Memristor: First Step in Positronics?
Electronics May 12th, 2008Alright, the title is a little strange, but as I was reading about the exciting breakthrough in electronics, the creation of memristors, and I was struck by the following paragraph in a news release:
Williams and his team say they can now take a different approach: “Instead of writing a computer program to simulate a brain or simulate some brain function, we’re actually looking to build some hardware based upon memristors that emulates brain-like functions,” says Williams.
For some reason, I thought to myself, “This is the first step to creating Positronic brains!” Ok, so I am an Isaac Asimov fan and enjoyed his robot stories. Maybe this will have nothing to do with fiction becoming reality, but the possibilities of the memristor are fascinating. RAM that doesn’t lose its memory, instant turn on of computers, 100 gb hard drives the size of 1 cm:
Currently the good folk at HP Labs have exploited this to create simple data storage devices. Using memristors, they have been able to store 100 gigabits on a single die in one square centimeter.
Apparently I am not the only one thinking in terms of science fiction stories. Fluxcapacity has a blog called Flux Capacitor Fabricated at HP. Reading about the memristor really excited me. What ideas does the memristor give to you?
November 5th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
[…] …As We Know It. For some people, that is what they are saying after the election. Actually, they are just saying, “it is the end of the world.” But, I would have written this if McCain had won the election as well. Because, it is the end of the world as we know it. Everyday, there is so much change happening. Sometimes we know about the change, and sometimes we don’t. The change may not even affect us right away, but it will at some point. The memristor being created this year - a change that many people don’t even know about - but it will affect them in a few years. The electronics world is changed everyday. Teaching methods and delivery systems are changing. Gordon Synder and Mike Qaissaunee had a session on E-books, Kindles, and iPhones. Soon, students will not be buying textbooks - but buying something like a Kindle. I know schools that are already using e-books with their laptops. Teaching in Second Life. Unheard of using an online game to teach a few years ago - but now it is becoming very popular. Nanotechnology is all the rage, yet if you look, you will find it has been changing the world through products for the last few years and will be bringing even more change. […]