So long, transistor: How the 'memristor' could revolutionize electronics

[Rex Francorum]

Indeed. When the CD-ROM was created, it was thought the it would support data for a very long time but it is not that durable. I think it is a perennial problem in archives/records management. Supports are to continually evolve.

[viper37]

My biggest concern is, will Microsoft Windows run on the new machines?  In other words, are all the existing programmes obsolete? 

Linux is a nice OS for servers, and for any place where end users don't need to interact with it directly.  In as much as desktop replacement, you have nothing to fear.

By the time these memristor make it to consumer level devices like computer and smartphones, Windows and other OS will have adapted.  No one would release a new piece of hardware in a PC that can't work with any OS, especially the one that has 90% of users.

[viper37]

My biggest concern is, will Microsoft Windows run on the new machines?  In other words, are all the existing programmes obsolete?

And from my records/archives management point of view, I wonder about the ability to keep data from the transistor era computers and to be able to read it with that new technology. Well, that's the challenge when any new technology appears and replaces older one.

usually, such info is transferred to the new medias.  Records from the Assemblée Nationale were digitized, from their paper, a while ago.  Many companies that had documents in Word Perfect 5.1 probably ported them over to Word at some point or another.

You guys worry too much for now.

[Siege]

I would laugh so hard if all the francophone information and records were lost.

[viper37]

I would laugh so hard if all the francophone information and records were lost.

Could happen, you never know, God Wrath against the Chosen People and such, there could be collateral victims.

[The Brain]

Languish is pretty much unreadable.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

usually, such info is transferred to the new medias.  Records from the Assemblée Nationale were digitized, from their paper, a while ago.  Many companies that had documents in Word Perfect 5.1 probably ported them over to Word at some point or another.

You guys worry too much for now.

I wouldn't say "usually".  That requires a well-designed and well-run data management system.  My experience with such systems is that even the best of them miss decent chunks of data, and "the best" are pretty unusual.