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'Missing link' memristor created: Rewrite the textbooks?
eetimes.com — "The memristor is our salvation, because it works better and better as you make it smaller and smaller," said Chua. "The era of nanoscale electronics will be enabled by the memristor. This is not just an invention, it is a basic scientific discovery. It has always been there--we just had to face these nanoscale problems to realize its importance."
vroom101- 788 diggs
- digg it
- arunforce, on 05/28/2008, -2/+16I'm curious to when it will appear in the market.
- vroom101, on 05/28/2008, -1/+7Imagine this: An Intel or AMD processor chip running at 3 GHz, with ALL the memory, i.e., the maximum of memory the CPU can address, built using the memristor on the same wafer (chip) as the CPU logic -- and the memory is non-volatile, i.e., when the power is turned off the memory isn't erased. See http://digg.com/hardware/Missing_link_memristor_cr ... or
What need would there be for a CPU cache?- JayD16, on 05/29/2008, -0/+2You would just call that the cache.
- vroom101, on 05/28/2008, -1/+7Imagine this: An Intel or AMD processor chip running at 3 GHz, with ALL the memory, i.e., the maximum of memory the CPU can address, built using the memristor on the same wafer (chip) as the CPU logic -- and the memory is non-volatile, i.e., when the power is turned off the memory isn't erased. See http://digg.com/hardware/Missing_link_memristor_cr ... or
- ijacker, on 05/28/2008, -23/+3"it works better and better as you make it smaller and smaller"
is that not already the case? duh- numb, on 05/28/2008, -1/+12FTA: "Memristors will enable very small nanoscale devices to be made without generating all the excess heat that scaling down transistors is causing today."
- darkcooger, on 05/28/2008, -0/+14No, that is not already the case. Transistors gets less and less efficient at smaller scales due to leakage currents. The smaller the scale, the higher the percentage of current is leaked. I understand that Intel has made a lot of headway in reducing the leakage current, but I suspect that physics simply makes it impossible to eliminate it completely without a fundamental change in the way transistors are constructed.
- AmaDaden, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1Other interesting problems also start to occur. For example the flux of one wire starts to create current on nearby lines. That's why high speed devices have started to use serial lines (few wires like SATA and USB) instead of parallel lines(many wires IDE and the old printer connectors).
@ijacker what you are thinking about is heat, power and speed. Yes those all lessen as size gets smaller but MANY new issues that people must solve are added because of the size reduction. The easy part is making things that small, the hard part is making them still work at the new size.
- AmaDaden, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1Other interesting problems also start to occur. For example the flux of one wire starts to create current on nearby lines. That's why high speed devices have started to use serial lines (few wires like SATA and USB) instead of parallel lines(many wires IDE and the old printer connectors).
- jrhelgeson, on 05/28/2008, -4/+1Why the hell was the parent comment dug down? It just shows how many clueless users there are on digg...
- AmaDaden, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1No he was dugg down because he made a generalization that is fundamentally flawed if you understand electrical engineering. Shrinking circuits causes many new electrical problems but has several benefits we can not ignore; less heat, less energy used and more speed.
- m0tbaillie, on 05/28/2008, -17/+11As long as it lets me download porn, we're cool.
- tenbosch, on 05/28/2008, -19/+12It was created again?!?! No way. I thought it was documented on April 30, 2008 at 12:03 PM by Bryan Gardiner and submitted to DIGG 27 days ago. I must be going CRAZY...Time to go play GTA IV drunk...
- jimh54, on 05/28/2008, -3/+2read the date on the article. it is April 27, 2008.
- Blakechi, on 05/28/2008, -16/+7Release date: 04/01/08. How in the hell did this make the front page when it is almost 2 months old? The only thing missing was the lack of the word "BREAKING" (in caps of course) in the title.
Meh.- Pixelpaws, on 05/28/2008, -1/+1I'm reading the date on this as April 30, 2008. Still, it is quite strange that this would make the front page.
- quill, on 05/28/2008, -1/+110"Memristors--the fourth passive component type after resistors, capacitors and inductors--were postulated in a seminal 1971 paper"
I love it when we can deduce, via math and/or theoretical physics, the existence of something before it can actually be detected/invented. (I like to use Neutrinos as an example of this.)
