An article worth reading?

[TinkerFan]

G'day,
I just came across this article on the IEEE Spectrum Website (http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/memory/new-adesto-memory-takes-25-years-to-consume-a-battery) and I'm curious to know, whether something like this is worth an article/reading.

Are there ways to decide whether an article like this is worth it or not?

Just a quick (maybe silly) question by an inexperienced user...

[ataradov]

It is clearly an ad, so I would say no, it is not worth it. Just like most of those news aggregation sites.

And I'm really glad that they are struggling with AdBlockers and go out of business. My search results are much cleaner that way.

[TerraHertz]

From both your posts I thought the article must have been some huge thing that would take significant time to read. But no, it's very brief. The entire text in the pic below. And even though it is effectively an advertisement for that company's RAM technology, I found it interesting enough to be worth reading, especially for the "conductive-bridge RAM" concept.
What I don't understand is why anyone would ask "Should I read this" rather than just read it and decide for yourself. Since it's so short.

[ataradov]

What I don't understand is why anyone would ask "Should I read this" rather than just read it and decide for yourself.

I mentally expanded the question to "should I read nay articles of that kind".

And my answer would be "no". I know it is a quick read. But after reading ad-like articles you will remember that some company makes some product and of course it will be presented as the only thing of that kind. So even if you don't need that product right now, it will be the first thing to pop into your head when you do. And you may even skip the research altogether, and get the worst deal possible.

And here is a very good example of this - https://www.eevblog.com/forum/microcontrollers/differences-in-spi-flash-ics . I never hat to select a memory chip before, but I've seen Atmel/Adesto IC on many kits (mostly by Atmel, of course). So I naturally searched for Adesto memory and was about to buy it, when I decided  to do some more searching and found much better deal.

Advertising is evil.

[ECEdesign]

Im not quite sure of the question should you read it? Sure...  I'm in the semiconductor research area so it was interesting but this is a very high level (potentially PR wank level) article.  Something more interesting would be an article in a peer reviewed journal describing their methods for manufacture and explanation of the theory.  They would need to provide full evidence not just a mere statement. 

[TinkerFan]

What I don't understand is why anyone would ask "Should I read this" rather than just read it and decide for yourself.

I mentally expanded the question to "should I read nay articles of that kind".

That's exactly what I ment.

And my answer would be "no". I know it is a quick read. But after reading ad-like articles you will remember that some company makes some product and of course it will be presented as the only thing of that kind. So even if you don't need that product right now, it will be the first thing to pop into your head when you do. And you may even skip the research altogether, and get the worst deal possible.

Advertising is evil.

But how do I find out if an article is an ad or not? In this case, only by reading it and thinking about it. Even the author is in this case a regular IEEE Spectrum one. And you also cannot decide by the fact that the company's name is mentioned. Take for example the Nano-RAM: It was developed by one company (nantero) and that was mentioned in all the artices about it.
Are there any websites that clearly show these Ads or make them at least obvious (like this one for example: [ )?url]http://www.electronicproducts.com/Power_Products/AC_DC_Power_Supplies/Board_mount_supplies_offer_40_C_start_up_temp.aspx[/url])

IEEE Spectrum is not one of those "News aggregation sites"?!

[CatalinaWOW]

Here is my answer as to why you should read any articles of this type.
The only way to learn something new is to be exposed to new things.  Reading is one way to do that.  You will quickly sort out the titles that interest you.  After some time you will develop the discernment to discard almost instantly the ones that either don't contribute to your knowledge or don't interest you.

Even the BS ones can be fascinating.  I remember a short blurb from about 30 years ago announcing a nuclear D battery.  The blurb suggested they had coils of alpha emitting material and were capturing the particles across an insulating barrier.  A few quick computations indicated that it was highly unlikely that they knew what they were doing, and I never heard more about it, but it was fun to think about.

Another one announced VLSI vacuum tube (valve for the speakers of English) circuits.  Intended for high radiation environments like space and reactor cores, and high temperature environments like the lunar surface and deep oil wells.  This one was more real, but as far as I know hasn't really gone very far.  More on the order of VSSI.

[Kilrah]

Just be wary of those that sound too "press-releasy" like this one, and take them with a grain of salt and critical eye. Obviously a manufacturer's goal is to make their announcements sound like whatever they're offering is the best thing since sliced bread and will solve all your problems, even those you don't even know about, and many outlets will just paste that into an article rather than actually review it and give a honest opinion about it. If it sounds interesting then go look up the datasheet and analyze the facts.

[ataradov]

But how do I find out if an article is an ad or not?

1. Considering the source. IEEE Spectrum is a news and press release aggregation site. Look at other articles there. There is not a single good editorial, you can get the same content from CNN Technology News or 100's of other sources. There is nothing original there.
2. Article mentions the company name and no competition or comparative analysis. Ok, it drains battery in 25 years. What kind of battery? What was the best time to drain before that? It might have been 20 years, so Adesto's achievement is completely useless.

Also, there is no consumer battery that has 25 year shelf life, so what's the point of that?

IEEE Spectrum is not one of those "News aggregation sites"?!

Yes it is. IEEE name still has some reputation, but reputation does not bring in money, unless you sell it. That's exactly what they are doing with IEEE Spectrum.

[ataradov]

Also, it would be great to get a datasheet for the part. I've seen so many breakthrough memory technologies in my life that never went anywhere, I don't even want to hear about anything new until there is a datasheet and a link to DigiKey.

In this case, it looks like CBRAM technology was acquired by Adesto in 2010 and we still don't have any real parts.

[TinkerFan]

Are there any secret (or not so secret) tips for websites, that publish good articles (and make it clear if one is sponsored)?
I assume the best are Science Online and all the other Scientific Journals or are their payed editions (also) much better?

[ataradov]

Are there any secret (or not so secret) tips for websites, that publish good articles (and make it clear if one is sponsored)?

Use the human power. Anything of actual interest will sooner or later make it here after some BS filtering. And even after that, comments will provide additional insight. There are a lot of people here with wildly varying interests.

[suicidaleggroll]

Ok, it drains battery in 25 years. What kind of battery?

It says in the article

What was the best time to drain before that?

Also in the article

It might have been 20 years, so Adesto's achievement is completely useless.

Reading/writing 128 bytes per minute, they would burn through a 10mAh button cell in 25 years vs 4.5 months from the closest competitor.  That comes out to an average draw of about 46nA vs 3uA.