Hasta La Gadget!

There’s something of a saying that you can only remember the things you try to forget, but if you’d prefer to hang on to those photographic moments from Thunder Mountain back in 1991, a gaggle of gurus from the Weizmann Institute of Science just might have the magic elixir you’ve been yearning for. According to a newly published study on long-term memory revitalization, Reut Shema and colleagues found that boosting the amount of PKMzeta could potentially help one recall memories that were on the brink of being forgotten. In testing, lowering the levels of PKMzeta caused rats to lose track of memories more quickly, but the zany part is that boosting levels on a specific day helped animals recall memories from days prior — days where they weren’t having PKMzeta jacked into their system. Heaven help our legal system should this ever get FDA approval for use in humans.

Enzyme found to make fading memories fresher, old wounds painful again originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Mar 2011 11:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Super Talent is living up to its name today with the release of the world’s “smallest and fastest” mini PCIe SSD. When we last took a look at the company’s mini PCIe offerings, they were rocking 40MBps reads and 15MBps writes, but with the release of the new CoreStore SSD line, these exceptional storage makers have destroyed those 2009 specs with speeds topping out at 350MBps and 80MBps. The speedy CoreStore MV measures a mere 30mm x 50.95mm, combines Marvell’s latest controller with DDR ONFi 2 flash, and is compatible with netbooks, notebooks, and other devices sporting a second gen mini-PCIe slot. Those devices working a standard PCIe slot can expect 350MBps reads and 220MBps writes with MV’s big brother, the CoreStore MP. Both drives come in 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB and should be available starting next month at an undisclosed price — though we figure true speed freaks will pay just about anything to get their fix. Jonesing for specs? Check out the source link below.

Super Talent debuts CoreStore MV, super small, super fast mini PCIe SSD originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 09:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel’s Sandy Bridge chipset hasn’t exactly had a flawless launch, but let’s move past that and take a look at how well it performs before it starts breaking. One of the improvements here is meant to be better memory performance, and The Tech Report ran a variety of sticks through the gamut to see what the benefits of high-cost, high-speed memory is versus the cheaper stuff. The results showed that, in the vast majority of cases, DDR3-1333MHz memory was barely outclassed by the DDR3-2133MHz stuff, exhibiting only a modest improvement in games, just a couple FPS at most. Lesson learned? Save your pennies — or go ahead and spend ’em elsewhere, like that new Thermaltake case.

Sandy Bridge memory performance tested, value of expensive top-shelf memory questioned originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Feb 2011 13:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Look, we get it, you want DRAM that behaves like flash, flash that behaves like DRAM, and everything in between — speedy computer memory that doesn’t lose its data when the power goes off, and lasts for years on end. Well, it looks there’s a new challenger about to enter that ring — double floating-gate field effect transistors, currently in prototype form at North Carolina State University. Whereas the single floating-gate variety is currently responsible for the flash memory in your USB keys and SSDs, the second floating gate lets bits of data stay in an active, ready state, but the computer can also apply a higher voltage to “freeze” them in place. Since the memory can switch between static and dynamic modes in a single cycle and the data never disappears in between, researchers imagine the new tech could lead to instant-on computers and power-saving techniques that shut down idle memory banks. That’s the consumer take, at least — find the technical deep dive at our more coverage link.

Scientists build double-floating-gate FET, believe it could revolutionize computer memory originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Jan 2011 13:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lexar. It’s Where Memory Matters. And it’s also the only game in town to introduce a Class 10 microSDHC card. For those currently using an Android phone with a user-accessible microSD slot, you’ve probably gritted your teeth on a number of occasions waiting for your current Class 2 or Class 4 card to catch up with your demands. It’s one of the downfalls to removable storage, but thankfully, the device you see above looks to us like a glistening solution. The 32GB Class 10 microSDHC card promises a minimum sustained write speed of 10MB per second and a read speed of nearly 20MB per second, which should all but eliminate any lag from loading up your favorite playlist. Lexar plans on shipping this guy with preloaded software to manage and sync stored images and videos, and speaking of shipping, it should be available right now on Amazon for $149.99.

Continue reading Lexar unveils 32GB Class 10 microSDHC card, quick-fingered Android users celebrate

Lexar unveils 32GB Class 10 microSDHC card, quick-fingered Android users celebrate originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Jan 2011 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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