HP creates radical 'memristor' technology, brains explode

"Memristors" are one of several memory technologies that have been theorized and promised in the coming years. HP has made a real memristor, however, and the way solid state memory is created and stored could have just changed forever. First theorized in 1971, memristors are basic circuits like resistors, capacitors, and inductors. These circuits are able to store data by allowing their levels of electrical resistance to fluctuate between high and low, or 0 and 1 to a computer. Like flash memory, they retain that data without power -- except they do it all on one circuit and at the speed of D-RAM. In the end, we could be looking at a whole new kind of storage, as long as someone can figure out how to get these things onto integrated circuits. Nerds hats off, return to your fanboyism -- now.

[JLTate @ Apr 30th 2008 4:11PM]

Interesting!

[Flashpoint @ Apr 30th 2008 9:17PM]

Im waiting for Quantum Computers for the home.

Then, the question won't be "can we run Crysis"...it will be, how many sessions of Crysis would we like to run simultaneously.

[Mic2000 @ May 1st 2008 5:24AM]

You mean then the AI will calculate every possible movement from you so it will always win. Yeah, the future will be nice...

[Matthew @ Apr 30th 2008 4:16PM]

All I can say is: bring it on... I believe that storage technology needs to play a bit of catch up to the rest of computing. Any news about new solid state memory (methods) is good news in my book.

[Nabil @ Apr 30th 2008 4:17PM]

I like what HP is been doing in the last couple of years...

kudos!

[phanbouy @ Apr 30th 2008 4:21PM]

yeah those virus infected thumb drives were a riot

[ethana2 @ Apr 30th 2008 5:27PM]

They should do that more often- maybe people would get some sense, OS-wise.

[Nabil @ Apr 30th 2008 5:37PM]

I'll take a virus any day over buying a brand new computer for my kids, full of porn .

At least I can reformat my computer, but what do I do to an eight year old's brain?

http://consumerist.com/consumer/apple/apple-sells-refreshed-laptop-filled-with-porn-to-11-year-old-girl-218422.php

[phanbouy @ Apr 30th 2008 5:46PM]

ah well. they gotta learn sometime eh?

[paul34 @ Apr 30th 2008 11:11PM]

@ Nabil

So basically, the father forgets to delete all his porn, his daughter finds out, and he tries to save face? ;-)

[laokoon2600 @ May 1st 2008 8:43AM]

@Nabil
tell her that sex isn't evil, even if the us society tries to suggest otherwise. it's natural and she will enjoy it later.

[looseinthedeuce @ Apr 30th 2008 4:26PM]

I'm sure wikipedia has an answer, but you should have left the nerd hat on long enough to explain what differentiates a "memristor" from a resistor/inductor/capacitor/transistor....for those of us who never take off our nerd hats :)

[brokenkeyboard @ May 1st 2008 2:59PM]

Somehow the current re-distributes ions in the device, which changes the resistance value of it.

instead of storing a charge like a capacitor, it stores a resistance value. So when current goes through it, its resistance changes over time, and stays that way until reset by an opposite current. Something like that, but I don't fully understand yet.

Also, some of the articles I was reading also said that this somehow disproves large portions of circuit theory. Which I really don't understand at all.

[Brian @ Apr 30th 2008 4:32PM]

I was hoping for video.... :(

[mcheddadi @ Apr 30th 2008 4:34PM]

"except they do it all on one circuit and at the speed of D-RAM"
Please elaborate.

[Tonbo @ Apr 30th 2008 6:03PM]

Um... yeah. That's a bit of blogger artistic license I suppose because they actually run ten times slower than D-ram.

"The most significant limitation that the H.P. researchers said the new technology faces is that the memristors function about 10 times more slowly than today’s DRAM memory cells." -NYTimes

[Sal @ Apr 30th 2008 4:44PM]

I read the Cnet article: "If memristors can be commercialized, it could lead to very dense, energy-efficient memory chips..." So my only querstions are; when, and how much faster can i play cryss...

[IT-Accountant @ Apr 30th 2008 4:50PM]

but can it play doom?


lol PLEASE DO NOT BLAST ME IT WAS A JOKE!!!!!!!!

