Get Ready For Plastic Memory
from the what's-next dept
Found via Slashdot comes the news of some breakthroughs in plastic flash memory. It's obviously still very early, and there are some limitations on the technology right now, but the potential makes it quite a worthwhile technology to follow. While it may not ever match what silicon flash memory can do in terms of storage and stability, plastic memory could provide some new and fascinating options for implementation, mainly in being a lot more flexible. That means it could be integrated into all sorts of new things -- including electronic paper and other offerings. Of course, the trickiest part in understanding new disruptive technologies is often in thinking about what sorts of new products it would allow. So it would be great to hear from folks what they think flexible, plastic memory might allow, and how it might change certain markets.
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Filed Under: flash memory, innovation, memory, plastic memory
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Pirates.
How long till someone gets busted selling those things?
Christmas cards with movies inside yay!
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Re: Pirates.
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there could be a lot of uses.
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Re: there could be a lot of uses.
Smart Jackets that would adjust the resistance to heat transfer based on the wearer's body temperature and outside temperature.
if the memory and eventually the entire system could be made of light weight and flexible plastic, that would make having the system on board feasible.
I am thinking about it using the paper batteries that were discussed on /. the other day. which gives the power supply, now the memory, so ....
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actually
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food packaging
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I can't believe no one mentioned
lol
Seriously, can't want to try a electronically enhanced dildo on my girlfriend.
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Lots of uses.
You could have a standard personal card of data to plug into stuff (like placing your driver's license on a stereo and hearing your songs).
Have a convenient easily-replaceable cheap way to 'flash' a device by changing part of it's case.
Hand out credit card sized videos of advertising (boo.. boo)
Make funky looking USB sticks with no metal.
The sensor use suggested in the paper is darned cool too.
The only drawback to it I can think of is how do you deal with scuffs ? Have a 5mm outer layer with nothing in it ?
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Re: Lots of uses.
I agree the possibilities are almost limitless.
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Re: Re: Lots of uses.
What I want to see most is a -washable- connector that can be easily buttoned in to clothing at the sleeve. If you did that, you could -literally- carry around a USB key that you could use for login, and general keysigning tasks. As a bonus you could also stuff all your normal card info on to it.
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I know, I know!
Well, there you go, all those covers that are made to cover up (lol) Apple's failures at material selection can now be expandable memory and Apple won't look so stupid anymore.
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Heres an idea ...
Information in the age of the internet has great personal and societal value but no real monetary worth. Micro economically speaking, when information is infinitely replicatable, at almost no cost, it has a small but finite monetary value that approaches Zero. That is basic supply and demand economics. Look at this chart to see whats happening to the media distribution industries.
Currently you can go down to Sears and order a CNC mill for wood working, you can go online an order rapid prototyping machines for building wax, and plastic models. People are printing out electronics and computer circuitry on ink jet printers. Combining the two enters us into a whole new world of possibilities. As with information we are slowly gaining the knowledge to replicate materials items in an infinite way. This plastic flash memory is one small step in that direction.
Now lets crunch some numbers in a way that replicates (pun) the numbers given by the recording industry on piracy losses ... GRIN ... (ie use real numbers and spin them slightly in our favor)
Here are our "FACTS" ....
-Ink jet printer can put down a layer of material that less than 1/4000 of an inch thick.
-An Ink jet printer can have a resolution of up to 5000 x 5000 Dots per inch.
-Electronic circuits, OLED's, conductive polymers, metal pathways, and transistors can be printed using an ink jet printer
-Structural materials (plastics) can be printed using an ink jet printer
-Contact sensors can be built using an inkjey printer
-rapid prototyping can be done in as many layers as needed
-An ink jet printer can do upto 15 sheets per minute
Lets see what we can do with these facts .... Lets build something ... a new 100 GByte USB flash memory storage device ... (we are going to ignore these and other facts, the alignment of 1/5000th cant be done layer after layer on an inkjet, the dry time required for each layer, the fact that no one has yet done flash memory on an inkjet)
First lets figure out our storage density ... With the printer at 5000x5000 dpi that would be ~2500x2500 with spacing between flash memory cells. Thats a memory density of 6.25 Mbits per inch^2, divided by 8 (to find the bytes) 781,250 bytes per inch^2.
