44 years later, see how memory resistors change the electronics industry

In 1971, physicist Leon Chua proposed the concept of a fourth integrated circuit basic component element. He believes that because of symmetry, new components will be created and added to the existing three constituent elements-resistors, capacitors and sensors. At that time, he named such a new existence as "memory resistor (memristor)", the English word memory and resistor of the hybrid words.

37 years later, the first memory resistor was produced by Hewlett-Packard Company. Today, researchers believe that memory resistors will revolutionize the computer world.

From electrons to ions

The emergence of memory resistors heralds the end of the "electronic age" and the beginning of the "Ionic age".

The transistor has been the main material for making computer chips since it was invented in the 1947. Transistors function through the flow of electrons, and once the flow of electrons is interrupted-such as when a power outage is encountered-all information is lost.

The memory resistor can generate and maintain a safe current through a device that "remembers" the amount of charge previously passed. This feature enables a computer that configures a memory resistor to retain information without relying on storage to the hardware, even if it unforeseen power. In addition, memory resistors in particular is that, compared to transistors, it can break the limits of binary coding.

Work like a brain.

Initially, memory resistors were used primarily to make fast-speed memory chips, which can hold more data but consume less energy.

Jennifer Rupp, an expert in electronic chemistry, is about to serve IBM to develop a machine based on memory resistors, which, she argues, differs from the transistor in that it is no longer based on binary coding-a shift in computer methodology that allows people to create smarter computers. Breaking the 0 and 1 limit, you can calculate the number between 0 and 1, while representing a variety of states, high-speed mathematical and logical operations, more like the human brain mode of operation. This transformation makes computers stronger and has the ability to learn and make decisions, and ultimately pushes us further towards creating artificial intelligence like human.

Transistors are made of silicon, a hard material that is used to control the flow of electrons, thereby managing information. Gordon Moore,intel's co-founder, in 1975, had proposed the famous Moore's law, that when the price unchanged, the number of transistors can be accommodated in the integrated circuit, about 18 months will be increased by one times, the performance will increase by one times. This law has been proven again and again, and it has also been used to tone the rate of computer performance upgrades. However, after the memory resistor appears, such laws may soon end.

Memory resistance technology for such a major breakthrough buried the foreshadowing: memory resistance means the end of the silicon era, its memory function makes the computer can both compute and store dual functions, saving the traditional computer needs to carry out the data transmission cost of the ability to achieve low power consumption, high information processing capacity, Large-capacity data storage and a new logical model provide the possibility.

The competition continues.

In 2014, Hewlett-Packard released its plan to make computers out of memory resistors, which were named "The Machine". According to the plan, the computer will be available in 2020, it will use electronic processing, photon communication, and use of ions to store.

If HP succeeds in developing the computer, it does lead a revolution. Storage technology is the bottleneck that affects the performance development of many computer applications. Memory can be as fast and small as a cache on a processor, and memory can also be slow and large, such as driving a hard drive. The most significant bottleneck is the rearrangement of data between different storage devices and the optimal performance to enable the correct data to be placed in the correct location. HP claims that the database can process Bai updates in one second through the combination of high-speed optical interconnection and memory resistor memory.

The cost of production is increasing, but the benefits are more attractive: the memory resistance power consumption is low, and the processing speed is higher than other silicon microchip transistor information capacity.

Like particles in the field of physics, we have to accumulate a lot of theory before we can really create a memory resistor. Now that we have the ability to make it, the fourth element left behind in the electronics industry may be the key to more human discovery.