Science: It works, bitches!- Phyltre, on 05/28/2008, -6/+7I agree that this is awesome, but think about it practically. Knowing that something should exist does not necessarily have any impact on our ability to create it. Some people like to give credit to the people who came up with the concept, but a concept is useless with no possible execution. Kind of like patent/IP-hoarding companies who own the ideas but never use them--the real honor has to go to the people who made it work, not the ones who said it should.
We've spent thousands of years "discovering" principles based on function, not on mathematical certainty. I guess it is a credit to the species to finally turn that table.- bgrah449, on 05/28/2008, -1/+9"A concept is useless with no possible execution." Yeah, except there was a possible execution. They just didn't know what it was. Don't knock them for getting the baton halfway to the finish line in the relay race.
- hfactor, on 05/28/2008, -1/+7Hmm, I'd rather give credit to the man who invented the aqueduct than to the men who built one. Without someone postulating that the world is round, how could someone set sail to prove it? Also, lots of mathematical theorems have been proved without even dreaming of an application - and decades later they found one in a previously nonexistant field (like cryptography)...
- Phyltre, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1I guess that's our point of contention. I don't think you can really invent something physical without actually making it. To me your first sentence doesn't even make sense. I'd rather make the concept work than make the concept.
- PhrosTT, on 05/28/2008, -1/+8like bose einstein condensate
- PhrosTT, on 05/28/2008, -8/+1like bose-einstein condensate
- sfazzio, on 05/28/2008, -0/+3While I agree with your sentiment, I don't quite think this is a prime example of that. This is more of a case of: "according to the math and theoretical physics, it'd be really useful if we could make a device with these characteristics."
bose-einstein condensate is a much better example. - rmxz, on 05/28/2008, -0/+2You sure that's science? Prove it's not just the FSM testing your faith. From the holy texts
http://www.venganza.org/about/open-letter/
"But what our scientist does not realize is that every time he makes a measurement, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is there changing the results with His Noodly Appendage." - mysticalone, on 05/28/2008, -1/+1Well, I don't need science, I just read the good Word and it says Jesus will come back... one of these days if not the day after...
/sarcasm tag as required - firkey, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1Like higgs boson, pretty please?
- ChileanGoD, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1During my studies in physics (i quit in the second year to go to mechanical engineering, I felt I didn't have it to make it all the way to astrophysicist... tragic story :)) there was this anecdote that some student told me. That one day a physicist believed a theory was not true so he worked hard to build up a proof that this theory was incorrect. In his surprise the proof backfired at him and became a conformation of such theory. It became a proof that it was correct. I wish i could remember who it was and what was the theory in question.
- Phyltre, on 05/28/2008, -6/+7I agree that this is awesome, but think about it practically. Knowing that something should exist does not necessarily have any impact on our ability to create it. Some people like to give credit to the people who came up with the concept, but a concept is useless with no possible execution. Kind of like patent/IP-hoarding companies who own the ideas but never use them--the real honor has to go to the people who made it work, not the ones who said it should.
- brstilson, on 05/28/2008, -2/+80For those of you not familiar with this stuff, this is big. This is invention-of-the-transistor big, except even bigger, and we saw what transistors did for electronics.
- EarlOfLade, on 05/28/2008, -1/+31I foresee a Nobel Prize for Chua and Williams.
- fasda, on 05/28/2008, -0/+9I see a patent for HP worth Billions of dollars
- a133x, on 05/28/2008, -1/+1I hope not, from what I read Chua allready explained the principles 3 decades ago. So they shouldnt be allowed to patent this. I might be wrong.
- trevorh, on 05/28/2008, -0/+4HP can certainly patent the techniques they used to produce the memristor.
- rasmasyean, on 05/28/2008, -0/+0The theory is old, but you can patent a device.
The theory of man flying is old, but you can patent and airplane. - buckrogers1965, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1I bet there are different ways to build this than the way HP patents.
- fasda, on 05/28/2008, -0/+9I see a patent for HP worth Billions of dollars
- darkcooger, on 05/28/2008, -1/+31I especially liked the part where all of our electronic theory has been based on the wrong variables. This is really two discoveries in one, and there's no telling what other new things might be just around the corner with a whole new perception of electronic theory.
