Memristors (PS)

“I love technology, not as much as you, you see, but still I love technology.” I was checking out the technology section of the New York Times for a topic to blog, and came on a sweet article about something called a memristor. This “new” technology is typical of a lot of our societies discoveries in that someone figured out what it was before there was any way to apply it that we knew about. His name is Leon Chua, an electrical engineer from the University of California, Berkeley, and he proposed the idea of memristors back in 1971. If you are wondering what these things are, then you should check out this article from IEEE Spectrum for some better understanding. However, I’ll give the definition I gleamed from reading. Basically, this thing is on the level of the basic elements of electronics (i.e. transistors, capacitors, and inductors). If you do not know anything about these things, that is not a problem. Okay, the basic rundown of how computer processing works goes something like this; all the calculations done are stored in some type of memory form, that form takes shape as what are called gates that have two states, on and off, thus ones and zeros which are known as binary code, all of a computers operation comes down to storing and calculating these ones and zeros. Now what these gates are made of and how many there are is a key component to the processing power of a computer. Many processors today are engineered to fit more and more gates onto a smaller chip. Thus, the processor, which is essentially the brain of the computer, has more speed and power to calculate.

Memristors are considered to be a break through because of their size and what they can do at that size. Essentially, they can store memory after being shut off. Normally, a small amount of power is needed to maintain memory. This is why when a computer is completely shutdown the machine must be rebooted, but one of the supposed uses of memristors is a computer will not have the need to reboot after being turned off. Also, memristors are extremely tiny. The example given in the New York Times article hypothesized that three years from now the development will have a device that can store 20 gigs per square inch. Some techy is drooling after reading that I’m sure.

Another interesting note, and I’m sure this could be pretty controversial if it is not just whimsical fancy, is that this technology could be used to simulate the human brain. This is because the memristor is similar to the functionality of a synapse, which is how nerve cells communicate signals. This could have some really big implications for diseases related to the nervous system if proved able of integration.

Oh, if you are wondering who is spearheading this research, then look no further than HP. Here is a link to their website if you want to know more about the company go to the HP Labs link on the homepage to check out more research topics. Honestly, I never gave HP much thought before, but my grandma likes them a lot. I guess that means something.