Brain-Inspired 'Memcomputer' Constructed

New submitter DorkFest writes: "Inspired by the human brain, UC San Diego scientists have constructed a new kind of computer that stores information and processes it in the same place. This prototype 'memcomputer' solves a problem involving a large dataset more quickly than conventional computers, while using far less energy. ... Such memcomputers could equal or surpass the potential of quantum computers, they say, but because they don't rely on exotic quantum effects are far more easily constructed." The team, led by UC San Diego physicist Massimiliano Di Ventra published their results in the journal Science Advances.

Comments

I didn't see the point until I read "analog"

[msobkow]

I didn't see the point to this design until I noticed the part about it being "analog".

Until then, I wasn't seeing the difference between the memcomputer and older non-symmetric parallel processing machines which used to cluster a CPU with it's memory for each node/board of the system, but without the shared memory of an SMP system.

Still, I'm afraid I can't see much practical application to their system, and they don't give any examples of the types of problems they think it'll be suitable for.

Re:Wat?

[drinkypoo]

Stores information and processes it in the same place? You mean like every other computer ever?

Well, no. I didn't RTFA because I'm not new here, but ordinary computers have to copy the data from memory into a register before they can process it. They don't process it in-place. And most data is not kept in memory all the time, either, but I figured they meant the first sense.