- HonoredMule, on 05/28/2008, -1/+6Modern scientific attitudes seem to dismiss the notion that we can still be fundamentally wrong about something...EVEN if we have put the incorrect understanding to good, productive use or manage to fit it into surrounding scientific theory.
This IS big, and I eagerly anticipate the new innovations that this may realize. But at the same time I love seeing the scientific community humbled back to a point where they may actually be open to these discoveries again. - Assezdefromage, on 05/28/2008, -0/+2This amuses me. We just started electric theory in Physics this past week. I emailed the article to my teacher. I doubt he'll be changing the curriculum though. I'm pretty excited to see what the effect on the computer industry will be with this new tech. Perhaps it will de develpoed by other chipmakers as well?
- HonoredMule, on 05/28/2008, -1/+6Modern scientific attitudes seem to dismiss the notion that we can still be fundamentally wrong about something...EVEN if we have put the incorrect understanding to good, productive use or manage to fit it into surrounding scientific theory.
- willy3121, on 05/28/2008, -1/+9Bad timing = spending the last four years getting a bachelor's degree in EE instead of the next four :(
- LukeL99, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1I'm 2 years in, and I've already gotten all the basic circuit element stuff out of the way. Oh well, they won't have any good curriculum on the subject for another 2 years anyway.
- majordanger, on 05/28/2008, -0/+9Not to Fret.. When I was in school, we used 30 watt soldering irons,punch cards and Fortran.
I don't use too much of that today.
Now I'm trying to figure out how to probe a signal on a 568 ball DSP the size of my thumbnail.
Remember, They did teach you how to read.- mtekk, on 05/28/2008, -0/+3and (hopefully) how to learn.
- trevorh, on 05/28/2008, -0/+2I just finished my first year of EE so they better revise those text books quickly.
- buckrogers1965, on 05/28/2008, -0/+3Maybe you can write the book on them.
Now is the time to get a few of these and start working with them.
The cool thing is that at this point you know as much about them as anyone else in the entire world right now.
- buckrogers1965, on 05/28/2008, -0/+3Maybe you can write the book on them.
- EricAnderton, on 05/28/2008, -0/+20I agree. This is very, very big. HP is going to start printing their own money before too long.
* partially or wholly analog computers
* outright replacement of flash and other solid-state storage circuit designs
* more reliable chips at higher circuit densities than before
* rendering obsolte a good portion of EE cannon (i.e. time to re-write the textbooks)- jrhelgeson, on 05/28/2008, -1/+6HP can't patent this, can they? This is a basic scientific discovery, not an invention. If they patent this 'technique' then we really need to just storm the patent office and burn it down. Talk about killing innovation!
- oneoverzero, on 05/28/2008, -0/+8They can patent a technique for making them, but not the idea itself.
- rmxz, on 05/28/2008, -0/+2Anyone know how solid are their patents are regarding how to make these things?
- jrhelgeson, on 05/28/2008, -1/+6HP can't patent this, can they? This is a basic scientific discovery, not an invention. If they patent this 'technique' then we really need to just storm the patent office and burn it down. Talk about killing innovation!
- EarlOfLade, on 05/28/2008, -1/+31I foresee a Nobel Prize for Chua and Williams.
- DharmaDog, on 05/28/2008, -3/+13Repeat, but still very cool.
Yea, HP! - talonstriker, on 05/28/2008, -0/+11Aw man, I just finished my circuit theory course this semester. Will this thing start to replace memory chips in the future?
- vroom101, on 05/28/2008, -0/+17Yes.
- talonstriker, on 05/28/2008, -2/+1Damn, so my Digital Logic class goes down the drain too.
- vroom101, on 05/28/2008, -0/+9Not so fast. The memristor can operate as a digital device OR analog device. From the article:
As Chua predicted, Williams is already thinking about creating new types of devices with HP's crossbar architecture beyond a simple memory device. "If we push current through it hard and fast, it acts like a digital device, but if we run current through it gently and slowly it acts as an analog device," said Williams. "We are already designing new types of circuits in both the digital and analog domains using our crossbar architecture. . . . - mtekk, on 05/28/2008, -0/+3Digital logic will fundamentally stay the same, but instead of logical NAND and NOR FET based gates the primary means of implementing things could be variations of memristors. Our digital logic professor told us we are to expect the method of implementing digital logic to change with new technologies, but the fundamentals will remain the same.
