New nano-structured glass for imaging and recording
engadget.com
“Researchers at the University of Southampton used nano-structures to create millimeter-sized “monolithic glass space-variant polarization converters,which ultimately changes the way light travels through and is stored in glass. These ‘whirlpools’ of light data can be read like information stored in optical fibers… This new five dimensional approach is reusable, twenty times cheaper and more compact compared to old methods of microscopy using a spatial light modulator, making it a win-win.” Read more…
(source: University of South Hampton, via Engadget)
Superman's memory crystals may become reality in computers
Computers may soon be saving their data onto hard drives made of glass following research by British scientists who have developed a way of storing information similar to the “memory crystals” seen in the Superman films.
9:45AM BST 14 Aug 2011
Researchers at Southampton University used lasers to rearrange the atoms in pieces of glass, turning it into new type of computer memory.
They claim the glass memory is far more stable and resilient than current types of hard-drive memory, which have a limited lifespan of a couple of decades and are vulnerable to damage from high temperatures and moisture.
The glass memory can withstand temperatures of up to 1,800 degrees F, is unaffected by water and can last for thousands of years without losing information.
Information can be written, wiped and rewritten into the molecular structure of the glass using a laser, the scientists claim.
The process changes the way light travels through the glass, creating whirlpools of polarised light that can then be read in much the same way as data in optical fibres.
The glass memory has been compared to the “memory crystals” used in the Superman films, which contain recorded video and data saved by his parents that play back when inserted into a player in his fortress.
Martynas Beresna, lead researcher for the project at Southampton University’s optoelectronics research centre, said they can currently store the equivalent of a whole Blu-ray Disc – up to 50GB of data – on a piece of glass no bigger than a mobile phone screen.
He said: “We have developed this memory which means data can be stored on the glass and last forever. It could become a very stable and safe form of portable memory.
“It could be very useful for organisations with big archives. At the moment companies have to back up their archives every five to ten years because hard-drive memory has a relatively short lifespan.
“Museums who want to preserve information or places like the National Archives where they have huge numbers of documents, would really benefit.”
The recording process, which is done by focusing a laser to imprint tiny dots called “voxels” into the pure silica glass. the process makes the glass slightly opaque and polarises the light as it passes through. This can then be read using a optical detector.
The scientists, whose research is published in the scientific journal of Applied Physics Letters, are now working with a Lithuanian company Altechna to take the technology to market.
Tabletop particle accelerators
see more TDW Geeks
Five-Dimensional Computer Memory of the Day: Researchers at the University of Southampton, UK, have created a new type of five-dimensional computer memory based on nano-structured glass.
Millimeter-sized devices shape light passing through the glass, which can then be read “in much the same way as data in optical fibres,” according to the university’s press release. This new memory is cheaper and longer-lasting than previous methods of optical recording.
The implications of nano-structured glass go beyond computer memory, too. It can be used to improve the precision of laser-cutting, produce ultra high-res images, and potentially even create tabletop particle accelerators.
U of Southampton: casually slipping “tabletop particle accelerators” into press releases since 2011.
1999: Computer Memory: Breakthrough a Key to Quantum Computers http://astheysawit.com/18685-1999-computer-memory-breakthrough-a-key-to-quantum-computers.html
5 things to know about IBM's racetrack memory chip
www2.electronicproducts.comBreakthrough for IBM’s racetrack memory chip - we’re one step closer to replacing hard disk drives.
Anyone with some level of computer knowledge available to give me a couple tips on my laptop? It says its memory in HP_Recovery E: is low:
And I’ve tried a lot of things from online to help me out but I can’t get anything to work for me. I just want to play some Steam games on this bitch, but there’s no room, man. Just no room.
Message me or answer this if you know what to do?
My curious wading into computer memory
I get lots of interesting links while at work, sent from friends and coworkers, and I never have the time to read them while at work. They kind of just sit in a tab at the top of my browser, and some of them have been there for months. When I get home, work is the last thing I want to think about, and so by association, the interesting links I received fade into the black hole of my mind.
But there are certain things that I do want to learn about, so in an attempt to have the links persist into my personal life, I have documented them here in this tumblr post.
My latest curiosity has taken me into the realm of memory, of stacks and heaps. I slept through majority of these topics in school, so now I’m left with only a fuzzy impression of how they work.
And now that my full-time job is front-end web development, I rarely have to even concern myself with memory management. But on occasion, I’ll pause in my code and think, if I create these three instances of this object, what’s the impact of that on performance? And if these objects become large and plenty enough, will it crash my app? What’s the threshold at which my browser of choice will completely overtake my laptop’s memory? Highly unlikely occurrences with very low probability, but they’re fun musings.
So here I present, the first four links to satisfy my curiosity - that hopefully, by the end of, I can answer those questions above and a myriad more.
Stackoverflow: what and where are the stack and heap?
High Performance Networking in Google Chrome
PLEASE READ
so my computer has a major redirect virus! i cant log on to tumblr or anything, currently on my phone.
anyway is there a website i could privately upload all my music, pictures, ect like over 6MB
so i can just clear my computer?? I don’t have a flash drive sadly
please help! im desperate
