While Moore's Law for increasing computer chip transistor density won't go on for more than another 20 years it is still happening. Intel introduced 32 nanometer chips in 2009 and will introduce 22 nm chips in 2011. The New York Times reports on Rice University and Hewlett-Packard researchers who have developed 5 nanometer logic devices.
These chips store only 1,000 bits of data, but if the new technology fulfills the promise its inventors see, single chips that store as much as today’s highest capacity disk drives could be possible in five years. The new method involves filaments as thin as five nanometers in width — thinner than what the industry hopes to achieve by the end of the decade using standard techniques. The initial discovery was made by Jun Yao, a graduate researcher at Rice. Mr. Yao said he stumbled on the switch by accident.
Will spinning disk drive capacity grow fast enough to remain competitive? Or will solid state drives start replacing spinning disk drives for mass storage?
Handheld computers (mobile phones, music players, games, etc) benefit much more than desktop or even laptop PCs when memory becomes much smaller. But here's what I want to know: What are you going to store in your future cell phone's 4 terabyte memory chip?
| Share | | Randall Parker, 2010 September 01 11:26 PM Computing Hardware Advances |
Movies.
Phone book (lot's of friends :)
Naturally, anything it sees and hears. With a GPS built into it, you could ask it to replay the conversation you were having last time you ate at your favorite restaurant.
Come to think of it, they had such a device in John Ringo's A HYMN BEFORE BATTLE.
The 5nm level is four more generations out, which is about 12 to 16 years away. What I have read suggests that 2-3nm is probably the ultimate limit of transistor density. Assuming the Moore's Law progression, this puts the limits of computational density about 20 years away, around 2030. 3-D stacking will probably be developed by then as well.
"What are you going to store in your future cell phone's 4 terabyte memory chip?"
I'll record everything I see and hear in my daily activities.
Dunno but I can promise you that it will be filled.
Guys,
Sure, you can record your day. But who is going to view the recording? Perhaps one could record the last week or so in case you want to go back to recall something said to you. Then it could overwrite the week.
I can see much more selective recording of conversations with specific people.
I have a pretty big gay porn collection that this would be very useful for.
My complete medical history.
My latest 'honey-do' list
heh. and just how long will it take to transfer to and from that 4TB phone even a fraction of that data? Or will the phone come with all the music and video you might want and it just takes a key to unlock it.
you won't have a cell phone. You'll have a FacePhone or MePhone. Bluetooth in ear canal hearing aids (lyric), bone conduction microphone (sonitus) and wireless glasses/contact lenses with near ir/visible spectrum hi res webcam and much much more. You'll never forget another person's name again as your earphones will prompt you and your contact lenses will advise you. You will have a full tivo like replay, image feature extraction/detection/analysis and anything else you want. These of course are not new ideas, and there are many more you will come up with. The point is that this can be bought partially today and the whole thing within 7 years as a consumer product. Local storage for such a setup will become the equivalent of short term memory, while the backhaul component will have access to untold petabytes in real time.
David Gobel,
Given that the backhaul component will have such mind-boggling amounts of data what will be worth storing locally?
Also, what of what you mention will have the highest utility?
Purposes for local storage:
- Allow you go go to places where there's no WiFi or cellular network.
- Back-up against network failures and remote server failures. What do you really need to know that you do not want to risk not having?
- Secret stuff.
- Data that you can collect faster than you can upload it to a server. High res video fits this use case. But do we want to talk around holding our phone for hours pointing it where we are walking? Or do we want to put our phone in a pocket?
MikeT,
Locked buyable video: Good idea.
Wait till the government subpoenas your recordings.
Also, if you watch your life replayed in real time and record that, your life will become an infinite regression.