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HP Creates First Hybrid Memristor Chip
An anonymous reader writes "HP researchers have built the first functioning hybrid memristor-transistor chip. Lead researcher Stanley Williams and his team built the very first memristor — the '4th fundamental element' of integrated circuits after resistors, capacitors and inductors — back in April. Memristors can remember their resistance, leading to novel electronic capabilities. The new FPGA circuit uses memristors to perform tasks normally carried out by (many more) transistors and is therefore smaller, more power efficient and cheaper to make, HP says. Memristors could also turn out to be a more compact, faster alternative to flash memory."
Am I the only when that thought memristors would remain the the 5-10 year category for the next couple of decades? Granted, this is just a proof of concept chip but it is moving along very rapidly compared to most 'game changing' advances.
20 years of theory and work just to make the first memristor, less than a year to use the new memristor in a device that actually improves over the standard technology. So when will we see commercially available devices? Next year some time at this rate?
Does anyone know what size features the chip was etched at? um? nm? That might give a clue how close it is to being used in other products.
m. It could be a while.
Does anyone know what size features the chip was etched at? um? nm? That might give a clue how close it is to being used in other products.
The memristors made in April were 50 nm wide
Turns out after resistors, capacitors,inductors and memristors the 5th fundamental element is... love?
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In general there are two ways to store data (at least in a RAM type memory module). You can either use a capacitor (like DRAM) or a flip flop (SRAM). The problem with a capacitor is that it looses it's charge after a certain amount of time, and has to be refreshed (which is why DRAM is relatively slow). A flip-flop can be used to store one bit, but in order to do that two separate latches are needed. One latch has 2-4 gates each having 2-8 transistors. All of a sudden there are over a dozen transistors used to store one but. A memristior does not actually help any calculations, it just hopefully make storing data much more efficent
"Williams says. Still, he predicts that memristors will arrive in commercial circuits within the next three years."
It seems fast because nobody was talking about these things for the last 30 years. It's only because of technological advances in circuit printing and general computing that we can make these things and integrate them without having to develop a lot of additional technology. The transistor is very old but only after developing a lot of supporting tech have we been able to shrink them down to fit billions in a processor. That same tech can already be applied to memristors. We don't need to wait decades before we can shrink a memristor down to practical levels for ICs.
Work Safe Porn
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-=Bang Bang=-
Who is the idiot modding this as Funny? A SPICE model is an engineering tool used to diagram circuits. It is NOT related to any of the Spice Girls!!! :p
Where's the link to MetaModerate?? grrr...
Attention all planets of the Solar Federation! We have assumed control! - Neil Peart
Hybrid, transistor, and chip? No, no problem whatsoever. My problem is with memristor, and memristance. They were made up to describe a resistance "setting" being remembered by a variable resistor. And frankly, the only problem I have is that the word originated for written text, where it is fine. I, however, am a big fan of the spoken language and the flow of a well constructed sentence. For a car analogy, a memristor is like a faulty transmission in the car that is a sentence's flow. It lurches and degrades the overall ride.
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Binary was chosen earlier in computer work for it could represent accurately a digit representive such as 1001 equals 9. Also magnetic core memory could hold only the two states.
With memristors (once they are perfected) can have multi-state such as trinary (base 3) or decinary (base 10) eliminating all of the conversion that is neccessary in the present binary system that require cpu cycles. 123 in the decinary system represents 123 where in binary it would be 1111011 and need to be converted in order to be meaningful.
For instance I have heard for those studying DNA that using base 12 has certain benefits in directly expressing information. Perhaps this will open a whole new arena of possibility that previously could only be simulated in binary.
The mind can imagine many new possibilities if the memristor actually is.
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make
Things like these makes you remember that HP isn't just a company that makes crappy consumer products.
I think you could build one from components if you had data about the memristance function. Start with a voltage controlled resistance element (Gxxx) connected to the two exposed terminals. Add a hidden element of a current controlled current source, sensing on the VCR element, injecting current into a hidden capacitor. The voltage on that capacitor is proportional to the total charge that has passed through the memristor device. The exposed VCR element senses voltage on the hidden capacitor, and uses an interpolated table of resistance vs voltage rather than a linear relationship.
That doesn't capture the hysteretic behavior of the current devices, which stop integrating at the some limiting points, but it's a starting point. You could add such behavior with a few more hidden components (back-to-back ideal zeners across the hidden cap, for example), though getting the right behavior might be a little tricky.
Maybe...so long as it isn't constantly fighting deceptipons.
Autopots! Transist and roll out!
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I believe what they mean is that the memristor is "fundamental" in that it provides a symmetrical link between electric charge and magnetic flux. A resistor is the link between current and voltage, a capacitor - voltage and charge, an inductor - current and magnetic flux, and a memristor - magnetic flux and charge. I think. I'm sure someone with a better grounding in electromagnetic physics can clarify this a bit.
I'm standing right here, you insensitive clod!!
The book The Bottomless Well discusses the concept of "the refined energy pyramid" where each level is smaller and more useful than the one below it. Electricity and computer are two levels medium-high on the pyramid. The books shows how auto technology has been rising up the pyramid with increasing fractions of its energy level at more refined levels. The book says about 15% of a modern auto's energy density (excluding hybrids and plug-ins) is now electrical and increasing. Computing is growing too, replacing items like distributors, etc with more efficent computed actuators and increasing mileage. Memisters will probably more compact implement soem electronic functions the other three are used for now.