- vroom101, on 05/28/2008, -0/+9Not so fast. The memristor can operate as a digital device OR analog device. From the article:
- talonstriker, on 05/28/2008, -2/+1Damn, so my Digital Logic class goes down the drain too.
- dsmx, on 05/28/2008, -2/+6Short answer Yes, Long answer it will take 10-15 years for it to be cheap enough to use in everyday applications.
- vroom101, on 05/28/2008, -0/+9The theory is already known. HP has already built the device. I seriously doubt it'll take 10-15 years for this technology to hit the market.
- LukeL99, on 05/28/2008, -1/+1I seriously doubt that it will take 10-15 years. I think the biggest hurdle is going to be finding engineers capable of designing circuits using memristors. This isn't standard curriculum yet in any major university that I know of. The next generation of engineers is going to have a huge advantage over the current generation.
- dsmx, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1I'm not saying it won't hit the market before then, I'm saying it will take 10-15 years for it to be at a reasonable price that in can be used in everyday applications.
- vroom101, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1@dsmx, I think these devices will inexpensively available and widely used in less than 10-15 years.
- vroom101, on 05/28/2008, -0/+17Yes.
- lordewoks, on 05/28/2008, -0/+26"We want to build memristor-based devices that operate in a manner similar to how the synapse works in the brain--neuron-like analog computational elements that could perform control functions where decisions must be made involving comparisons as to whether something is larger or smaller than something else. We are not building a neural network yet, but we think that using the memristor in its analog mode with our crossbar is a pretty good representation of a neural net."
Sweet, here comes Data!- Bishoco, on 05/28/2008, -0/+2Crap, here come Skynet!
- trevorh, on 05/28/2008, -1/+3I for one, welcome my new Cylon overlords
- V2012, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1Here here!
- offthewagon, on 05/28/2008, -1/+40So, when robots make slaves of us all we can thank the memristor?
- marnaq, on 05/28/2008, -2/+4Yeah! I'm so excited about this.
- Gojirra, on 05/28/2008, -2/+42Can we call it something cooler, like a flux capacitor?
- eleven, on 05/28/2008, -0/+3From another article I read that was another name for it... either one will do.
- cdawzrd, on 05/28/2008, -10/+5This was on the frontpage when it actually *was* breaking news...a month ago.
- twiztidsinz, on 05/28/2008, -0/+15More time finding *new* stuff, less time bitching, please
- Yez70, on 05/28/2008, -3/+7God forbid someone else may not have seen this story a month ago, huh?
- Elliuotatar, on 05/28/2008, -0/+5This may have been news a little while ago, but this is the first article I've seen which explains that it changes the fundamental understanding of how all electronics work.
- loneBoat, on 05/28/2008, -0/+3(this isn't aimed directly at you, cdawzrd, but at all dupe-Nazis):
Gah! Stop complaining about dupes! Unless something is on the front page like 3 or 4 times, chances are most Diggers have yet to see it on Digg. Not everyone who works has a job which allows them to refresh the Digg homepage every 45 seconds and catch EVERY SINGLE STORY which comes through the front page. I for one consider myself lucky to have a job with down times every couple of hours, during which I am allowed to browse Digg. When I get home in the evening I check Digg once - maybe twice - in between eating dinner, doing my homework, and spending time with my [lovely] wife and [disgustingly energized] two-year-old son. I don't catch every story which graces the front page, so I'm THANKFUL when a dupe comes through if I haven't seen it yet and it is interesting. And if I've already seen a story, guess what I do - I DON"T READ IT! There's no reason to clutter Digg's message board with 'dupe' complaints unless the dupe is either (1) clearly blog spam or (2) a dupe of some unreasonable nth degree.
::sigh::
Oh well. Sorry for that. Digg me down if you wish. I just had to get that out of my system. Dupe Nazi's bug me just as much as Grammar Nazis and Real Nazis.
- DeFex, on 05/28/2008, -6/+4come up with a better name. its cool though as long as it does not get owned by just 1 company.
- pyrates, on 05/28/2008, -1/+1U must be an apple fan boi.
- DigitusAnonymus, on 05/28/2008, -13/+1What exactly is a Memristor and why would I care to know?
