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Memristors!

Comments

  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    That is nothing other than epic win.
  • AprecheApreche
    I read about this before I got on the train this morning. Memristors have existed on paper for quite some time. There have been numerous attempts to bring them into reality, and we finally succeeded! Seriously, this is so super exciting.

    Imagine. You come up with a handful of ideas of what should theoretically be possible, and you make plans for each. Then you go to actually make them, and you succeed, except one of them just doesn't work. You check the math a million times, and it always comes out the same, but you can't make it happen. Then years later out of the blue someone makes it happen. This is really huge. It might not be as huge as the transistor was, but it's up there.
  • AmettoAmetto
    Sneat!
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    edited May 2008
    Yeah, it's pretty epic.
    I hope they start teaching memristors before I'm done with university (I'm learning Mechatronics Engineering, so Electronics is a significant part of it).
    It's a simple equation, but rethinking design principles for a whole new component will be crazy.

    This here is a pretty good write-up also.
    Nature article here, for those who have access.
    Post edited by lackofcheese on
  • VigaViga
    Whoa. Impressive.
  • SailSail
    I had to do some reading to understand why this was important at all. But, holy crap, that's pretty cool.
  • Victor FrostVictor Frost
    *low whistle* Wow.
  • GunfireGunfire
    edited May 2008
    I'm going into Electrical Engineering next year (ended up choosing Rose-Hulman). This should be interesting.
    Post edited by Gunfire on
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    edited May 2008
    I feel like pestering lecturers about it,
    e.g.
    "There are three basic passive circuit elements"
    "No, you're wrong."

    Also, the fact that memristors could potentially replace both DRAM and hard drives, that's just awesome.
    Add to that the fact that their properties seem to be far more amenable to small scales than the transistor, and oh mans, EPIC.
    Post edited by lackofcheese on
  • HungryJoeHungryJoe
    Will they make it more feasible to produce wearable computers? Or at least to put some computing power into your clothes? For example, how cool would it be to have a coat lined with electric blanket type heat resistors with a memristor based circuit acting as a thermostat?

    Would it make VR goggles more feasible?
  • gomidoggomidog
    I called my electrical engineer papa and we geeked out about this for a while.
  • Victor FrostVictor Frost
    edited May 2008
    Would it make VR goggles more feasible?
    Maybe, but they'd probably be over $9000.

    Sorry, you said VR goggles and I pictured Vegeta. I couldn't help myself.
    Post edited by Victor Frost on
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    A better, more technical article from IEEE Spectrum: http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/may08/6207
    A couple of quotes of the important stuff:
    "now all the EE textbooks need to be changed" -IEEE Kirchoff Award winner Leon Chua on the discovery of the memresistor.
    In fact, he hopes to combine memristors with traditional circuit-design elements to produce a device that does computation in a non-Boolean fashion. “We won't claim that we're going to build a brain, but we want something that will compute like a brain,” Williams says.
    Chua agrees that nonvolatile memory is the most near-term application. “I'm very happy that this is a breakthrough,” he says. “The reality is that at the nanoscale, this effect becomes dominant, and you'll find it whether you like it or not. I'm glad I can point people in the right direction.”
    Nonetheless, I recommend the following Nature articles to those who are able to get at them:
    Electronics: The fourth element
    The missing memristor found

    From the first of those articles:
    The memristor might provide a new path onwards and downwards to ever-greater processor density. By fabricating a cross-bar latch, consisting of one signal line crossed by two control lines5, using (two-terminal) memristors, the function of a (three-terminal) transistor can be achieved with different physics. The two-terminal device is likely to be smaller and more easily addressable than the three-terminal one, and more amenable to three-dimensional circuit architectures.
    Also, I'm going to listen to the Nature podcast (who knew they had one?) to see if:
    1) It's any good
    2) It has anything interesting to say about memristors
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    edited May 2008
    I've listened to it now; the podcast seems pretty good.
    Post edited by lackofcheese on
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    edited May 2008
    Also, here is Chua's original 1971 article, which theorized the memristor despite the lack of a true physical implementation.
    It is available publicly at scribd.com
    Also, I can't help but laugh at the mention of "menductance"


    Better still, the better Nature article can be found here. I guess whoever did this is breaking Nature's copyright, but now anyone can see it!

    This is to some extent a shameless bump because I think this is not getting enough attention despite how epic it is. I guess it's a lack of information?
    Post edited by lackofcheese on
  • AprecheApreche
    This is to some extent a shameless bump because I think this is not getting enough attention despite how epic it is. I guess it's a lack of information?
    It's not getting a lot of posts in the thread because what do people have to say? Wow, this is epic. Yes, it is. I know about computers, but I honestly am not too big with the lower level electronics. This is the kind of thing that will have much discussion over the years as actual products being to emerge.
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    edited May 2008
    over $9000.
    Post edited by Omnutia on
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    It's not getting a lot of posts in the thread because what do people have to say? Wow, this is epic. Yes, it is. I know about computers, but I honestly am not too big with the lower level electronics. This is the kind of thing that will have much discussion over the years as actual products being to emerge.
    You have a point, and I kinda realised as much. If there were more people who do some Electrical Engineering we'd have something of a thread, but even then there wouldn't be much to discuss.
  • The BurritoThe Burrito
    The day I can buy a memristor in a store like any other component, will be a very awesome day. I do a decent amount of small, mostly analog projects, and this opens up so many possibilities that previously could only be simulated with a lot of logic. This means reduced part count, size, and cost. My biggest question at the moment though, is how much do they cost to make? It seams as though it must be difficult to produce, unless no one has been seriously trying in the last 25 years.
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    My biggest question at the moment though, is how much do they cost to make? It seams as though it must be difficult to produce, unless no one has been seriously trying in the last 25 years.
    My reading tells me it has been a bit of both. For the moment they are going to be expensive, but I'd say that in 5-10 years there's going to be some serious memristor production going on.
  • Snickety-SnakeSnickety-Snake
    Hellz yeah, memristors!
    HP To Introduce Flash Memory Replacement In 2013
  • 2bfree2bfree
    I more shocked that an American corporation still has an R&D Department.
  • SquadronROESquadronROE
    Isn't HP falling apart though? Will they still be around or able to invest in R&D by 2013?
  • Luke BurrageLuke Burrage
    Memristor Neural Network!

    http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/05/neural-network-chip-built-using-memristors/
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