Memory Upgrade

[Vel]

I'm trying to upgrade the memory on my Aspire5100. I did a search for the correct memory and found an Amazon link that sold the upgrade as.

"2GB RAM Memory Upgrade for the Acer Aspire 5100, 5315, 5515 and 5516 Notebook Laptops (DDR2-667, PC2-5300, SODIMM)"

I placed the order and received the memory today. The stick I found in the box is labeled,

"DDR2 800MHz 200-pin PC2-6400 SODIMM"

I did another search that showed that the PC2-6400 memory I received is correct for the Aspire 5516 but everything I find shows the PC2-5300 as the correct memory for my 5100. I'm very confused because almost all of the sites I've found sell the memory, as the Amazon link did, as being compatible for all 4 notebooks.
Did they just send me the wrong memory? I'm afraid to try to install it for fear that I'll mess something up that I don't have the skills to fix. Any information about computer memory upgrades would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[JBeukema]

Computer memory upgrades for Acer Aspire 5100 Laptop/Notebook from Crucial.com

Says to use DDR2 pc2-5300

Trust Crucial, not Amazon. 6400 won't work if your system doesn't support the bus speed. When I worked at the computer shop, 4allmemory.com and crucial.com were the two sources we always checked with- we trusted them more than the manufacturer of the system.

Send it back and get the 5300

 

[JBeukema]

CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting

You can always use CPU-Z to identify what's already in your machine. Match what's already in there.

How much ram do you currently have and n what configuration?

 

[JBeukema]

One last thing. On many laptops, only one bank of memory is easily accessible from the bottom. I don't know about your particular model, but on some you have to take half the damn machine apart to access the second bank because some jackass hid it under the keyboard.

 

[Vel]

Thanks. I don't think I'll have any trouble getting to the memory slot. I've found a few online tutorials that seem pretty straightforward. My 5100 currently only has 1GB of Ram. I have no idea what configuration. My tech skills and knowledge are extremely limited. I would assume that my system is factory default. It has Vista, so it's painfully slow.

 

[waltky]

See if you have a computer user's group in your area...

... they sometimes meet at public libraries and help install memory in laptops...

... also check a local computer magazine to find one.

 

[waltky]

Thanks for the memory...

IBM scientists unveil Racetrack memory chip prototype
6 December 2011 - Details of the first real-world test of a new memory chip technology have been revealed by IBM scientists.

The demonstration involved Racetrack memory - a system which stores information as magnetic patterns on tiny wires. IBM said the technology promised faster data access speeds than were possible using hard drives or flash disks. However it faces a challenge from other next-generation memory technologies being explored by other companies.

Speedy

The team - based in New York, California and Taiwan - has been working on the process since 2008. The prototype chip consists of 256 Racetrack cells. Each cell consisted of a single magnetic nanowire, 60-240 nanometres wide and 15-20 nanometres thick. A nanometre is a billionth of a metre. Electric pulses are applied to the wires creating "domain walls" with "regions" between them. These regions pass over a magnetic read/write head which faces them in one direction or another, representing the 0s and 1s of computer data. The small magnetic regions can be "raced" at speed along the wires - giving the technique its name.

Advocates of Racetrack claim it could potentially read and write data hundreds of thousands of times faster than is possible on commercial hard disks. That would put access speeds at roughly the rate offered by DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) chips. These are already used in current PCs to run programs, but "forget" data as soon as the computers' power supplies are switched off. "This breakthrough could lead to a new type of data-centric computing that allows massive amounts of stored information to be accessed in less than a billionth of a second," said a statement from IBM.

Long-lasting

The scientists noted that the circuitry involved was created using IBM's standard microchip-making technologies, highlighting its potential as a realistic replacement to existing memory storage techniques. Racetrack may also prove more durable. IBM aims to create a device that can be wiped and rewritten millions of times. By contrast many flash memory drives can become unreliable after any single bit has endured about 100,000 writes. However, the researchers acknowledge that more work needs to be done to optimise their process and improve "cell operation repeatability".

That means there is still time for Samsung, Hewlett Packard, Micron Technologies and other IBM researchers to complete work on alternative memory storage techniques that they hope will become future standards. More details of the Racetrack technology are due to be discussed at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' annual International Electron Devices meeting in Washington DC on Wednesday.

BBC News - IBM scientists unveil Racetrack memory chip prototype

 

[waltky]

Smallest magnetic memory bit achieved...

