It wasn't long ago that IBM promised to unleash its racetrack MRAM (magnetoresistive RAM) on a power and speed-hungry computing public, but now Toshiba says its 1GB MRAM chips are "almost ready". The chips use Spin-RAM (STT-RAM) and Toshiba fully expects them to take over where DRAM left off by 2015. They say their new chips use about 10 percent the energy used by DRAM and, like MRAM is supposed to do, retain memory even after the power supply has been cut off. So what does this mean? Instant boot-up, fast access times, and super-low power consumption. While MRAM has been announced by others, capacities and speeds promised by this 1GB jobby from Toshiba will certainly make things worthwhile.

[Via MRAM-info]

While Fujitsu works overtime in order to boost hard drive capacity by 500-percent in just two years, researchers at the University of Hamburg in Germany are devising a method to move magnetically-stored data around a HDD "a hundred times faster than currently possible." Guido Meier and colleagues are purportedly using "nanosecond pulses of electric current to push magnetic regions along a wire at 110-meters per second," which easily trumps today's method of using comparatively slow spinning discs to access data. Additionally, their vision of the next-generation hard drive will sport fewer mechanical parts in order to lessen the "wear and tear" that existing units face. Notably, the idea behind the creation was actually conjured up by an IBM employee in 2004, but if the Germans crafting the current prototype have anything to say about it, said idea could turn into reality sooner than later.

Apparently bigger is always better in the realm of giant HDTVs, and the leapfrog game to have the largest -- even for just a few months -- continues as Mitsubishi has constructed a baffling 8,066 square-foot display at Tokyo Racecourse in Japan. By far the biggest Diamond Vision unit ever built, it trumps their own creation at Turner Field in Atlanta by spanning 218 feet wide by 37 feet high and allowing for 3 races to be shown at once. The two previous title-holders were Miami's Dolphin Stadium at 137 x 50 feet and Texas' Longhorn Stadium at 134 x 55 feet. Controversy over the true king will surely arise due to Tokyo's set only rising 37 feet in height and rocking an unorthodox 5.89 aspect ratio, but it does indeed sport Hi-Vision (1080), making it a legitmate HDTV. Personally, we'd be able to get more use from a couple plasmas, but if you've got the space acreage, there probably isn't a better way to spend $28 million.

[Via HD Beat]