"esearchers at HP Labs have solved a decades-old mystery by proving the existence of a fourth basic element in integrated circuits that could make it possible to develop computers that turn on and off like an electric light.
The memristor -- short for memory resistor - could make it possible to develop far more energy-efficient computing systems with memories that retain information even after the power is off, so there's no wait for the system to boot up after turning the computer on. It may even be possible to create systems with some of the pattern-matching abilities of the human brain.
A mathematical model and a physical example that prove the memristor's existence appear in a paper published in the April 30 issue of the journal Nature.
"To find something new and yet so fundamental in the very mature field of electrical engineering is a big surprise," said R. Stanley Williams, an HP Senior Fellow and director of the Information and Quantum Systems Lab (IQSL)."
Link to full article
Link to full article