IBM researchers make 12-atom magnetic memory bit
13 January 2012 - The groups of atoms were built using a scanning tunneling microscope

Researchers have successfully stored a single data bit in only 12 atoms. Currently it takes about a million atoms to store a bit on a modern hard-disk, the researchers from IBM say. They believe this is the world's smallest magnetic memory bit. According to the researchers, the technique opens up the possibility of producing much denser forms of magnetic computer memory than today's hard disk drives and solid state memory chips. "Roughly every two years hard drives become denser," research lead author Sebastian Loth told the BBC. "The obvious question to ask is how long can we keep going. And the fundamental physical limit is the world of atoms. "The approach that we used is to jump to the very end, check if we can store information in one atom, and if not one atom, how many do we need?" he said.

Below 12 atoms the researchers found that the bits randomly lost information, owing to quantum effects. A bit can have a value of 0 or 1 and is the most basic form of information in computation. "We kept building larger structures until we emerged out of the quantum mechanical into the classical data storage regime and we reached this limit at 12 atoms." The groups of atoms, which were kept at very low temperatures, were arranged using a scanning tunnelling microscope. Researchers were subsequently able to form a byte made of eight of the 12-atom bits. Central to the research has been the use of materials with different magnetic properties.

The magnetic fields of bits made from conventional ferromagnetic materials can affect neighbouring bits if they are packed too closely together. "In conventional magnetic data storage the information is stored in ferromagnetic material," said Dr Loth, who is now based at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science in Germany. "That adds up to a big magnetic field that can interfere with neighbours. That's a big problem for further miniaturisation." Other scientists thought that was an interesting result. "Current magnetic memory architectures are fundamentally limited in how small they can go," Dr Will Branford, of Imperial College London, told the BBC. "This work shows that in principle data can be stored much more densely using antiferromagnetic bits."

But the move from the lab to the production may be some time away. "Even though I as a scientist would totally dig having a scanning tunnelling microscope in every household, I agree it's a very experimental tool," Dr Loth said. Dr Loth believes that by increasing the number of atoms to between 150 to 200 the bits can be made stable at room temperature. That opens up the possibility of more practical applications. "This is now a technological challenge to find out about new manufacturing techniques," he said.

BBC News - IBM researchers make 12-atom magnetic memory bit

 

[waltky]

Computer memory manufacturers have the upper hand on pricing at the moment...

Memory makers heading into an ultra-super-cycle
Tue, Jan 31, 2017 - SUPPLY AND DEMAND: With global supplies tight, chipmakers can choose what to manufacture and who to sell to, and raise pricing levels even further

The global memorychip industry is heading into what has been dubbed an ultra-super-cycle, as the challenge of making chips smaller yet more efficient has created supply bottlenecks, while there is soaring demand for data storage — from smartphones and artificial intelligence to autonomous driving and the Internet of Things. Chipmakers and analysts predict the price rally — the average price of benchmark memory chips rose 26 to 31 percent last year — will continue this year as supplies remain tight. “We expect an ultra-super-cycle instead of just a super-cycle in the 2017 DRAM industry,” said CW Chung, an analyst at Nomura Securities Co, referring to memory chips used in smartphones and computers for short-term data processing and storage.

That has left gadget makers scurrying to secure stable supplies, and distributors reporting shipment delays, while chipmakers enjoy bumper earnings. “As of the end of the fourth quarter, our DRAM inventory in particular has gotten tight compared to the previous period after we actively responded to demand,” said Chun Se-won, a senior vice president at Samsung Electronics Co. Samsung, the world’s biggest memorychip maker, this week reported record quarterly operating profit of 4.95 trillion won (US$4.26 billion) at its chip business. The company did not detail its inventory levels, but some analysts reckon its DRAM inventory level fell to less than a week at end-December, from nearer a month a year ago.

BNP Paribas SA estimates the industry-wide inventory of NAND flash memory chips, used for longer-term data storage, is also less than one week. Toshiba Corp said it is receiving orders beyond its capacity for NAND chips, and SK Hynix Inc, while meeting orders for now, warned that an industry-wide shortage of NAND chips will likely persist this year. Leading Chinese smartphone makers such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and ZTE Corp (中興) declined to comment on chip supplies. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd-backed (阿里巴巴) Meizu Technology Corp (魅族) said it has no problems in its smartphone launch or shipment plans. “We have a long-term agreement with our suppliers that ... guarantees more than three months of supply at any given moment,” global branding manager Ard Boudeling said.

Distributors, however, say tight supplies mean there are some severe shipping delays. “So much so that many are active in the secondary market to procure the needed supply, often at large premiums to contract pricing,” said Tobey Gonnerman, executive vice president at US-based component distributor Fusion Worldwide. He said there are delivery delays of 8-12 weeks for certain chips, and, in some extreme cases, no delivery date confirmations at all. That is likely to push up prices further, with Nomura predicting global memory chip market revenue will grow 56.7 percent this year to a record US$116 billion.

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