Now using 8 1/2 x 11 inch stock for our printer lets find out what our storage capacity is per memory layer. 8.5 x 11 x 781,250 bytes per inch^2 = 73,046,875 bytes per memory layer. Each memory layer consists of 4 individual layers, plastic film, metal transistor gates layer, aluminum oxide, and an insulating polymer. So with inkjet printer laying down 1/4000 th per pass that means each layer will be 1/4000 div 4 = 1/1000 th inch thick. (This ignores the fact you cant layer Al2O3 that way. You probably can find a some other material to use in an inkjet that has the same qualities, dielectric, resistance,etc)
Now how many layers do we need for 100 GByte???
100,000,000,000 bytes div 73,046,875 bytes per memory layer = ~1369 memory layers or in inches 8.5 x 11 x 1.37 inches.
How long would it take to make ???
1369 memory layers x 4 actual layers = 5476 actual layers.
5476 layers div 15 layers per minute = 365 minutes or 6 hours.
Okay this was total BS with current technology but it was fun to do ... :)
The one thing missing with inkjet printing of electronic circuits is the memory. This is a step in the right direction.
Now Imagine a day in the near future when the companies that manufacture solid items start going through the same pains as the information distribution companies. When this technology or nano technology begins to allow anyone to manufacture anything they want anytime they want to. In the end all you need is to pay for raw materials once and just recycle them ... When everything is FREE after you buy the raw materials once ...
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Okay enough of that utopian BS I just spouted ....
Smart paper that you wave your cell phone, credit card, etc over and you can leave your contact, payment, etc info.
re-useable smart paper.
Newspapers of the future where you walk or drive by the 7 11 with the paper and its uploaded.
better yet smart paper that you just drop near a wifi connection and the paper or any news you have choosen is uploaded.
The smart paper mixed with wifi has to many uses so I will stop with it and go on to other ideas and just say ....
Smart paper with WiFi ...
Final smart paper thought ... Smart paper, with WiFi, non visible light Solar Cells (IR, UV), and super capacitor power cells. All of this can, with a little research, be printed out on and inkjet printer and or pressed out.
/thought chain
wearable patch type medical monitors ... with wifi download abilities
/thought chain
Price tags in stores that are embeded in the UPC code that can be programmed at a distance with the price. Think The Internet of Things. Where you leave the store with a credit card in your pocket and you dont need to check out, just walk out.
/thought chain
Programmable shipping tags for fedex or the USPS
/thought chain
Programmable Stamps for fedex or the USPS
/thought chain
combine the previous two ....
programmable shipping tags with programmable stamps-payment included
/thought chain
The next new media that saves the record labels, music paper!!
/sarcasm
A new programmable smart paper based outfit for Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta
/disgust
WiFi'd and or Visual, Medical Id bracelets to prevent the wrong person from getting the wrong surgery or medication.
/thought chain
I could come up with a couple hundred more ... now lets see the rest of you lamers come up with stuff other than smart dildos ... some times this place is so LCD - scroll to the bottom to see my meaning
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Hey remember those plastic records McDonalds gave out?
They distributed millions of plastic records (like phonographs, remember those?) and if you got the one with the chorus singing the jingle correctly, then you won a million cheeseburgers or something.
my point is, imagine a cheap, disposable, medium to distribute data...
oh wait, they had those, they were called CD's...
guess this won't change the world after all
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but green printing still green printing willing to Nobel Peace Prize awarded to them. Perhaps the Nobel Committee judges it, green printing if they feel benevolent thoughts, discard the killings and strife,green printing population obsessed with peace and human rights, it would receive the green printing Nobel Peace Prize.
This is a smart card security strong psychological hint, it marks smart card security the Nobel Committee for the Nobel Peace Prize is being given new meaning. smart card security They are based smart card security on forward-looking attitude, the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to smart card security those who may influence others and the world of celebrities.
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