HP Labs unveils the machine, promises Memristor DIMM in 2016 and the Machine as a product in 2019

HP will start delivering memristor-based RAM DIMMs in 2016, and the Machine itself is expected to be available as a product by 2019. But within the next year, HP will release an open-source Machine OS software developer’s kit and start producing prototypes for collaboration with software vendors.

Some enterprise systems already use nonvolatile RAM based on battery-powered DRAM to help prevent data loss in the event of a power outage. But memristor RAM is an entirely different thing—it could theoretically allow for computers to start processing again in the exact same state they were in before they were disconnected from power. That would make “instant on” devices much more power-efficient, but it would also completely change how operating systems deal with system resets and powering down—they would have to figure out what needed to be kept in memory and what needed to be cleared before restarting. Errors could result if certain areas in memory weren’t cleared.

Sontag said that programming languages will also have to change. “In the very long term,” Sontag said, “we have to change the memory semantics of programming languages to make it possible to say what is stored in nonvolatile memory and what isn’t. We need to come to an agreement with the industry about the semantics for nonvolatile RAM.”

As part of an effort to create that agreement, HP is turning to the open source community. “We have a number of approaches for what stays in nonvolatile memory that we’ll sort through in the next year and then take it to the Linux community,” said Sontag.

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