memristor
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HP successfully tests its vision of memory-focused computing
HP's grand dream for the future of computing, The Machine, is no longer just a set of clever ideas and hardware research. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (the business-focused company that emerged from HP's split) has successfully tested its Memory-Driven Computing architecture, where memory is more important to completing tasks than raw processing power. It's just a proof-of-concept prototype, but it shows that everything works: compute nodes that share a pool of fast but permanent memory, speedy photonics-based data links and the custom software needed to make it all run.
Brain-like memory gets an AI test drive
Humanity just took one step closer to computers that mimic the brain. University of Southampton researchers have demonstrated that memristors, or resistors that remember their previous resistance, can power a neural network. The team's array of metal-oxide memristors served as artificial synapses to learn (and re-learn) from "noisy" input without intervention, much like you would. And since the memristors will remember previous states when turned off, they should use much less power than conventional circuitry -- ideal for Internet of Things devices that can't afford to pack big batteries.
Scientists make a 'true' neural network using brain-like chips
Many people have built brain-like neural networks that can learn on their own, but they're typically using plain old silicon to do it. Wouldn't it be better if the chips themselves were brain-like? A mix of Italian and Russian researchers might help. They've created a neural network based on plastic memristors, or resistors that remember their previous electrical resistance. Since they effectively work like brain synapses, they're ideal for creating "true" neural networks where signal transfers create long-lasting effects. And importantly, the choices of technology and materials allows them to be very small (as tiny as 10 nanometers, in theory) without resorting to exotic substances -- you could design a neural network as compact as a regular chip without reinventing the wheel.
HP abandons futuristic tech for its futuristic supercomputer
HP has abruptly changed course on its 'Machine,' a new type of memory-driven computer it thinks will radically alter large-scale data processing. When the company first launched it last year, the plan was to use a new kind of memory chip called the "memristor," which is as fast as DRAM but can permanently store data. The problem is that the tech, which HP expected to commercialize with Hynix in 2013, still isn't ready. Rather than giving up, though, HP has decided to take it in another direction by using both conventional RAM and phase change memory.
Brain-like circuit performs human tasks for the first time
There are already computer chips with brain-like functions, but having them perform brain-like tasks? That's another challenge altogether. Researchers at UC Santa Barbara aren't daunted, however -- they've used a basic, 100-synapse neural circuit to perform the typical human task of image classification for the first time. The memristor-based technology (which, by its nature, behaves like an 'analog' brain) managed to identify letters despite visual noise that complicated the task, much as you would spot a friend on a crowded street. Conventional computers can do this, but they'd need a much larger, more power-hungry chip to replicate the same pseudo-organic behavior.
HP's Machine technology rethinks the basics of computing
We've seen bits and pieces of technology that hint at the future of computing, but HP has just taken a big, big step toward bringing them all together. The company has unveiled The Machine (yes, that's the name), a processing architecture designed to cope with the flood of data from an internet of things. It uses clusters of special-purpose cores, rather than a few generalized cores; photonics link everything instead of slow, energy-hungry copper wires; memristors give it unified memory that's as fast as RAM yet stores data permanently, like a flash drive.
Intel designs neuromorphic chip concept, our android clones are one step closer
Most neurochip projects have been designed around melding the brain and technology in the most literal sense. Intel's Circuit Research Laboratory, however, is betting that we might get along just fine with neuromorphic (brain-like) computers. By using valves that only have to respond to the spin of an electron, as well as memristors that work as very efficient permanent storage, the researchers believe they have a design that operates on the same spikes of energy that our noggins use rather than a non-stop stream. Along with simply using power levels closer to those of our brains, the technique allows for the very subtle, massively parallel computations that our minds manage every day but which are still difficult to reproduce with traditional PCs. There's still a long path to take before we're reproducing Prometheus' David (if we want to), but we've at least started walking in the right direction.
Researchers develop silicon ReRAM chip, send warning shot to Flash memory
Does the word ReRAM ring a bell? No? Well, the key point is that it's much faster than NAND memory, and it's making its way into chips from Elpida, Sharp and Panasonic. Further proof that ReRAM is on the up and up? Researchers at University College London have used this technology to make a chip that operates at 100 times the speed of standard Flash memory. The device is composed completely of silicon oxide, which improves the chip's resistance, and it doesn't require a vacuum to work (which makes it cheaper to produce). But this new chip is more than just a faster alternative to Flash; its ability to move between different states of conductivity means it can be configured as a memristor, or a device that handles both data-processing and storage tasks. In the long term, researchers hope this technology can pave the way for silicon oxide CPUs -- and UCL is already using this design to help develop transparent memory chips for mobile devices. Need to know more? Feast your heart on the gritty details via the link below.
Korean bendy memory could make plenty of trendy tech
Flexible displays aren't much good unless there's flexible memory alongside. It's been attempted before, but bending memory pushes the individual transistors so close that they begin to interfere with one another -- causing degradation and shortening the device lifespan to just a single day. The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has solved the problem by pairing transistors with memristors, which are immune to such annoyances. By fixing both inside a flexible substrate, you can push them as near as you like without any electo-radiation spanners jamming up the works. This also means that the flexible RRAM behaves just like flash memory; maybe in the future it won't just be antennas sewn into our clothes.