- Gojirra, on 05/28/2008, -2/+20I know it sounds crazy, but maybe you could read the article that has been conveniently linked from this page?
- DigitusAnonymus, on 05/28/2008, -7/+0I can't read it. The text is too small and the background is white, thus it feels like I'm watching a fricking lightbulb. Also, the text has been positioned in such an unattractive way that it completely loses it's appeal to me.
In short: ***** thing sucks. ect- vroom101, on 05/28/2008, -0/+5I submitted the printer-friendly link, so that maybe a problem. Try reading the article from the main link: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID ... (www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207403521)
- DigitusAnonymus, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1Printer friendly is much better.+5 internets.
- ChildeRoland420, on 05/28/2008, -0/+3That's a really lame excuse, especially considering that any half decent browser will let you resize the text.
- Pixelpaws, on 05/28/2008, -0/+2Use Ctrl++ (Ctrl and plus) to increase the font size until it's readable; I had to add a couple points to it myself. That shortcut works in every browser I've ever seen.
- DigitusAnonymus, on 05/28/2008, -7/+0I can't read it. The text is too small and the background is white, thus it feels like I'm watching a fricking lightbulb. Also, the text has been positioned in such an unattractive way that it completely loses it's appeal to me.
- EarlOfLade, on 05/28/2008, -0/+12Well, it may allow you to store the entire iTune catalog on a device the size of a USB stick, along with a few thousand HD movies..
So, it may not be much of a use to you but...- DigitusAnonymus, on 05/28/2008, -0/+3Ah you mean like, MASSIVE HD porn storing capabilities? Alright man, I like this memristor stuff.
- wannapiece, on 05/28/2008, -1/+2Oh nothing, just a revolutionary new way to design every electronic device in the world and create better and more innovative products that do not suffer heat problems from "over-scaling" as this article talks about.
But like I said, it's nothing much... Just a huge scientific breakthrough that can change the way electronics are produced from now on.- Synyk, on 05/28/2008, -1/+2I see what you did there.
- Gojirra, on 05/28/2008, -2/+20I know it sounds crazy, but maybe you could read the article that has been conveniently linked from this page?
- WoollyMittens, on 05/28/2008, -11/+3Throw it on the pile of amazing discoveries that herald a hype of promised technology, then disappears without a trace.
- SkippyDoorknob, on 05/28/2008, -0/+3Such as?
- Ansible, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1not that I agree that the memristor is empty hype, but I think holographic data discs deserve a mention. Hyped as the next big thing in storage, its probably been 10 years since I saw the first story on them and today the only commercial applications are at least 15000$ for the drive. How about VR goggles for another?
- rowlodge, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1i hear ya, but if only this would make electric vehicles run like a gas engine, that would be nice.
- fasda, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1Probably carbon nanotubes will be there soon. People want to put those in everything but generally fail to realize that it would incredibly difficult to get those to any kind of usable length
- SkippyDoorknob, on 05/28/2008, -0/+3Such as?
- audiomodder, on 05/28/2008, -3/+2this may be the thing we've been waiting for to create actual humanoid robots. BOW TO YOUR MASTERS!
- rowlodge, on 05/28/2008, -5/+2finally ,a cure for RROD...
- Lingur, on 05/28/2008, -3/+4Wonder how hard it is to mass produce this thing... really hope it's easy and cheap.
- EricAnderton, on 05/28/2008, -0/+5That's the beauty of this. It's all 100% based on existing chip-fabrication technology.
Just the shape of the circuits and atomic composition of the parts involved are the only things that allow them to take advantage of this previously eschewed "side effect". So the only real R&D they have is perfecting the design and coming up with ways to use it practically. There is no other hard or expensive part left, as far as I can tell.
- EricAnderton, on 05/28/2008, -0/+5That's the beauty of this. It's all 100% based on existing chip-fabrication technology.
- tehnico, on 05/28/2008, -3/+3Here come the Cylons!
- Frayed_Knot, on 05/28/2008, -2/+3I don't get it. What does it do?
I understand resistors, inductors, and capacitors, but what *is* this thing?- cdawzrd, on 05/28/2008, -0/+10It varies its resistance based on change in voltage... it has a "memory" for the last voltage change going through it. Or at least that's my understanding.
- mtekk, on 05/28/2008, -0/+2It varies its resistance based on the current that passes through it. It's more or less a passive current integrator.
