HP and the Memristor is a good PR story. Unfortunately there is not too much beef behind it.
The Memristor is actually the same as an RRAM element (Resistive Random Access Memory). Companies other than HP have started working on it long before and are significantly ahead. For example Micron recently presented a multi-gigabit prototype chip. But there is still a lot to be done. HP lacks the funds, manpower and manufacturing muscle to really get anywhere in this area.
> HP lacks the funds, manpower and manufacturing muscle to really get anywhere in this area.
They might lack the political will, but HP has ~$15B cash on its balance sheet, 350k employees, and tens of billions in fixed assets.
They have money, but not the semiconductor expertise, assets or experience of an Intel. See this explanation forvwhy that matters: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7922277
>Secondly, having worked for semi: there's a lot of conservative force holding back development. We could have had current tech with much less worries than we have now if they didn't respond so allergically to everything that looks a little exotic in the CMOS process, like high-k dielectrics.
Such as? Getting new materials into manufacturing is only the last step. Before that there has to be a significant benefit of doing it. And yes, that is usually benchmarked against risks and capex.
Re:Will 7nm And 5nm Really Happen?
by sliverstorm on Friday June 20, 2014 @11:10AM
(#7921008)
They respond allergically to everything that looks a little exotic because the costs of failure are colossal, and I would bet money that conservatism has allowed the industry to dodge more than a few bullets you haven't heard about. High-k just happens to be one of the things that worked out in the end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKGhvKyjgLY
Seriously, watch it. Memristor-tech relies on this kind of miniaturization and can provide a speed boost in several areas in current architectures.
Secondly, having worked for semi: there's a lot of conservative force holding back development. We could have had current tech with much less worries than we have now if they didn't respond so allergically to everything that looks a little exotic in the CMOS process, like high-k dielectrics.