecture-based-on-memristors-and-silicon-photonics"] Main Article[/URL] [URL="http://sciencealert.com.au/news/20141506-25678.html"]Conference[/URL] [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memristor"]Memristors[/URL] Memristors have only recently been brought closer to the engineer's workstation from the laboratory, but in a nutshell they bridge the gap to photonics since they are a type of electronic component that relates Magnetic Flux to Electric Charge (Resistors relate Voltage to Current, Caps: Charge to Voltage, Inductors: Current to Magnetic Flux). [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memristor#Background"]Electronic Symmetry[/URL]

Holy fuck. The future is looking very bright.

Yay more evidence to support Moore's law

Man, looks like computers are gonna get a fair knock more powerful and less power-hungry, it seems. So presumably by 2020 when Generation 9 gaming consoles are a thing, they'll have memristors in their architecture.

that guy had a nice rack

[QUOTE] it consumes 80 times less energy and is much faster. According to HP, it can handle 160 petabytes of data in 250 nanoseconds.[/QUOTE] Nice.

4 years can't pass fast enough. But considering we only have so much sand in the glass, it's better to wait it out rather than wish it away before we realise our mistakes.

[QUOTE=MajorMattem;45126093]Holy fuck. The future is looking very bright.[/QUOTE] "The Future Is Now" Never will I grow tired of using this phrase.

[QUOTE=ironman17;45126305] So presumably by 2020 when Generation 9 gaming consoles are a thing, they'll have memristors in their architecture.[/QUOTE] Considering the lag in console technology compared to PC technology, i doubt gaming consoles will have this technology immediately as soon as its released for PC platforms. Maybe 2025 - 2030, whenever that generation is due for an upgrade. The current generation of consoles have roughly 4 year old equivalent technology in them.

[QUOTE=ironman17;45126305] So presumably by 2020 when Generation 9 gaming consoles are a thing, they'll have memristors in their architecture.[/QUOTE] That's pretty optimistic dude. More like 2028 if we're lucky.

[QUOTE=Bradyns;45126333] [quote]it consumes 80 times less energy and is much faster. According to HP, it can handle 160 petabytes of data in 250 nanoseconds.[/quote] Nice.[/QUOTE] At this rate, I will never run out of room to save porn. I will become unstoppable!

[QUOTE=Sam Za Nemesis;45128133]I've just finished watching everything, the future is incredibly bright[/QUOTE] everything eh?

Less power usage generally means less heat output so it'll be interesting to see how mobile devices will benefit from this

-snip-

"The Machine" I can't help but think of Person of Interest :v:

[QUOTE=Saxon;45128711]"The Machine" I can't help but think of Person of Interest :v:[/QUOTE] it reminded me of this [video=youtube;D3kLl9atj0Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3kLl9atj0Y[/video]

this 2010 presentation about memristors from HP labs is probably also worth watching [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKGhvKyjgLY[/media]

so basically they managed to get a hard drive to reach speeds which would allow for it to function as the processor cache, RAM and hard drive at the same time, right? Meaning software would just use as much "RAM" as it needs only limited by the free space on the hard drive. Imagine 50GBs of a hard drive used as video memory

So will this be the next step in commercial PC's?

i've been waiting for memristors since 2008 don't dissappoint HP

Meg (the woman at the end) said 'drowneding' I'm out

[QUOTE=sambooo;45130446]Meg (the woman at the end) said 'drowneding' I'm out[/QUOTE] thanks for playing

this is incredible. also why does the title say IBM if this is HP?

[QUOTE=Mitsudigi;45128340]Less power usage generally means less heat output so it'll be interesting to see how mobile devices will benefit from this[/QUOTE] An optical computer operates on a different set of principles than an electronic computer so comparing the power usage between the two and trying to draw conclusions on heat is like comparing apples and oranges. It just so happens that in this case there would be a hell of a lot less heat generated, but not for the reasons you'd apply to an electronic computer. A photon computer drawing MORE power than an electronic computer would probably still produce less heat than the electronic computer.

[QUOTE=DOG-GY;45130578]this is incredible. also why does the title say IBM if this is HP?[/QUOTE] Mistype on my part.

[QUOTE=cody8295;45126246]Yay more evidence to support Moore's law[/QUOTE] Moore's "law" is a self-fulfilling prophecy that semiconductor manufacturers regard as a target that they should try and beat, rather than an actual law of electronics. Moore noticed a trend with transistor scaling and decided to extrapolate that trend without considering that that MOS transistors weren't infinitely scalable (see: quantum tunnelling, increased gate capacitance, voltage leaking, etc), but, because the guy was the co-founder of Intel and we hadn't made transistors small enough for the scaling-induced problems to become apparent, everyone took it as gospel.