Electronics’ ‘missing link’ found

Details of an entirely new kind of electronic device, which could make chips smaller and far more efficient, have been outlined by scientists.

The new components, described by scientists at Hewlett-Packard, are known as “memristors”.

The devices were proposed 40 years ago but have only recently been fabricated, the team wrote in the journal Nature.

They have already been used to build novel transistors – tiny switches that are the building blocks of all chips.

“Now we have this type of device we have a broader palette with which to paint our circuits,” Professor Stan Williams, one of the team, told the BBC last year.

Total recall

Memristors were first proposed in 1971 by Professor Leon Chua, a scientist at the University of California, Berkeley.

They are the “fourth” basic building block of circuits, after capacitors, resistors and inductors.

Getting more from Moore’s Law Future computing

“I never thought I’d live long enough to see this happen,” Professor Chua told the Associated Press.

“I’m thrilled because it’s almost like vindication. Something I did is not just in my imagination, it’s fundamental.”

The memristors are so called because they have the ability to “remember” the amount of charge that has flowed through them after the power has been switched off.

This could allow researchers to build new kinds of computer memory that would would not require powering up.

Today, most PCs use dynamic random access memory (DRAM) which loses data when the power is turned off.

But a computer built with memristors could allow PCs that start up instantly, laptops that retain sessions after the battery dies, or mobile phones that can last for weeks without needing a charge.

“If you turn on your computer it will come up instantly where it was when you turned it off,” Professor Williams told Reuters.

“That is a very interesting potential application, and one that is very realistic.”

‘Industry anathema’

Professor Williams and his team have already shown that by putting two memristors together – a configuration called a crossbar latch – it could do the job of a transistor.

The team has built hybrid circuits using memristors and transistors

“A crossbar latch has the type of functionality you want from a transistor but it’s working with very different physics,” he explained.

Intriguingly, these devices can also be made much smaller than a conventional transistor.

“And as they get smaller they get better,” he said.

As a result, the new devices could play a key part in the future of the electronics industry, as it relentlessly pursues Moore’s Law.

This industry axiom, first stated by Gordon Moore, co-founder of chip-maker Intel, states that the number of transistors it is possible to squeeze in to a chip for a fixed cost doubles every two years.

However, according to some, it may be some time before the device is widely used.

“Even to consider an alternative to the transistor is anathema to many device engineers, and the memristor concept will have a steep slope to climb towards acceptance,” wrote Drs James Tour and Tao Heare of Rice University, Houston, in an accompanying article in Nature.

They said that some in the electronics industry would only accept the use of memristors “after the demonstration of a well-functioning, large-scale array of these densely packed devices”.

“When that happens, the race towards smaller devices will proceed at full steam.”

Keyboards ‘dirtier than a toilet’

Many people eat their lunch at their computers, leaving crumbs

 

Some computer keyboards harbour more harmful bacteria than a toilet seat, research has suggested.

 

Consumer group Which? said tests at its London offices found equipment carrying bugs that could cause food poisoning.

Out of 33 keyboards swabbed, four were regarded as a potential health hazard and one harboured five times more germs than one of the office’s toilet seats.

Microbiologist Dr Peter Wilson said a keyboard was often “a reflection of what is in your nose and in your gut”.

During the Which? tests in January this year, a microbiologist deemed one of the office’s keyboards to be so dirty he ordered it to be removed, quarantined and cleaned.

It had 150 times the recommended limit for bacteria – five times as filthy as a lavatory seat tested at the same time, the research found.

Should somebody have a cold in your office, or even have gastroenteritis, you’re very likely to pick it up from a keyboard Dr Peter Wilson Consultant microbiologist

The equipment was swabbed for bugs, such as those that can cause food poisoning like E.coli and staphylococcus aureus.

Dr Wilson, a consultant microbiologist at University College London Hospital, told BBC Radio 5 Live sharing a keyboard could be passing on illnesses among office workers.

“If you look at what grows on computer keyboards, and hospitals are worse, believe it or not, it’s more or less a reflection of what’s in your nose and in your gut,” he said.

“Should somebody have a cold in your office, or even have gastroenteritis, you’re very likely to pick it up from a keyboard.”

Which? said one of the causes of dirty keyboards was users eating lunch at their desk, with crumbs encouraging the growth of bacteria.

Poor personal hygiene, such as not washing hands after going to the toilet, could also be to blame, it said.

Cleaning techniques

Which? computing editor Sarah Kidner advised users to give their computer “a spring clean”.

“It’s quite simple to do and could prevent your computer from becoming a health hazard,” she said.

She said dust and food crumbs should be shaken out of keyboards and they should be wiped with a soft, lightly dampened, lint-free cloth. They should also be disinfected with alcohol wipes.

Research by the University of Arizona last year found the average office desktop harboured 400 times more bacteria than the average office toilet seat.

They also found that, compared to men, on average women have three to four times the amount of germs in, on and around their work area.

Sorry for the In-Convinence…

Sorry folks for the delay of few month’s for no news being updated. But from the 29^th April 2008 all news reports will be uploaded on time. Thank You for your Co-Operation and we apologize for the inconvinence.

External Memory Disks

The hard disk fitted in our computer usually fall short for our storage, or even if we are less on storage we might need an external device to transfer data from one PC to another. In such cases the ‘External Hard Disk’(EHDD) and the ‘Pen Drives’ comes into taking place. The cost of the Pen drives have gone really low with the amount and the number of Pen Drives that are being used daily. Pen Drives are now avail able for as low as Rs.500/- for a 2Gb of Memory at Nehru Place, New Delhi. In case of EHDD it is also the same as the prices have come down drastically and are easily available in the market.