[Aaron Wanker @ Apr 30th 2008 4:51PM]

Hey It-Accountant... yes I am involved with CFL, and do you happen to be from NJ?

[IT-Accountant @ Apr 30th 2008 5:01PM]

Yes! lol I think I know who you are... and what you're capable of!

You still on facebook? I'll send you a note. we need to catch up.

[ethana2 @ Apr 30th 2008 5:28PM]

How romantic ;)

[phanbouy @ Apr 30th 2008 5:31PM]

accounting is bad for your creativity

[Aaron Wanker @ Apr 30th 2008 7:01PM]

@ ethana2
There is nothing romantic about it! We're both straight guys who have known eachother for 4 years...

@phanbouy
I totally agree.

@IT-Accountant
alright, that makes me feel better... at first I thought you were leaf-eaters brother (Robert), stalking me to make sure I wasn't doing anything non work related during work hours... thats a relief.

[disciple83 @ Apr 30th 2008 5:09PM]

it's interesting to see all the crazy developments in memory technology I've been reading about. This concept is new to me, and while I am still glad to see it could easily go into production at any time, I still wanna know what happened to MRAM, the chips that supposedly used magnetic fields to open and close circuit pathways. This was also supposed to be able to store data without power, but I haven't heard anything about it for some time.

[Kohack @ Apr 30th 2008 5:50PM]

MRAM? Seriously I'm holding one right now.
As far as we've tested they actually work but you wouldn't believe the problems in getting these things manufactured on any scale.

The ones we have don't quite work like typical RAM chips but they're not meant for consumers yet.

[disciple83 @ Apr 30th 2008 5:49PM]

i suppose that is why i haven't heard anything about it recently. Thanks!

[tekdemon @ Apr 30th 2008 5:37PM]

Ah, finally! A memory that's permanent, and yet fast enough to run my new advanced AI on. That was just the last thing I needed to finish building my T-800 home cleaning robot.

[Aaron Wanker @ Apr 30th 2008 7:00PM]

@ ethana2
There is nothing romantic about it! We're both straight guys who have known eachother for 4 years...

@phanbouy
I totally agree.

@IT-Accountant
alright, that makes me feel better... at first I thought you were leaf-eaters brother (Robert), stalking me to make sure I wasn't doing anything non work related during work hours... thats a relief.

[Richard Lai @ Apr 30th 2008 9:25PM]

Wow... Finally, something revolutionary is about to take place...

[SoreThumb @ Apr 30th 2008 10:02PM]

GIVE, MUST BUY NOW
MUST BUY NOW
GIVE

[nintendo fanboy hater @ Apr 30th 2008 10:03PM]

i had an idea for gel based chips with in-laid circuits but i am nowhere near smart enough to figure out how to make it work i give all who read this permission to develop it. good luck... mixing these memristors and the gel chips would give infinite storage but hell WD would never sell another hard drive at that point.

[UKNigel @ Apr 30th 2008 10:36PM]

What a coincidence! I had an idea for a gel-based flying car, but I too am not smart enough to implement it.

[/sarcasm]

[Orpheus @ May 1st 2008 2:47AM]

Woulda been funnier without the html tag.

[UKNigel @ May 2nd 2008 5:29PM]

Too bad that's not even pseudo html. I think BBcode is the word you're looking for.

[Moo2 @ Apr 30th 2008 11:16PM]

photoshopped

[tekdroid @ May 1st 2008 12:43AM]

...the secret is HP printer Ink-based memory. But it's currently priced like liquid gold.

[J @ May 1st 2008 4:47PM]

So maybe this means it would be good to time to buy HPQ before someone can explain this in terms understandable to stock brokers.

[motors4fun @ May 1st 2008 6:14PM]

A memristor is not a circuit, neither is a resistor, capacitor or inductor. it is just a component in a circuit.

[Jamie @ Jun 17th 2008 1:35PM]

hi josh - now the engineers have figured out how to engineer a controllable nanoscale memristor switch -- meaning it's now possible to design them into integrated circuits.

see : http://www.hpl.hp.com/news/2008/apr-jun/engineering_memristor.html

(full disclosure: I am the author of the story above.)