May 05

Samsung’s PRAM chips hit mass production in June

Posted in: flash, memory, samsung, Today's Chili

Mark your calendars, memory enthusiasts, for the date you’ve all been waiting for. Samsung’s phase change RAM will go into mass production starting in June. The PRAM chips — not to be confused with paramter RAM, often what you curse / reset if you’ve got a Mac on the fritz — can rewrite data without having to erase what’s already on there first. The company’s still boasting it’s 30x faster and has 10x the lifespan of traditional flash memory. You want to know what gadgets and gizmos will first use these chips? Us too, but we’re all gonna have to wait because Sammy’s not talking yet.

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Samsung’s PRAM chips hit mass production in June originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 May 2009 21:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 09

Apple Reportedly Buys 100 million 8G Flash Chips

Posted in: Apple, iPhone, memory, samsung, Today's Chili

When Apple goes on a memory buying binge, the tech world sits up ad takes notice. The company has reportedly ordered some 100 million 8Gb NAND flash chips, primarily from Samsung. The ginormous order is expected by some analysts to cause something of a shortage, with added demand from companies like Nokia and Sony.

The timing of the order, of course, points to the anticipated release of new iPhone models this summer. But why such a large order? After all, at a maximum capacity of 16GB, that’s an awful lot of handsets, right? Even for one as popular as the iPhone. Of course, no would be too shocked if the next iteration of the handset were bumped up to, say, 32GB…

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Apr 08

Neuroscientists in Brooklyn successfully erase memories with drugs

Posted in: memory, research, Today's Chili

Researchers at SUNY Downstate Medical Center have apparently been tinkering with selectively erasing the memories of rats with a mysterious drug they call ZIP. In the trial, mice who had learned to avoid an electrified area of their cage, once injected with ZIP, appeared to have forgotten about the electrification, and ceased to avoid the area. They have also successfully made the rats forgot about their distaste for a substance that had previously made them sick. Dr. Todd Sacktor, head of the project, believes that the drug may be used in humans one day, and that it may also help enhance memories as well. We don’t really have any specific info about the drug itself, or how it works, so until then… we’ll just have to keep hoping that the lyrics to Use Your Illusion II fade on their own.

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Neuroscientists in Brooklyn successfully erase memories with drugs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 26

MacBooks Get a Memory Boost

Posted in: macbook pro, memory, Today's Chili

MacMemory.jpg

Owning a 15-inch MacBook Pro doesn’t mean settling for less memory than the 17-inch can handle. Not anymore, and not if you’ve got deep pockets.

Apple now offers an 8.0GB memory upgrade kit for mid- and high-end 15-inch MacBook Pros. The kit includes two 4GB modules and costs a big $1,200. At that price it’s not for everyone, but it should satisfy power users who prefer a smaller laptop yet don’t want to compromise on speed or performance.

The upgrade kit is available for the 2.66-GHz ($2499) and 2.93-GHz ($2799) 15-inch MacBook Pro models, both of which ship with 4GB of RAM and no RAM upgrade option.

By the way, this comes with free shipping, so that’s something.

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Feb 25

DDR3 shootout pits OCZ, Kingston and Corsair against one another

Posted in: CoreI7, intel, memory, review, roundup, storage, Today's Chili

DDR3 modules aren’t exactly new or anything, but given just how low the prices of big time kits have become, we figured it prudent to pass along one of the most thorough shootouts on the subject that we’ve seen. HotHardware grabbed a few DIMMs from the labs of OCZ Technology, Corsair and Kingston, threw ’em all in a Core i7 rig (not simultaneously, silly!) and benchmarked the lot until they literally fell asleep at the keys. The results? We’d love to tell you which sticks came out atop the pile, but that would just be spoiling the fun for you, now wouldn’t it? Give the read link a look if you’re ready for the action.

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DDR3 shootout pits OCZ, Kingston and Corsair against one another originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 23

SanDisk Introduces New, Faster Memory Card Readers

Posted in: memory, Today's Chili, usb

ImageMate-Readers.gif

SanDisk released today its new ImageMate memory card readers: The ImageMate All-In-One and the ImageMate Multi-Card. ImageMate will offer users faster data transfer rates, and a smaller, sleeker body than prior SanDisk readers.

