Freescale now producing MRAM in volume

The BBC reports that Freescale has begun volume production of MRAM (magnetoresistive random access memory).  The first MRAM product offering is a four-megabit 3.3V chip with 35ns read/write times, packaged in an industry-standard TSOP SRAM form factor.  The MRAM technology is non-volatile, like flash RAM, but unlike flash RAM, does not degrade with use and has a potentially unlimited lifetime (as well as being considerably faster).  It consumes considerably less power than either DRAM or flash RAM.

Find other news articles on Freescale's MRAM offering here.

(Thanks are due to juuro for the pointer.)

Chicken Little in the Big Dig

Well, OK, the sky isn't falling.  But apparently some pretty big chunks of the Big Dig tunnel ceilings did.  12 tons of concrete panels fell from the roof of a connector tunnel last night, crushing a car and killing a woman on her way to Logan Airport.

The failure is apparently because a steel tieback supporting the panels failed.  There are 60 similar panels in the tunnel, and all 60 are now being removed.  A larger concern is that the same panels and the same tiebacks are used in 17 other places throughout the Big Dig.  Does this mean they're all going to have to be removed?  If so, what will replace them, and how much will it cost, and how long will those tunnels be closed?

This isn't the first problem with the Big Dig.  I have a feeling it won't be the last.

PT progress

When last reported, they'd switched me to new exercises because I'd maxed out the reformer for two-leg presses.  The reformer is a machine with a rolling carriage whose motion is opposed by a set of tension springs.  You lie on your back and either push on a footrail against the resistance of the springs, or pull on handgrips which act through pulleys, but ehtier way the objective is to overcome the springs and move the carriage.

There are five pairs of spring attachment points, and a whole bunch of springs in various weights which can be installed in various combinations.  The springs come in four different weights, color-coded green, red, blue and yellow from heaviest to lightest.  There's only one blue and one yellow; the yellow spring doesn't get used much.  I don't know what the actual spring weights are.

When I started this long PT course, I was doing one-leg presses with my left leg using two red springs and a blue.  Today, I was doing one-leg presses with ... well, all of them, pretty much.  Except for the yellow spring.  There wasn't room for it.

Yeah, I maxed out the machine again, on the weak leg alone this time.  Only two more PT sessions left, then I have another followup with my orthopedist on July 21.  I'll be glad to finish up, frankly.