Memristor Discovered
A nanoscale electrical device that changes resistance with an applied voltage has been fabricated by engineers at HP labs. Announced in a paper published in the April 30 issue of Nature, the memristor is considered to be the fourth type of basic electronic component.
It is believed that the memristor will revolutionize computing, as it retains its memory of state even when the supply voltage has been removed from a circuit. Use of memristors in memory circuits will allow the circuits to lose power without losing data, as well as save energy consumption.
First theorized by Leon Chua at UC Berkeley 37 years ago, the memristor was fabricated by Stan Williams at HP Labs in Palo Alto, California. Formed from a 5 nanometer thick strand of semiconducting titanium dioxide sandwiched between two platinum slivers, the memristor changes resistance with the application of a certain voltage for a given amount of time.
The memristor opens the door for the creation of non-volatile memory and computers that do not need to be booted up when they are started. The memristor only operates because of the unusual properties of matter at the nano scale. It remains to be seen what new technology will evolve from this discovery, but the possibilities are great.