- Ze1da, on 05/28/2008, -0/+4It is a substance that changes in resistance when you push current through it.
"By running current through the device, we can push oxygen vacancies from the layer that has them into the layer that does not, thereby changing its resistance by a factor of 1000 or even more, thus switching the memristor 'on,' then by reversing the current we can move the vacancies back into the first layer, thereby switching the memristor 'off'. "
Because this is a passive component we don't have to refresh it or supply power to it, eliminating a lot of heat issues. And the article said it works better when it is smaller, I am guessing because it takes less current to push the oxygen vacancies and therefore turns on faster. All in all, it's awesome if we can get it to work. - middlec, on 05/28/2008, -0/+2I know I'm probably a little slow on this not being a circuit nerd, but how do you measure the previous state of the device. The memresistor will remember the current passed through it by changing it's resistance, but how will you read back the previous current measurement in order to "read" the memory stored in the memresistor. Seems to me if you tried to pass current through it adjust the resistance to the current being applied, and forgot the previous current.
- VictoryGin, on 05/28/2008, -0/+3I'm no EE expert, but I believe if you pass a known voltage through it, then measure the current, that would give you the resistance. I just remember V=IR which becomes R=I/V...
- wishninja, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1its all about the amount of time it takes to change from the previous state to the new state. That gives the information of the previous state. Hysteresis will now be a word everyone will learn.
- rasmasyean, on 05/28/2008, -0/+0Sound plausible. Then you have to reverse it back to keep the state though. That would make it pretty slow.
- rasmasyean, on 05/28/2008, -1/+0You've just discovered the middlec uncertainty principle!
- icroak, on 05/28/2008, -0/+0From what I understood, if used in a digital manner, you would only be dealing with two distinct resistances, set by the direction of the current. The resistance will only change in one direction based on the direction and amount of current.
- cdawzrd, on 05/28/2008, -0/+10It varies its resistance based on change in voltage... it has a "memory" for the last voltage change going through it. Or at least that's my understanding.
- PhrosTT, on 05/28/2008, -1/+9HPQ Stock ?
- elamr, on 05/28/2008, -3/+2This technology is going to spawn some amazing ipod type devices kinda of like the ones William Gibson talks about in Spook Country
- SimmaDownNow, on 05/28/2008, -1/+3This, in conjunction with fuzzy logic, could usher in a era of nanoscale simple devices that perform varying degrees of very complex functions. Smarter, smaller, and more economical smart houses. Children toys that are more friendo than toy. Self-repairing mars rovers. Roads that simultaneously communicate with cars, traffic lights, and emergency service vehicles. Just to name a few. Having said all that though, I think the porn industry will be the first to capitalize on this technology.
- bbendele, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1Traffic lights! I agree we need a revamp in traffic light technology that has been around for way too long.
- donjuan571, on 05/28/2008, -7/+3***** old news
- boner79, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1I agree, for a site so full of people who fancy themselves as techies it sure took a long time for this article to bubble up to the top.
- rasmasyean, on 05/28/2008, -0/+0Computer nerds. Not electronics enginners.
- boner79, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1I agree, for a site so full of people who fancy themselves as techies it sure took a long time for this article to bubble up to the top.
- vroom101, on 05/28/2008, -0/+19Here's an excellent explanation of how the memristor works via the IEEE Spectrum article "The Mysterious Memristor" by Sally Adee (May 2008) at http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/may08/6207 :
The reason that the memristor is radically different from the other fundamental circuit elements is that, unlike them, it carries a memory of its past. When you turn off the voltage to the circuit, the memristor still remembers how much was applied before and for how long. That's an effect that can't be duplicated by any circuit combination of resistors, capacitors, and inductors, which is why the memristor qualifies as a fundamental circuit element.
The classic analogy for a resistor is a pipe through which water (electricity) runs. The width of the pipe is analogous to the resistance of the flow of current--the narrower the pipe, the greater the resistance. Normal resistors have an unchanging pipe size. A memristor, on the other hand, changes with the amount of water that gets pushed through. If you push water through the pipe in one direction, the pipe gets larger (less resistive). If you push the water in the other direction, the pipe gets smaller (more resistive). And the memristor remembers. When the water flow is turned off, the pipe size does not change.- EricAnderton, on 05/28/2008, -0/+4But what I want to know is: is the memristor a "read once" technology when it comes to using it to remember something?
