Memristor, Discovery....?

[xor]

Source EWeek

HP Labs engineers are claiming a breakthrough in the field of electrical engineering that could lead to an entirely new class of chip memory that might one day replace traditional DRAM technology.

In the journal Nature, engineers with HP Labs published a paper April 30 that details the discovery of a fourth fundamental circuit element within electrical engineering called a memristor, short for memory resistor.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Storage/HP-...LSTR050208FEA1

The discovery of the fabled 4th circuit element. Is this a discovery or an invention? Man, now I have to go back to Engineering School :-). The dynamics of this element/material sound very interesting. An element that "passively" retains the data that it has received.

Very cool...!!!!! Extreme low power or no power memory. I'm still not sure whether it's technically a discovery or an invention but sounds good to me.

Reminds me of the time when Scottie introduced transparent aluminum to the guy with the MAC in the Star Trek save the whales movie.

xor

[Greyhatter]

Re: Memristor, Discovery....?

Very cool...!!!!! Extreme low power or no power memory. I'm still not sure whether it's technically a discovery or an invention but sounds good to me.

Reminds me of the time when Scottie introduced transparent aluminum to the guy with the MAC in the Star Trek save the whales movie.

xor

Works at the molecular level where energy is exchanged then replaced then exchanged again then replaced. I wonder how long till it fails to hold memory? Even USB thumb drives only average 5000 writes before skipping a beat on the way to decline (so the story goes).

Computer? Oh, computer?

[streaker69]

Re: Memristor, Discovery....?

Transparent Aluminum you say? I just mixed up a batch, and I have the pictures to prove it. ;)