Office Standard 2010 Sale Memristor found HP Labs

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Demystifying the memristor: Proof of fourth standard circuit factor could transform computing
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» UPDATE:
Memristor FAQ added » Read the abstract Proving memristor in the lab
Williams and co-authors Dmitri B. Strukov, Gregory S. Snider and Duncan R. Stewart were able to formulate a physics-based model of a memristor and build nanoscale devices in their lab that demonstrate all of the necessary operating characteristics to prove that the memristor was real.

"This is an amazing development,Microsoft Office 2007 Sale," Chua says. "It took someone like Stan Williams with a multi-disciplinary background and deep insights to conceive of such a tiny memristor only a few atoms in thickness."

Williams has a background in physical chemistry. Strukov is a theoretical physicist,Office Professional Plus, Snider is a computer architect and Stewart is an experimental physicist.

Possible replacement for D-RAM
By providing a mathematical model for the physics of a memristor, the team makes possible for engineers to develop integrated circuit designs that take advantage of its ability to retain information.

"This opens up a whole new door in thinking about how chips could be designed and operated," Williams says.

Engineers could, for example, develop a new kind of computer memory that would supplement and eventually replace today's commonly used dynamic random access memory (D-RAM). Computers using conventional D-RAM lack the ability to retain information once they are turned off. When power is restored to a D-RAM-based computer, a slow,Office Standard 2010 Sale, energy-consuming "boot-up" process is necessary to retrieve data stored on a magnetic disk required to run the system.

Memristor-based computers wouldn't require that process, using less power and possibly increasing system resiliency and reliability. Chua believes the memristor could have applications for computing, cell phones, video games - anything that requires a lot of memory without a lot of battery-power drain.

Brain-like systems?
As for the human brain-like characteristics, memristor technology could one day lead to computer systems that can remember and associate patterns in a way similar to how people do.

This could be used to substantially improve facial recognition technology or to provide more complex biometric recognition systems that could more effectively restrict access to personal information.

These same pattern-matching capabilities could enable appliances that learn from experience and computers that can make decisions.

Nanoscale electronics experience
In the memristor work, the researchers built on their extensive experience - Williams founded the precursor lab to IQSL in 1995 - in building and studying nanoscale electronics and architectures.

One goal of this work has been to move computing beyond the physical and fiscal limits of conventional silicon chips. For decades,Windows 7 Ultimate X64, increases in chip performance have come about largely by putting more and more transistors on a circuit. Higher densities, however, increase the problems of heat generation and defects and affect the fundamental physics of the devices.

"Instead of increasing the number of transistors on a circuit, we could create a hybrid circuit with fewer transistors but the addition of memristors - and more functionality,Windows 7 Enterprise 64," Williams says. Alternately, memristor technologies could enable more energy-efficient high-density circuits.

In 2007, the team developed an architecture for such a hybrid chip using conventional CMOS technology and nanoscale switching devices.

"What we now know," Williams says, "is that these switches have a name - memristor."

UPDATE: This story has received a record number of reader comments and questions. To help answer some of them, I've collected more information from the researchers and posted it in my blog, along with some links to other sources on this topic.