One of the nice features of the ImageMate readers is the inclusion of a Transfer button that automatically launches a user-defined application or Web site, eliminating the tedious old drag-and-drop method. For example, you can designate an application or account, such as Adobe Photoshop or your flickr.com account, and with a click of the Transfer button, open the program and transfer or edit photos.

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Feb 23

Dell’s Mini 10 comes with any amount of RAM you want, so long as it’s 1GB

Posted in: memory, netbook, Today's Chili
Dell's Mini 10 comes with any amount of RAM you want, so long as it's 1GB

The case of the Mini 10 just gets curiouser and curiouser. The company finally acknowledged the red-lidded QVC stepchild on its site just last week, but before that quietly mentioned an interesting bit of information on its official blog: the 1GB of memory figure that seemed like just a start is actually the end, too. The RAM in the first batch (or possibly batches) of Mini 10 models will be non-upgradable, and while we don’t know why a company that built itself on allowing people to customize computers would prevent them from upgrading their netbooks, we are sure this won’t be a popular move. Additionally, the first Mini 10s will all be running XP, though Ubuntu will be coming, as well as an optional 720P display and even a TV tuner. That all sounds fantastic, but after waiting through all this is anyone going to wait longer still for a proper-spec’d machine?

[Thanks, Eric]

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Dell’s Mini 10 comes with any amount of RAM you want, so long as it’s 1GB originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Feb 2009 10:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 18

Cheap Geek: Sandisk Sansa, Kingston SDHC Card, Philips Home Theater

Posted in: memory, mp3 player, philips, sale, Today's Chili

Quick, while your boss isn’t looking! Check out Gearlog’s deals for Wednesday, February 18:

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1. Listen to your tunes on a tight budget with the Sandisk 2GB Sansa C250. It’s just $15.99 from eCOST.com. The MP3 player is normally $99.99, so this is quite a steal. The deal ends tomorrow at 2 p.m.

2. Buy.com is selling the Kingston 8GB Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) Card for only $14.99. You’re saving 80 percent off the original price of $76, and you can get it with free shipping. The offer’s ending is unknown.

3. Get the Philips SoundBar DVD Home Theater with Ambisound for just $229.99 from sellout.woot.com. The speaker system normally ranges in price from $389 to $599. Not only does the theater system have speakers, but it also plays DVDs in a hidden compartment.

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Feb 13

Samsung begins production of 50nm GDDR5 memory

Posted in: memory, samsung, Today's Chili

It’s still a little ways away from actually landing in some graphics cards, but Samsung has announced that it has begun mass production of its new 50nm GDDR5 memory, which promises to support a maximum data transfer speed of 7.0 gigabits per second and boast a maximum bandwidth of 28 gigabytes per second. What’s more, according to Samsung, the shift to a 50nm manufacturing process also increases production efficiency by a full 100 percent, and allows the memory to operate at 1.35 volts, which is a 20 percent reduction compared to current GDDR4 memory. From the looks of it, however, manufacturers will have to make do with a 32Megabit x 32 configuration (also configurable as a 64Mb x 16 device) initially, although Samsung says it plans to expand the 50nm process throughout its graphics memory line-up by the end of the year.

[Thanks, Shattered Ice]

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Samsung begins production of 50nm GDDR5 memory originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 09

Toshiba makes progress on FeRAM, still no tangible product in sight

Posted in: korea, memory, prototype, Today's Chili, Toshiba

Phew. For a moment year or so there we reckoned that amazing FeRAM discovery had been pushed aside and forgotten entirely. Thankfully, Toshiba has picked up the ball and refined the original chainFeRAM architecture by creating a new architecture that prevents cell signal degradation — which, as you may or may not know, is the usual tradeoff from chip scaling. In essence, this has allowed the company to design the world’s highest bandwidth, highest density (128-megabit) non-volatile RAM. Unfortunately, this amazing device — which should realize read / write speeds of 1.6 gigabytes a second and combine the fast operating characteristics of DRAM with flash memory’s ability to retain data while powered off — is still in prototype form, which probably means we’re months (if not years) away from actually seeing a tangible end product hit store shelves.

[Via AkihabaraNews]

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Toshiba makes progress on FeRAM, still no tangible product in sight originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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