Well, I guess this will be discussed sometime, so I thought may as well start a new topic before the other one gets completely derailed.

I was reading a little on it and it seems that already either I am confused, or the reporters are.
This page http://www.crossbar-inc.com/technology/crossbar-overview.html states:



then this video, linked from the previous page, says at around 0:18 "a bottom electrode, in this case, tungsten"

isnt tungsten a metal? And if the bottom layer is not metal, how can it be an electrode, or even conduct. I dont know what TEM Visualisation means, I am guessing something like Thermal Electron Microscope. Maybe it is meant to be a demo of the process but not the Actual technology.

I never did physics or chem, so i guess that might have helped!!

I think this statement is ridiculous:

May as well say "can permanently store Word documents" or "Can permantly store cute kitty pictures".
If it is a statement about anything to do with security - thats ridiculous, and jumping the gun a bit. I dont see any type of security there, it would have to be implemented in other additional components. If you can look at it through an electron microscpe, you can still see the bits, just the same as you can see programmed cells of eeproms.
The attack vectors are the same, there needs to be some kind of BUS, some kind of encryption..
SmartCards can already store the codes, maybe not permanently, but long enough to work for intended purpose.

The patent documents clarify things a little.

http://patentimages.storage.googleapis. ... 134379.pdf
http://www.google.com/patents/US20130134379

"In the present embodiment, p-type polysilicon layer 612 is a boron-doped polysilicon, and bottom metal layer 610 is made of metal, e.g., tungsten, aluminum or copper, or an alloy thereof. In an implementation, the bottom metal is replaced with non-metal material that has a higher conductivity than the p-type polysilicon layer."

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

they don't say what that non-metal is though. pretty vague (silver(or other suitable metal)). It all sounds very too good, It will be interesting to see how it plays out. It looks like it could almost be a drop in replacement for NAND, unless a 32-bit bus is needed, but even then, trivial.. new controllers I'd guess.

The vagueness is mostly my own. The patent actually lists several alternative metals, although it tries not to restrict itself to this list. I presume it is phrased this way in order to encompass a wider range of possibilities.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Thanks though, as I probably couldnt process anything more technical than that

Technical documents are difficult enough to read on their own, but when they are obfuscated by patent-ese, the difficulty increases by an order of magnitude.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

A typical RRAM cell has a switching material with different resistance characteristics sandwiched by two metallic electrodes.

not half as difficult to understand as spammers are. Lucky it is easy to report them!