I'm not seeing the relationship between past voltage applied and the resistive state of the component as a useful property. Unless there's some kind of resistance change curve that can be sensed at low voltage, or a threshold at which the memristor doesn't change, how do you "read" it without changing its value?- vroom101, on 05/28/2008, -1/+3Good point. Excellent question.
- vroom101, on 05/28/2008, -0/+4@EricAnderton I think, after a bit of re-reading and reflection, the memristor appears to be a read-multiple-times device.
And now I'll defer to the experts for instruction and correction... - trevorh, on 05/28/2008, -0/+7The memristor can have it's resistance value changed by direct current it will remember that value but alternating current can be can be used to read the resistance value of the memristor with out changing the value.
This is not a read once technology it can be read over and over until DC is run to to change the value of the memristor.- rasmasyean, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1So the trick then is to pass a current through it to read and then pass the exact opposite current to restore the state?
- EricAnderton, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1That's almost too easy! Thanks for that insight.
Like @rasmasyean said above. The AC waveform will take care of maintaining the state while you read the resistance - provided you keep the juice on for the full 360 degrees of the waveform. Brilliant.
- EricAnderton, on 05/28/2008, -0/+4But what I want to know is: is the memristor a "read once" technology when it comes to using it to remember something?
- kirijitsu, on 05/28/2008, -0/+16Memristor awesomeness aside, I think the most important part of the article is how Chua notes we've been misunderstanding electronic theory at a basic level all along.
"Electronic theorists have been using the wrong pair of variables all these years--voltage and charge. The missing part of electronic theory was that the fundamental pair of variables is flux and charge," said Chua. "The situation is analogous to what is called "Aristotle's Law of Motion, which was wrong, because he said that force must be proportional to velocity. That misled people for 2000 years until Newton came along and pointed out that Aristotle was using the wrong variables. Newton said that force is proportional to acceleration--the change in velocity. This is exactly the situation with electronic circuit theory today. All electronic textbooks have been teaching using the wrong variables--voltage and charge--explaining away inaccuracies as anomalies. What they should have been teaching is the relationship between changes in voltage, or flux, and charge."
The age of electronics just got a shot of some serious performance-enhancing drugs.- EricAnderton, on 05/28/2008, -0/+9Exactly. Cue the sound of thousands of EE students who just realized that they'll never be able to sell their books back.
- fasda, on 05/28/2008, -3/+1you barely get a 1/4 of your money back and why the hell would you sell those back you need to keep most of them to refer back to in later courses.
- darkened, on 05/28/2008, -1/+2Graduation?
- EricAnderton, on 05/28/2008, -0/+9Exactly. Cue the sound of thousands of EE students who just realized that they'll never be able to sell their books back.
- flickr, on 05/28/2008, -2/+9Sarah Connors has failed...
- HonoredMule, on 05/28/2008, -0/+5Thank you to the poster for linking the printable version...it's much appreciated.
- Sverre, on 05/28/2008, -5/+3This was reported on Digg nearly a month ago. See http://digg.com/hardware/Scientists_Discover_Missi ...
- bbendele, on 05/28/2008, -3/+4Hey R tard,
Its a different freaking article- Sverre, on 05/31/2008, -0/+1Different article, yes, but still old news. I didn't say it was a duplicate.
And there's no need to be rude.
- Sverre, on 05/31/2008, -0/+1Different article, yes, but still old news. I didn't say it was a duplicate.
- bbendele, on 05/28/2008, -3/+4Hey R tard,
- drgreenberg, on 05/28/2008, -1/+5One ought to read the "Controversies" section here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memristor
The framework in which this device is being placed as well as its actual significance isn't as clear cut as the articles from HP and Chua (so far, the main sources of promotion and enthusiasm for the device) have implied. While the device may prove to be important, the math that implies that the device is the fourth missing element may actually just be a distraction, with the real value simply being that a measurable parameter of the device ... the resistance ... can be changed in a nonvolatile manner. Well, it may also be possible to take, say, a capacitor and construct it so that the capacitance can be changed in a nonvolatile manner. If so, it'd have similar hysteretic (memory-storing) properties despite not being one of the "old" exisiting trio of 2-terminal passive devices. In the end, the importance of this device may come down to its size and scalability and not to any new fundamental principle. - trollick, on 05/28/2008, -2/+4I, for one, welcome our new memristor-based overlords!
