A brand-new memory standard is being
developed that could fuse the best fea-
tures of today’s various types of memory
into a single technology. It’s called mag-
netoresistive random-access memory,
or MRAM for short, and will deliver light-
ning-fast speeds while being nonvola-
tile—when (and if) it comes to market.
The impetus for the new technology
is that the memory market is divided
into two camps, and neither is perfect.
There’s volatile memory, which we use in
our PCs (DDR 400, for example), which is
wicked fast but loses all its data when the
power goes off. There’s also nonvolatile
fl ash memory, which is used in devices
that need to retain data when the power’s
off, such as cellphones and USB keys.
The problem with nonvolatile memory
is that it’s incredibly slow, at least com-pared with the memory in our PCs. Flash
memory also degrades over time, and
has a fi nite lifespan.
Though MRAM will initially be used in
industrial applications, it might someday
replace the memory in PCs. This would
allow instantaneous booting and standby,
because the memory could retain infor-
mation when the power is off.Unified Flash Memory Standard
in the Works
New technology combines the speed of
DDR memory with the durability of flashMRAM is purported to be as fast as PC
memory (above), while being nonvolatile
like flash memory. Yummy.Get Ready to Wear
Your Motherboard
Those crazy cats at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison have developed
a fl exible PCB (printed circuit board),
which will open the door for mobos that
wrap around a computer case, or shirts
with CPUs in them.
The researchers developed the
capacity to literally shave the top layer
off a traditional PCB, removing it from
the substrate it’s built upon. This thin
layer is only a few hundred nanometers
thick. Though it’s too thin to be used as
a stand-alone PCB, it can be transferred
to a wide array of materials, including
glass, plastic, or other fl exible surfaces.
Even better, it can be fl ipped upside
down, and have a second fl exible PCB
attached to its backside—something
that’s impossible with today’s PCBs.
Researchers say they can stack many of
them on top of each other, creating a big
silicon sandwich.
The silicon used in this PCB is known
as “strained silicon,” which is what Intel
has used on all of its CPUs since the
introduction of its Prescott core.Nobody likes having to choose one
optical format over another, and it
seems Ricoh has developed a solu-
tion to please everyone—a disc drive
that reads everything, Blu-ray, HD-
DVD, DVD, and CD; the works! Even
more incredible is that Ricoh’s optical
component does it all with one laser
and one pickup.Blu-ray, HD-DVD
Drive on the Way
GOOGLING BECOMES OFFICIAL
Though Google is the name of a search engine,
and thus a noun, it’s also a verb—officially. In
the most recent
version of the
Merriam-
Webster
dictionary, the
word “google” is
listed as a verb, meaning: “To use the Google
search engine to obtain information on the
World Wide Web.” One other new addition to
the dictionary is the phrase “mouse potato”—
we know a few of those.DELL AND AMD, RUMOR
Rumors that Dell would sell AMD-based
desktops have appeared repeatedly over the
years, but with no substantiating evidence.
This month, however, there is a report in the
Commercial Times of China that Taiwanese
companies who supply Dell with parts have
received orders for desktop PCs using AMD
processors. Maybe this time it’s for real? We
doubt it, especially given the recent arrival of
Core 2 from Intel.WD GETS BIT
Western Digital has settled a class-action law-
suit over how it labels its hard drives’ capaci-
ties. The lawsuit claims WD is being deceptive,
as a 250GB drive’s capacity is a mere 231GB
after formatting. It’s an age-old problem: The
drive manufacturers use the decimal megabyte
(1,000,000 bytes) to describe drive capac-
ity, while Windows uses the binary system
(1,048,576 bytes) to describe it. This causes
a 7 percent discrepancy between the two
numbers. WD has ponied up a free version of
its Dantz backup software, worth $30, and will
warn consumers on future box labels about the
capacity issue.EPIC LASHES OUT
AT INTEL GRAPHICS
Epic Vice President Marc
Rein is mad at Intel for
selling motherboards with
crappy integrated graphics.
Intel sells so many mobos
with integrated graphics
that it’s the market-share leader in graphics
shipments. This is not good for gaming, says
Rein, since integrated graphics can’t run any
high-end PC games—notably Epic’s Unreal
Tournament 2007. Intel’s response is that it
“...has never positioned integrated graphics
for the hardcore gamer.”FUNSIZENEWS
quick start THE BEGINNING OF THE MAGAZINE, WHERE ARTICLES ARE SMALL
12 MAXIMUMPC october 2005