NC State University researchers create soft memory machine, just add water
We're not big fans of the word moist, nor the objects it usually describes. But if you call it mushy, slap some storage capabilities into it and develop it in a North Carolina State University lab -- well, then we're all smiles. Which is exactly what researchers at the school have accomplished with their "similar to the human brain" memory device (mmmm... brains). Known as memristors, these biocompatible electronics are ideal for harsh, wet environments that other wussier tech dare not tread. Ripe with the wobbly "properties of Jell-O," the squishy water-based gel houses gallium and iridium alloys that fluctuate between on / off electrically conductive and resistive states -- that's 1 and 0, respectively. Capacity for the gelatinous invention isn't yet optimized for significant real-world use, but you can bet this thing'll be making its way into Krang's exo-suit anyday now. Bill Cosby approved PR after the break.
HP Labs teams up with Hynix to manufacture memristors, plans assault on flash memory in 2013
The memristor's come a long way since being hypothesized back in 1971. If you ask HP Labs, the history of this particular memory technology didn't hit its next milestone for almost four decades, when the company produced the very first memory resistor chip. Just last month, the Labs group proved its little transistor could handle logic and data storage, and as of today, the company's announcing a joint development agreement with Hynix Semiconductor, with a goal of bringing these chips to the market -- and rendering flash memory obsolete. That challenge against flash (not a very popular naming convention these days, it seems) was thrown down by HP Labs Senior Fellow Stan Williams, who posits that the memristor is "an universal memory that over a sufficient amount of time will replace flash, DRAM, magnetic hard disks, and possibly even SRAM." But onto the immediate, albeit aspirational goal (i.e. not a commitment, which he stressed on multiple occasions): Williams hopes to see the transistors in consumer products by this time 2013, for approximately the price of what flash memory will be selling for at the time but with "at least twice the bit capacity." He also claims a much smaller power requirement of "at least a factor of 10" and an even faster operation speed, in addition to previously-discussed advantages like read / write endurance. With Hynix on board, the goal is to make these "drop-in replacements" for flash memory, whereby the same protocols and even the same connectors will work just fine. For HP, however, Williams says there'll be an initial competitive advantage for the company due to its comfort level with memristors' unique properties, but that other companies will be encouraged to license the technology and experiment with new possibilities in hardware design. Williams wouldn't give any specific product examples where we might initially see the memristor, except to repeat that it'll be anywhere and everywhere flash memory is. Fighting words, indeed. We normally don't get excited about minute hardware components -- not often, at least -- but we gotta say, the seeds of the future look mighty interesting. Can't wait to see what germinates. Highlights from our talk with Williams after the break. %Gallery-100780%
HP touts memristor development, bleak future for transistors
Silicon transistors are the stuff all our dreams of android sheep are made of, but there will ultimately be a limit to how many of them you can squish together inside a processing chip. The progressive avoidance of physical limitations by moving to yet more minuscule dimensions is admirable, but some folks at HP seem to believe the answer lies in a whole different technology. The company has been talking to the New York Times about its memristor (memory resistor) development, which promises to perform both data processing and storage tasks (even without an electrical charge), while also being capable of stacking in a three-dimensional array that would allow for vast scaling potential down the line. Promises for the future include a three nanometer memristor that can switch on and off in a nanosecond, as well as a 20GB per square centimeter memory density that we might expect to arrive within three years. If we believe the dudes in the white coats, that is. The important thing is that memristor-based storage has already been tested to successfully perform "hundreds of thousands" of read and write operations without failing, so the potential is indeed there. Now we just need a bit of luck and a smidgen of patience.
Are memristors the future of Artifical Intelligence? DARPA thinks so
New Scientist has recently published an article that discusses the memristor, the long theorized basic circuit element that can generate voltage from a current (like a resistor), but in a more complex, dynamic manner -- with the ability to "remember" previous currents. As we've seen, HP has already made progress developing hybrid memristor-transistor chips, but now the hubbub is the technology's applications for artificial intelligence. Apparently, synapses have complex electrical responses "maddeningly similar" to those of memristors, a realization that led Leon Chua (who first discovered the memristor in 1971) to say that synapses are memristors, "the missing circuit element I was looking for" was with us all along, it seems. And of course, it didn't take long for DARPA to jump into the fray, with our fave DoD outfit recently announcing its Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics Program (SyNAPSE -- cute, huh?) with the goal of developing "biological neural systems" that can "autonomously process information in complex environments by automatically learning relevant and probabilistically stable features and associations." In other words, they see this as a way to make their killer robots a helluva lot smarter -- and you know what that means, don't you?Read - New Scientist: "Memristor minds: The future of artificial intelligence"Read - DARPA: "Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics"
HP shows off first hybrid memristor-transistor chip
HP broke some considerable new ground by creating the very first "memristor" earlier this year, but it looks like it didn't rest on its laurels for very long, as it has now also taken the wraps off the first hybrid memristor-transistor chip at (where else?) the inaugural Memristor and Memristor Systems Symposium. According to the researchers at HP Labs, the memristors are able to do the job of the transistors they replace more efficiently, letting you use less of them when space is a priority, or the same amount or, conceivably, more of 'em to get some increased performance, which the researchers say could "give Moore's Law a boost." As if that wasn't enough, the researchers also say that memristors could also allow for faster, smaller, and more energy-efficient flash storage, and allow for field-programmable gate array (or FPGAs) that are not only more efficient, but considerably less expensive as well. Of course, there's plenty more experimenting that needs to be done, but HP says that the first commercial circuits using memristors could arrive within the next three years.[Via Slashdot]
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.
