Technology @beehaw.org floofloof @lemmy.ca 1y ago

ULTRARAM will allow you to close your laptop, come back a thousand years later and pick up where you left off

www.techradar.com ULTRARAM will allow you to close your laptop, come back a thousand years later and pick up where you left off

Now we just need cryogenics

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We already had this, it's called Intel Optane Persistent Memory and Intel killed it off last year: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/docs/memory-storage/optane-persistent-memory/overview.html

The memory speed was slightly slower than DDR4 but the benefits didn't seem to outweigh the downsides. I think it probably kicked a lot of ass for specific use cases (eg. in-memory database that needs persistence), but the market was too small. Plus, SSDs are getting so ridiculously fast that it would put pressure on a product like this too.
Can’t wait for my ram to last 1000 years just for the hinge on my laptop screen to last 2 (guess what just broke on my laptop after 2 years)
- guess what just broke on my laptop after 2 years
  
  I'm guessing it was the floppy drive?
  
  The whole thing is floppy now.
  
  no, it was the power LED
  
  Nah. That thing will outlast us all
Perfect for when civilization collapses and we have to do some wasteland 2 shenannigans to get the lost knowledge of the past back by hoarding laptops.
- And then you find out they were mainly working from the cloud.
- lost ~~knowledge~~ memes
Of course, this is still a new and emerging technology and it’s too early to say when we might see it in our devices, or how much it will cost.

Looks really cool, buy yeah my guess is i will cost to much to be viable for most things.
- Maybe it could be good for moving and storing servers?
- it'll hit business servers first... speed and power draw = profits. Even if they cost 1000x more than SSDs, the power savings and speed alone could pay for itself in a datacenter.
Now... Let's see what 1000 years of cosmic radiation does to the data.
Shout out to whoever picked that thumbnail image.
This sounds neat, but it also seems like it does not have much practical advantage over hibernation except faster wake.
- The power draw and nonvolatility could mean it can replace SSDs and hard drives entirely. Just store everything in RAM.
Sounds like a niche use-case for pizza delivery drivers stumbling into cryo chambers
- But only if I get to look into the beautiful eye of my favorite purple haired friend
I love the security implications of this. /s
- ?
  
  So you know those encrypted files you might have? You know how your computer is able to display them? Yeah, you enter the passcode and then it and any information derived from it is (probably, barring special hardware) stored in RAM to in order do that. This isn't usually an issue because turning your computer off will quickly erase the RAM and it can no longer be used to open that file.
So basically just a quicker SSD for systemctl hibernate?
- Yeah, sounds like a best of both worlds situation where you wouldn't have to decide whether to suspend or hibernate anymore
"Right. Now... what was I working on, again?"
This sounds like a giant security risk?
- Sounds more like a very small security risk, to me. For most people if someone steals their laptop it doesn't really matter what kind of RAM is in it.
  
  If you're in some kind of high-security role then use a laptop with volatile RAM instead. Non-volatile will probably be more expensive than the old stuff for quite a while so it's not going anywhere.
  
  Maybe, it depends how it works.
  
  Memory is often unencrypted and/or contains encryption keys. Many programs rely on the assumption that it's cleared on powerdown for security.
  
  Depending on how this memory enters the long term state it seems that a lot of legacy software might become vulnerable to a really simple attack.
  
  Pulling the plug might no longer be something that forces someone to engage in rubber hose analysis.
- Depends if the RAM is encrypted, and how secure the TPM is.
  
  I admit to being out of the game for a while but how common is RAM encryption?
  
  wouldn't the overhead violate half the point of RAM?
I don't think a battery, soldering joints or displays would last that long...
I have to regretfully say I would have had an apocalypse bingo but I didn't have "Laptop of Dorian Gray" on my scorecard
But how do I download more?
I don't understand the point of this. That's what the hard drive I for. The RAM is meant to be wiped.
- Wouldn't it kill your hard drive quickly if every bit in memory was constantly written there - if it was all virtual memory? I think of it like "stuff in my desk" vs "stuff on top of my desk", and now nobody mixes up the papers on my desk when I walk away.
  
  That's what RAM is. Following your analogy, you'll put stuff occasionally inside the desk when you're done with it, and keep working what's on your desk. I see persistent ram as like working inside the desk, which is a bit weird to me. Or a desk that just never gets cleaned up.
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
Our Families Windows XP Laptop had a RAM to storage feature that essentially did the same. I think Windows killed it off but if I had to guess it's just not a good idea to avoid rebooting properly so I really can't see the use for this.
- You mean hibernate?
  
  I have absolutely no clue, I just remember what it did and that I tried it a few too many times in a row back then.
I keep my encryption keys in ram. No thank you.

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