Tech News Updates

The memristor ’s come a long way since being hypothesized back in 1971. If you ask HP Labs, the history of this particular memory technology didn’t hit its next milestone for almost four decades, when the company produced the very first memory resistor chip . Just last month, the Labs group proved its little transistor could handle logic and data storage , and as of today, the company’s announcing a joint development agreement with Hynix Semiconductor, with a goal of bringing these chips to the market — and rendering flash memory obsolete. That challenge against flash (not a very popular naming convention these days, it seems) was thrown down by HP Labs Senior Fellow Stan Williams, who posits that the memristor is “an universal memory that over a sufficient amount of time will replace flash, DRAM, magnetic hard disks, and possibly even SRAM.” But onto the immediate, albeit aspirational goal (i.e. not a commitment, which he stressed on multiple occasions): Williams hopes to see the transistors in consumer products by this time 2013, for approximately the price of what flash memory will be selling for at the time but with “at least twice the bit capacity.” He also claims a much smaller power requirement of “at least a factor of 10″ and an even faster operation speed, in addition to previously-discussed advantages like read / write endurance. With Hynix on board, the goal is to make these “drop-in replacements” for flash memory, whereby the same protocols and even the same connectors will work just fine. For HP, however, Williams says there’ll be an initial competitive advantage for the company due to its comfort level with memristors’ unique properties, but that other companies will be encouraged to license the technology and experiment with new possibilities in hardware design. Williams wouldn’t give any specific product examples where we might initially see the memristor, except to repeat that it’ll be anywhere and everywhere flash memory is. Fighting words, indeed. We normally don’t get excited about minute hardware components — not often, at least — but we gotta say, the seeds of the future look mighty interesting. Can’t wait to see what germinates. Highlights from our talk with Williams after the break. Gallery: HP Labs’ Memristor Milestones Continue reading HP Labs teams up with Hynix to manufacture memristors, plans assault on flash memory in 2013 HP Labs teams up with Hynix to manufacture memristors, plans assault on flash memory in 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

The RCA Studio II is already a pretty rare sight as is, but rarer still is a detailed look inside what’s been described as one of the worst game consoles of all time. Thankfully, the folks at iFixit have now come through once again, and followed up their dissection of the Magnavox Odyssey 100 with a teardown of the circa-1977 “Home TV Programmer.” In addition to an abundance of beige, the team also discovered a considerable amount of solder that’s characteristic of 70s electronics, and even a few surprises like some white chip packages that are rarely (if ever) used these days. Hit up the link below for the complete blow-by-blow, and keep en eye out for even more vintage gadget teardowns during the rest of the week. iFixit goes beige with RCA Studio II teardown originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

