New Memristor Makes Low-Cost, High-Density Memory

KentuckyFC writes "A group of electronics engineers have discovered that a thin layer of vanadium oxide acts as a memristor, the fourth basic component of circuits after resistors, capacitors, and inductors that was discovered last year. At a critical temperature, a current passing through the layer causes it to change from an insulating state to a metal-like state, thereby changing its resistance (abstract). The effect lasts many hours — which is what makes the layer a memristor (a resistor with memory). The team says this could be scaled up to make resistive random access memory, or RRAM, at very low cost, from little more than layers of vanadium oxide."

Comments

Re:Melts like a chocolate bar

[Anonymous Coward]

correction:
it's actually 0.6 mA, so that would be 0.24W/byte, and only during the (very short) write pulse. Still some work to do, but it could possibly end up more efficient than flash memory.

Re:Fuse

[trolltalk.com]

resistance changing based on past... fuses do that too!

Yes. Resistance is fusile.

Re:Not vaporware...

[trolltalk.com]

As the memristor was developed in HP Labs while working on fabrication techniques for "normal" memory, the fabrication technology is already here. It'll only be a short while before we'll see memristors in consumer products.

"HP prototyped a crossbar latch memory using the devices that can fit 100 gigabits in a square centimeter.[10] HP has reported that its version of the memristor is about one-tenth the speed of DRAM.[27]"

So, knowing HP, we can expect memristors that need a new cartridge to "refill the memory" every few weeks.
And your initial memsistor will have just a "starter cart" that only accesses 1/4 the data.
And for best performance, you should only use genuine HP Brand electricity.
And random blocks of memory in the memristors won't be accessible under linux. Especially when you try to send data via a wireless connection.

Re:It is NOT a fourth basic component

[Hodapp]

i = current
q = charge
V = voltage
phi = magnetic flux

dq = i dt (current)
dphi = V dt (voltage)
dV = r di (resistance)
dq = C dv (capacitance)
dphi = L di (inductance)
(see http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/may08/6207)
It was hypothesized that some device should exist that connects charge and flux, and follows the relationship: dphi = M dq. This is "memristance." It was predicted in 1971 as the "fourth basic circuit element"; see: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=1083337
They were fundamentally theoretically new then. They just had not been physically realized and connected with that theory until recently.
Please don't dismiss them as "pure marketing hype" without some research.