31–40 of 59 posts
Just a bit of context: MRAM exists as an IP for long time, but their promise to execute code directly from it didnt really pan out because of speed. So it competes against flash to store the code that is booted into SRAM and it loses there too because of mostly larger area
I think memristors are technically more closely related to ReRAM (RRAM) than to MRAM. Though ReRAM so far also just unsuccessfully competes against NAND flash.
Takes me back... There was significant hype around those things when they first managed to build them at scale (~15 years ago), because they were promising for low power, high density persistent storage and are also academically interesting: The "concept" of memristors was explored over 50 years ago (they are passive components that couple electrical charge and magnetical flux, just like a resistor does with current/…
Is that actually the case? Or have memristors just proven to be a 'boring' technology that's just quietly replaced other bits and pieces that we don't hear about? A bit like graphene was supposed to be this wonder material, and now it's found in the soles of trail and hiking boots.
I mean, that's not because graphene has become a routine part of our material repertoire. It has no reason to be in those things, does nothing, and is just marketing fuel. We may put "graphene" in things, but we are not much closer to using its interesting properties.
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Is that actually the case? Or have memristors just proven to be a 'boring' technology that's just quietly replaced other bits and pieces that we don't hear about? A bit like graphene was supposed to be this wonder material, and now it's found in the soles of trail and hiking boots.
> Or have memristors just proven to be a 'boring' technology that's just quietly replaced other bits and pieces that we don't hear about? As far as I know, they have no application apart from academic toy/reseearch subject right now. And you have to consider that there are a lot of niches for storage technology that they could have taken over (because there is a lot of tradeoffs to make, e.g. latency, bandwidth, pers…
> 460× less energy than digital computers The brain is running on 20W of power and it has the best LLM, the best robotics control unit, very good sensor integration and all the other exciting stuff which we* want** AIs to have. I'd rather have that than nuclear powerplants feeding data centers. * overreaching a bit ** also not really true for everyone
Nit: we take 20w of chemical energy not electrical one like computers, way worse efficiency compared to solar panels Id say
What's even more shocking is that conversion of food to energy period is ~90% efficient, which is crazy to me. The fact that you can burn food and measure the energy given off, and that's very close to how much energy you get from eating it- that's insane.
The efficiency of the human body is all over the place. Muscles are only ~30% efficient, and the rest is waste heat... but humans walk using orders of magnitude less power than any walking robot. As far as I know we have never made a powered walking machine that is 10% as efficient as a person. The only way we can beat it is with a carefully balanced, specially-lubricated pair of legs that is leaned downhill on a treadmill and powered by gravity.
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Nit: we take 20w of chemical energy not electrical one like computers, way worse efficiency compared to solar panels Id say
Actually, no! Producing ATP is ~30% efficient, which is much better than premium consumer solar panels. And while that heat is technically waste, even if it was more efficient we would still generate heat other ways just to keep warm. What's even more shocking is that conversion of food to energy period is ~90% efficient, which is crazy to me. The fact that you can burn food and measure the energy given off, and that…
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> Or have memristors just proven to be a 'boring' technology that's just quietly replaced other bits and pieces that we don't hear about? As far as I know, they have no application apart from academic toy/reseearch subject right now. And you have to consider that there are a lot of niches for storage technology that they could have taken over (because there is a lot of tradeoffs to make, e.g. latency, bandwidth, pers…
I'm under the impression Intel's 3D XPoint/Optane memory was based off the same process used for memristors.
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Nit: we take 20w of chemical energy not electrical one like computers, way worse efficiency compared to solar panels Id say
Actually, no! Producing ATP is ~30% efficient, which is much better than premium consumer solar panels. And while that heat is technically waste, even if it was more efficient we would still generate heat other ways just to keep warm. What's even more shocking is that conversion of food to energy period is ~90% efficient, which is crazy to me. The fact that you can burn food and measure the energy given off, and that…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually, no! Producing ATP is ~30% efficient, which is much better than premium consumer solar panels. And while that heat is technically waste, even if it was more efficient we would still generate heat other ways just to keep warm. What's even more shocking is that conversion of food to energy period is ~90% efficient, which is crazy to me. The fact that you can burn food and measure the energy given off, and that…
I'd wait until walking robots are commonplace before discounting our ability to make an efficient one. I don't think I've seen one in person yet.
Beating human locomotion in the general case is pretty far off. It's a combination of body plan, extreme optimization of joints and energy storage, and really good algorithms.
One killer feature of the human body is synovial fluid. It's very thin, non-newtonian, self-replenishing and contained in particularly low-friction bearing surfaces. It's certainly better than 99.9% of mechanical joints, because these surfaces filter, heal and re-lubricate themselves. Mechanical joints have sticky grease so they stay lubricated without maintenance, and work in the presence of water and grit. It's doubtful that any joint that doesn't heal itself can compete, long-term.
[1]: https://spectrum.ieee.org/durus-sri-ultra-efficient-humanoid...
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I'd wait until walking robots are commonplace before discounting our ability to make an efficient one. I don't think I've seen one in person yet.
I wouldn't. We have been trying[1]; humans are genuinely shocking in this way. Mechanical systems should have so many advantages over humans; springs are 10x better than tendons, motors are 3x better than muscles. It's possible humans evolved walking as a predatory tactic . Even if we develop a super-efficient walking robot, humans are efficient at several speeds, and keep that efficiency while varying their stride a…
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Actually, no! Producing ATP is ~30% efficient, which is much better than premium consumer solar panels. And while that heat is technically waste, even if it was more efficient we would still generate heat other ways just to keep warm. What's even more shocking is that conversion of food to energy period is ~90% efficient, which is crazy to me. The fact that you can burn food and measure the energy given off, and that…
To be fair, our food to energy conversion is so efficient because the foods we eat are already in a very energy ready state. Our bodies don't bother with stuff that is harder to convert.