Ten years ago, an investor eager to play the two side by side had essentially one instrument: the convertible bond (debt switchable into equity).
And although the two computer-makers' technologies are different, both point towards the end of the age of silicon.At a meeting of Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm on September 9th, Stanley Williams, director of quantum science research at HP, announced that his group had created the highest density of electronically switchable memory so far.
"Electronically switchable" means that each bit of memory can be flipped on and off by a current, without the need for any moving parts.Earlier this year, an IBM project named Millipede demonstrated even higher potential storage densities.
The company's name stands for electrophoretic ink, which is made up of minuscule switchable capsules of ink.
In 2001 a new phenomena, called switchable mirrors, was reported in the YHx and LaHx systems as x approached 3. When a thin film of YHx or LaHx, which was protected by a thin film of palladium metal, was hydrogenated, the metallic phase with x < 2.9 reflected light, but the film became transparent when x approached 3.0.
Since then a number of other hydrogen-containing switchable mirror materials have been developed all the trivalent rare-earth elements and the R-magnesium alloys, as well as the magnesium alloys with vanadium, manganese, iron, cobalt, and nickel additives.
By Chiara Cavaglieri and Julian Knight Chiara Cavaglieri and Julian Knight explain how you can hit back against unfair service charges and high fees A minister has called for switchable annuities, which may be impractical.
Kusal Ariyawansa of independent financial adviser (IFA) Appleton Gerrard acepts the initial attraction of switchable annuities but argues that this move would give rise to far too many complications.
The engine is crisper and punchier, and the switchable "active exhaust" releases yet more fluffs and crackles with each gear change.
The answer, according to pensions minister Steve Webb, is "switchable annuities" so that pensioners will be able to shop around and change annuities in the same way that homeowners switch their mortgage every few years.
Tom McPhail, head of pensions at Hargreaves Lansdown, says: "I'm not sure that switchable annuities will ever actually get off the ground.
