Memristors: If you don't know about 'em, you certainly will over the next few years. We're probably not talking about the same kind of revolution as the transistor sparked off, but new research has shown they can mimic brain cells, so you never know...
The memristor is actually an amazing little beast, dubbed the electronic "missing link" between transistors (which act as electronic switches or valves) and resistors (which merely stifle the flow of electrical current through them.) The most important effect these tiny slivers of exotic chemicals and silicon can produce is a type of latency--whereby a previous action performed by the memristor can change its behavior to influence the next electrical trick it's used for. Though that doesn't sound like much, it really is important--it means each memristor has a kind of "memory" and that a complex network of them all strung together can do dynamic, clever processing...
The memristor is actually an amazing little beast, dubbed the electronic "missing link" between transistors (which act as electronic switches or valves) and resistors (which merely stifle the flow of electrical current through them.) The most important effect these tiny slivers of exotic chemicals and silicon can produce is a type of latency--whereby a previous action performed by the memristor can change its behavior to influence the next electrical trick it's used for. Though that doesn't sound like much, it really is important--it means each memristor has a kind of "memory" and that a complex network of them all strung together can do dynamic, clever processing...
- 4/2/2010
- by Kit Eaton
- Fast Company
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