The more the merrier, right? Cutesy sayings aside, the world is gearing up to say “hello” to yet another player in the NAND flash memory market, as Japan’s own Elpida Memory (which currently specializes in DRAM) will be joining the fray in the coming months. Said outfit stated this week that it has entered into an alliance with Spansion (the former flash memory joint venture between Fujitsu and AMD), with Spansion licensing its NAND flash intellectual property to Elpida as part of the deal. If all goes to plan, Elpida will begin producing flash chips at its western Japan plant “as early as next year,” with some of the output being funneled directly to Spansion. ‘Course, with the explosion in smartphone popularity, it’s not shocking to see a DRAM stalwart looking for ways to dip its toes in that high-demand NAND stuff, and as consumers, you certainly won’t find us kvetching about the competition. Continue reading Elpida and Spansion move from ‘it’s complicated’ to ‘engaged,’ look to conquer NAND universe Elpida and Spansion move from ‘it’s complicated’ to ‘engaged,’ look to conquer NAND universe originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 24 Jul 2010 07:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Our Peter Cetera album collection isn’t exactly getting any larger, yet despite the progress of technology every time we get a new smartphone pulling over all those soothing hits never seems to get any faster. Even a fool can see laggy NAND flash memory is the culprit, and Samsung and Toshiba have a fix with a new DDR NAND flash standard. It offers 400Mbps transfer rates thanks to what they’re calling “toggle DDR 2.0,” similar to the tech in Samsung’s latest SSD , effectively boiling down to a 30nm asynchronous design that’s three times quicker than current DDR 1.0 NAND chips. Both companies are opening this standard for others, and hoping that their work will be the inspiration for faster devices and SSDs worldwide. Continue reading Samsung and Toshiba double-down on 400Mbps DDR 2.0 NAND flash memory standard Samsung and Toshiba double-down on 400Mbps DDR 2.0 NAND flash memory standard originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Jul 2010 05:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Leave it to Toshiba to make even the latest smartphones feel somewhat undernourished. Quadrupling the current high-end standard of 32GB of embedded memory, the Japanese company has announced an all-new 128GB slab of storage, built on a 32nm production process. It’s somehow managed to fit sixteen 8GB NAND chips, plus their controller, inside a 1.4mm tall structure, and samples are about to exit the factory doors this September. A 64GB variant will also be making an appearance, with both scheduled to enter mass production sometime during the fourth quarter. Should go pretty nicely with that 2GHz beastphone Moto is planning, don’t you think? Continue reading Toshiba cooks up 128GB NAND flash for next-gen phones and PMPs Toshiba cooks up 128GB NAND flash for next-gen phones and PMPs originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Jun 2010 04:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Say it ain’t so! OCZ Technology — a mainstay in the storage realm but an outfit that tends to serve the performance (read: affluent) market first and foremost — has just dove headfirst into the value-priced SSD segment. Debuting today, the Onyx SATA II 2.5-inch SSD is the company’s most affordable MLC-based solid state storage solution to date; it packs 64MB of onboard cache, up to 125MB/sec read speeds, write rates of 70MB/sec and an MSRP of under $100 for a 32GB version. You know that hasty boot drive you’ve been looking for? Look up. OCZ breaks into bargain market with ’sub-$100′ 32GB Onyx SSD originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Enthusiasts have had plenty to cheer about with the convergence of electronics and bicycling over the years, from bikes that pedal themselves to the various devices and apps that assist them with their training. And for those of us who just want to get from one place to another? Google Maps has added bicycling directions to its walking, car, and public transport options — with travel times calculated to include things like the number of hills and fatigue over time. But that ain’t all! The company has also partnered with Rails-to-Trails to provide information on bike trails in more than 150 cities. According to Google, thousands of miles of trails in the US have already been added to the map, with more to come. For the time being, however, only those planning trips in their home or office need apply: while available on the web, those using a Google Maps smartphone app are being excluded for the time being. So much for ” mobile first ,” guys. Video after the break. Continue reading Google Maps adds bicycle directions, turns out its nothing like ‘Quicksilver’ Google Maps adds bicycle directions, turns out its nothing like ‘Quicksilver’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Well, we’d already had a pretty clear indication that the HTC HD2 would be launching on T-Mobile on March 24th (or possibly the 23rd), and Laptop Magazine is now reporting that a ” very close T-Mobile source” has confirmed that the 24th is indeed the date, and that the phone will run $199 on a two-year contract (or $449 off-contract). The March 23rd date that recently cropped up is apparently just the day the MobiTV software will go live. Just as notably, Laptop also says that it has confirmed that the phone won’t be upgradeable to Windows Phone 7 Series — although, at this point, we’ll have to hear that first-hand to truly put an end to the speculation. Thankfully, that should happen in just a few days . HTC HD2 said to be launching March 24th for $199, no Windows Phone 7 support originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Corsair has kept quiet on the SSD front here recently, but it looks as if it’s about to ruffle a few feathers with two new laptop-centric drives. Fudzilla has dug up pricing information on two heretofore unreleased solid state drives from the company, with the 64GB / 128GB Nova and 60GB / 120GB Reactor both featuring the Indilinx Barefoot controller, MLC NAND and at least 64MB of cache. The Nova series is purportedly capable of hitting read speeds of up to 215MB/sec on both the V128 and V64, while write speeds are locked at 130MB/sec for the V64 and 195MB/sec for the V128. As for the Reactor range? Those feature 128MB of cache and a nice boost in transfer speeds, though the €151 ($206) starting tag doesn’t do much for bargain shoppers. Hit the source link for more details, but don’t get your hopes too high for a near-term release in the US. Corsair readying Nova and Reactor 2.5-inch SSDs for release originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

That faint sound you can hear right now is the approaching sonic boom of a new portable speedster. OCZ, already the proud patriarch of some pretty radical SSD varieties , has confirmed a new external drive that will hook up via the super speedy USB 3.0 interconnect (whose uncertain future we’ve discussed here ). It’s no secret that SSDs tend to get all choked up around current-gen USB or Firewire connections, so we always welcome forward-thinking new drives with open arms. OCZ is still in the process of crowdsourcing a name for its new product, so don’t look for specs just yet, but if there are any mysteries left by January, rest assured that CES 2010 will clear them all up. OCZ needs a name for USB 3.0 solid state drive originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink