News

posted on 01 May 2008 08:44

HP Labs scientists have proved the existence of a Memristor circuit, a nano-scale device that could provide non-volatile DRAM; memory that retains its contents when power is switched off.

Computer main memory; Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), is fast to access but its contents are lost when power is switched off, necessitating computer boot sequences relying on hard disk drives. Non-volatile or flash memory retains its contents on switch-off but is much slower to access.

There are three fundamental electrical circuit building blocks: the resistor; the capacitor; and the inductor. A fourth, the  memory resistor or 'memristor', has been postulated for almost 40 years, originally by Leon Chua of the University of California at Berkeley.

A team of four researchers, led by R. Stanley Williams, in HP's Information and Quantum Systems Lab (IQSL), developed a mathematical model and a physical example of a Memristor using quantum science and nanoscale physics. A paper on this is published in the April 30th edition of Nature, the prestigious and highly creditable scientific journal - otherwise the whole idea might seem an April Fool joke.

The Memristor circuit relies on atoms in the device changing their positions - in a stable fashion - when a voltage is applied. The team developed their mathamatical model and then built an actual nanoscale device that exhibited all the required operating characteristics.

Leon Chua said: "This is an amazing development. It took someone like Stan Williams with a multi-disciplinary background and deep insights to conceive of such a tiny memristor only a few atoms in thickness."

Amazing as this is it will be five or more years, possibly ten or more, before Memristor memory could become commercially available for computers.

The HP IQSL has a singularly impressive mission: "Create the mathematical and physical foundations for the technologies that will form a new information ecosystem, the Central Nervous System for the Earth (CeNSE), consisting of a trillion nanoscale sensors and actuators embedded in the environment and connected via an array of networks with computing systems, software and services to exchange their information among analysis engines, storage systems and end users."

A central nervous system for the earth - there is aiming high and then there is Aiming Really Really High.

^{[Paul Roberts, news editor.]}