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With 'The Machine,' HP May Have Invented a New Kind of Computer

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Re: With 'The Machine,' HP May Have Invented a New Kind of Computer

#41

Post by bkurtz13 »

sp332 wrote: post #23
cliveowen wrote: post #8

I so much want this to be true, I can't wait for it. Not having a layered memory architecture means no VM, everything has be rethought from the filesystem down. On a related note: "Operating systems have not been taught what to do with all of this memory, and HP will have to get very creative." Anyone knows what this could possibly mean?

Well, you wouldn't have to save files. You could just use a data structure in main memory because it's non-volatile. But how would you share data between programs when there's no disk? And you could execute binaries directly from storage without "loading" them into memory first. But you'd have to keep an original copy somewhere in case it modifies itself as it runs.

Some kind of git-like diff-based snapshot system for programs?

Re: With 'The Machine,' HP May Have Invented a New Kind of Computer

#42

Post by panabee »

valarauca1 wrote: post #13

A memristor is the 4th fundamental circuit component, along with capacitors, resistors, and inductors. The important part of memristors is that they can be arranged to form a crossbar latch, which acts like a transistor. This crossbar latches are very very small, and very low power. HP plans on achieving data density of 100GB/cm^2 [1] with read write speeds approximately 100x faster then flash memory while using 1% o…

how many years away until you expect the technology to hit markets?

Re: With 'The Machine,' HP May Have Invented a New Kind of Computer

#43

Post by hderms »

sp332 wrote: post #23
cliveowen wrote: post #8

I so much want this to be true, I can't wait for it. Not having a layered memory architecture means no VM, everything has be rethought from the filesystem down. On a related note: "Operating systems have not been taught what to do with all of this memory, and HP will have to get very creative." Anyone knows what this could possibly mean?

Well, you wouldn't have to save files. You could just use a data structure in main memory because it's non-volatile. But how would you share data between programs when there's no disk? And you could execute binaries directly from storage without "loading" them into memory first. But you'd have to keep an original copy somewhere in case it modifies itself as it runs.

I mean, there should still be a need for both the data and code sections of a program. Similarly, some kind of tree-like structure for naming "files" locations (for interprocess communication). I would imagine, at least in the early days of some diskless architecture, we'd have something that looks very similar to how computing is currently done but in one memory space.

Re: With 'The Machine,' HP May Have Invented a New Kind of Computer

#44

Post by hderms »

markbnj wrote: post #38
sp332 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you wouldn't have to save files. You could just use a data structure in main memory because it's non-volatile. But how would you share data between programs when there's no disk? And you could execute binaries directly from storage without "loading" them into memory first. But you'd have to keep an original copy somewhere in case it modifies itself as it runs.

You'd probably still have memory partitioned into persistent areas and runtime heap of a sort, and you might very well continue to use the file system metaphor because it still makes sense to humans. Whether a file is bits on magnetic disk, in flash memory, or fast persistent RAM isn't all that meaningful to the user. As for sharing, I don't see why this would be an issue. If you have to move memory contents between…

Took the words right out of my mouth (better said, of course).

Re: With 'The Machine,' HP May Have Invented a New Kind of Computer

#47

Post by jacquesm »

valarauca1 wrote: post #32
jacquesm wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This technology has been in R&D for nearly a decade. I figure it pretty mature. Funny, I read that the exact opposite way. If it was mature we'd be seeing products.

>Martin Fink, the chief technology officer and head of HP Labs, who is expected to unveil HP’s plans at a conference Wednesday.

Plans are not products, but let's wait and see before we get all happy.

Re: With 'The Machine,' HP May Have Invented a New Kind of Computer

#48

Post by tedsanders »

achille wrote: post #4

I encourage folks to watch this tech talk by HP Research Labs on the discovery of the memristor and implementation details. It goes into the gory technical details, from the low level physics to the construction of the gates, the truth tables, and the high level computation possibilities once chips are assembled in a crossbar package. > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKGhvKyjgLY

Thanks very much for sharing this video. Despite having a background in electrical engineering and device physics, I've never really understood what a memristor was until watching this.

Re: With 'The Machine,' HP May Have Invented a New Kind of Computer

#49

Post by sp332 »

markbnj wrote: post #38
sp332 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you wouldn't have to save files. You could just use a data structure in main memory because it's non-volatile. But how would you share data between programs when there's no disk? And you could execute binaries directly from storage without "loading" them into memory first. But you'd have to keep an original copy somewhere in case it modifies itself as it runs.

You'd probably still have memory partitioned into persistent areas and runtime heap of a sort, and you might very well continue to use the file system metaphor because it still makes sense to humans. Whether a file is bits on magnetic disk, in flash memory, or fast persistent RAM isn't all that meaningful to the user. As for sharing, I don't see why this would be an issue. If you have to move memory contents between…

Filesystem semantics are a bottleneck. Fusion IO had to get rid of them when they demoed their billion-IOPS platform last year. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3434711

For communicating data between programs, would you create a filesystem object that points to memory inside your program, or what?

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