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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

#131

Post by valarauca1 »

noobermin wrote: post #117
valarauca1 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bigger problem is telecoms won't sell any bandwidth. So everything will have to shared via sneaker net.

As in shuffing around our terabytes of "illicit" storage by hiding terabyte thumbdrives in our sneakers?

Well if we're still capped at say broadband speeds, just driving down the street with your 50TB cellphone doesn't seem like much of a loss.

Maybe we should allow net neutrality to fall, increase socialization as a result :-) lol.

:.:.:

Also no, sneaker net means a network transported by feet not wires. But I do like the joke, or I pray its a joke not a prophesy.

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

#132

Post by zentiggr »

jacquesm wrote: post #107
Someone wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

StreetView is a useful, if expensive to implement, addition to maps, and doesn't fit on a phone (yet)

StreetView is overkill to me, basic navigation is pretty much a must, even if you have no dataplan. But of course that's not the way smartphones are being marketed. I've been holding out from the smartphone revolution for quite a while now, but a phone that would do off-line navigation would be a good thing because that means one less thing to carry along. I don't like having services forced upon me when a single dow…

Check out MapsWithMe - OpenStreetMap packaged as a basic mapping app, paid pro package for more than basic mapping/location pointing. The OSM db is segmented by country/province/US state so you can tailor the size / coverage as desired.

Haven't looked at the pro pricing or feature list, just having maps that my off-network, GPS equipped old brick can use near home is sweet enough.

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

#133

Post by danielweber »

jawns wrote: post #33

For those of you who are unfamiliar with what a memristor is, as I was, HP has an easy-to-understand analogy on its FAQ page about memristors: "A common analogy for a resistor is a pipe that carries water. The water itself is analogous to electrical charge, the pressure at the input of the pipe is similar to voltage, and the rate of flow of the water through the pipe is like electrical current. Just as with an electr…

Are they teaching memristors in college these days as a fundamental component, or is it still too new?

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

#134

Post by yellowapple »

That's pretty awesome. Memristors are very promising for creating fast, high-density, non-volatile storage, and it's good to see that HP's seeing that in the midst of the solid-state flash memory craze and working on commercial applications for them.

What's also awesome is that - according to the article - HP plans on open-sourcing its custom "Machine OS"; rather refreshing coming from a company that's traditionally released its own operating systems under non-free licenses.

I'm not normally a fan of HP (aside from their printers), but seeing them go after this kind of stuff is certainly exciting.

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

#135

Post by noobermin »

vezzy-fnord wrote: post #123
noobermin wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think my argument is that we will find new things to store on our PC's similar to how we found new stuff to store on our PC's from the 90s till now. I guess it is hard to imagine, but let's dream a bit...one ridiculous possibility that I've thought about is consider something like google glass. Imagine recording every moment of your day from your smart phone, and not just when you wake up. Why would you do this? We…

Again, this is hard to imagine wanting to do especially for privacy reasons, but were things like facebook and twitter easy to imagine in the 80s? Much easier than the example you give, yes. Considering things like Xanadu were already theorized in the '60s, Facebook and Twitter wouldn't be that huge of a stretch. What's more, Usenet and BBSes already existed in the '80s, so there was a text-based glimpse of the futur…

I wasn't referring to technical aspects, I was referring to social aspects. I'll admit I wasn't born in the 80's, but even when I was a kid in the 90's, I couldn't imagine sharing my day-to-day interactions with 100's of people.

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

#136

Post by jacquesm »

zentiggr wrote: post #132
jacquesm wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

StreetView is overkill to me, basic navigation is pretty much a must, even if you have no dataplan. But of course that's not the way smartphones are being marketed. I've been holding out from the smartphone revolution for quite a while now, but a phone that would do off-line navigation would be a good thing because that means one less thing to carry along. I don't like having services forced upon me when a single dow…

Check out MapsWithMe - OpenStreetMap packaged as a basic mapping app, paid pro package for more than basic mapping/location pointing. The OSM db is segmented by country/province/US state so you can tailor the size / coverage as desired. Haven't looked at the pro pricing or feature list, just having maps that my off-network, GPS equipped old brick can use near home is sweet enough.

Thank you, I will!

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

#137

Post by danmaz74 »

jawns wrote: post #33

For those of you who are unfamiliar with what a memristor is, as I was, HP has an easy-to-understand analogy on its FAQ page about memristors: "A common analogy for a resistor is a pipe that carries water. The water itself is analogous to electrical charge, the pressure at the input of the pipe is similar to voltage, and the rate of flow of the water through the pipe is like electrical current. Just as with an electr…

I read this analogy and immediately started thinking how complicated it would be to use this effect if the diameter is always changing, every time you make your water flow.

Then I watched the video posted by achille [1]. If I understood the video correctly, the analogy should specify a fundamental thing: The diameter of the pipe only increases or decreases if the pressure differential is very high. You can make your water flow at low pressure without affecting the diameter in any measurable way. This should make using memristors practically much easier.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKGhvKyjgLY

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

#138

Post by yellowapple »

jacquesm wrote: post #91
zevyoura wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by integration; are you proposing that the mapping app contain the complete map data, which is then occasionally updated as needed? There's a clear advantage to not storing several GB of data you rarely if ever need on a device with very limited storage space.

Flash is a commodity, a typical navigation device will store all the maps for all of Europe including the most crazy little roads and cost a relatively small fraction of a cell phone, includes a good chunk of the hardware and comes with an SD slot for upgrades. Cell phones could easily provide navigation capabilities for at least the country of origin of the buyer and several around it if the creators decided this wa…

And this is all especially true if we start seeing memristor arrays replacing flash chips in mobile devices; at that point, the few GB it would take to store a worldwide transportation map would be pocket change.

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

#139

Post by Synaesthesia »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #120
Synaesthesia wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well only one pool of data, no more registers, cache, hard drives etc. The storage will live next to the logic. What's more, memristors can act was logic units as well as storage, and do it interchangeably.

So, the program doesn't just run on the silicon it modifies the processor, you can increase buffers, add registers, modify the arithmetic units to use different algos and such like using a FPGA that can be adapted on the fly? You could execute a program by running it in place rather than streaming commands to a processing unit?!

In theory, yes, in addition it can also simulate neural networks natively. All kinds of new possibilities.

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

#140

Post by Synaesthesia »

panabee wrote: post #42
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?

Impossible to predict, but it seems we are getting the fabrication down.
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