'Memtransistor' Brings World Closer To Brain-Like Computing

the gmr writes: According to a recent article published in the journal Nature, researchers at Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering have developed a "memtransistor," a device that both stores information in memory and processes information. The combined transistor and memory resistor work more like a neuron and purports to make computing more brain-like. The new "memtransistor" would use less energy than digital computers and eliminate the need to run memory and processing as separate functions while also being more brain-like. Lead researcher Mark C. Hersam clarified the brain-like efficacy of the memtransistor: "...in the brain, we don't usually have one neuron connected to only one other neuron. Instead, one neuron is connected to multiple other neurons to form a network. Our device structure allows multiple contacts, which is similar to the multiple synapses in neurons... [but] making dozens of devices, as we have done in our paper, is different than making a billion, which is done with conventional transistor technology today." Hersam reported no barriers to scaling up to billions of devices. This new technology would make smart devices more capable and possibly more seemingly-human. The devices may also promote advances in neural networks and brain-computer interfaces, new technologies also recently reported at Futurism.

Comments

For those unfamiliar with memristors...

[jouassou]

I recommend checking out e.g. Wikipedia's summary of the theoretical motivation behind them. It's not just about making "computers more like brains", it's rather that memristors are the fourth passive electronic component (the first three being the resistor, capacitor, and inductor). Once we've got a full set of passive electronic components, perhaps a lot of circuits that today have to be built using active components (transistors, op-amps, etc.) could be replaced by smaller and more efficient passive equivalents.

Re:For those unfamiliar with memristors...

[postbigbang]

The problem with the passive components is the same as it's always been, and why Von Neumann idealized state machines as computing elements. Adding a state value helps, but causes multiple concurrent states.

Memtransistors don't have checksums, and their state isn't arbitrated in such a way as to give them the capacity to be shared without other active components. Because there is no checksum or CRC easily possible, coupled to the logic that sets (and checks) their value, means that they have limited architectural applications until several facets of their nature can be changed.

Look at 100 people, and 33 of them have faulty neurons. Analogizing states in this way, memtransistors, could also be capacitive arrays, inductive arrays, LC/LCR arrays, and so forth. Their present state of changeability comes nothing close to the high speed memory (transient and charged state--think nv-ram) present today.

There are great potential applications in ASICs, (fp) gate arrays, and other constructions, but just as GPUs don't replace CPUs, arrays made of memtransistors aren't going to replace either CPUs or GPUs, FPGAs, ASICs, etc. They're not more "brain-like", rather, they're a different architectural models whose limitations still haven't been surmounted.

It's not a fully passive device-- it's a resistor with a third leg in terms of boolean logic.