- Sapulator, on 05/28/2008, -0/+4I question the assumption that it is the fourth fundamental circuit element. First of all, it appears that in practice, it is not a linear device as are the RLC components. Also, (while I haven't done my research), I wonder how it fits into the S-plane (frequency domain)? Creating the pythagorean triangle, a resistor represents the horizontal (real) impedance, an inductor is the positive J reactance, and the capacitor is the negative J reactance. Where is there room for a fourth element? Is a memristor's impedance considered part real and part imaginary? It doesn't make sense to me. It would be greatly appreciated if someone could link me to a site explaining this phenomenon.
- edmcguirk, on 05/28/2008, -0/+5While I am an EE from the previous century, I think that the idea that the memristor equations are based on flux and charge instead of voltage and charge probably means that those graphs you refer to need to be changed.
The memristor doesn't fit on the old graphs, we need to create new graphs where the different devices will all fit.- mtekk, on 05/28/2008, -0/+2Probably have to go from Laplace transforms to Fourier transforms (or something simmilar I'd imagine). The true "fourth basic passive component" would have a negative, purely real impedance (opposite of a resistor, as inductors and capacitors take the other axis' two parts) on the standard Laplace domain plot.
- jrhelgeson, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1Do you realize what this means? That Doc Emmett Brown had it all wrong! The Flux Capacitor was a Triangle, it should have been a SQUARE! We'll have to go back in time and change the movie.
- SEN5241, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1That's almost like asking, "where do we put the fourth right-angle vector in a three-dimensional space?"
... almost.
- edmcguirk, on 05/28/2008, -0/+5While I am an EE from the previous century, I think that the idea that the memristor equations are based on flux and charge instead of voltage and charge probably means that those graphs you refer to need to be changed.
- rmxz, on 05/28/2008, -0/+6I think they're overstating things a bit. Every EE student in history has seen passive components with memories that can increase their resistance when a high enough current passes through them. Your old car has them (called fuses) and your house has them (called circuit breakers) both of which increase their resistance with a current. And at non-nano-scales people made passive devices with similar properties that could reset themselves (bubble memories, core memories, etc).
Now this memristor *IS* a really really cool device - a nano-scale circuit breaker that can reset itself (lower it's resistance again) - and I think it will revolutionize electronics. But is it really as magical as they're trying to make it sound?- buckrogers1965, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1To be fair that is based on current not voltage.
- jrhelgeson, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1Yes their resistance changes as current passes, but that resistance is a function of heat, and when cooled the resistance returns to normal. The fundamental difference in the memristor is that the state change is semi-permanent, that is the resistance level will not change unless and until the voltage is reversed.
So yes, this IS as magical as it sounds.
- crice, on 05/28/2008, -2/+3LOL, Leon Chua was my professor in college!
- TMacDigg, on 05/28/2008, -2/+2Since a memristor can remember voltages I wonder if they can replace the use of binary digits of 0's and 1's with the memristor. Then you could assign and store each letter of the alphabet to a certain voltage stored in the memristor. So instead of using the binary digits of 01000001 for the letter A (8 bits is usually called a "byte", and it's the size usually used to represent an alphabetic character -- "A" is 65, or 01000001) you could assign the letter A the voltage of 1. The reduces the use of 8 transitors to store the letter A to just 1 memristor.
As far as that goes why couldn't one stored memristor voltage be applied to an entire word.- darkened, on 05/28/2008, -0/+2You mean like use hexadecimal instead?
- rasmasyean, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1They call that "analog".
- buckrogers1965, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1A better use for the analog properties of these cells would be to directly store analog samples of an incoming analog signal for lossless signal processing without many of the digital artifacts that A to D causes.
- jinxplayer, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.
- buckrogers1965, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1Is the next device a flux capacitor, something that can change it's capacitance as the voltage changes?
- bigboom, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1yaah......it's called a "varicap".....and btw this is *old* news it was on a month ago...........
- icroak, on 05/29/2008, -0/+0Does it even have its own unit of measurement?
- Colonial, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1buried as old/duplicate
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