The 4th Electrical Element, Memristor
Last year HP Labs was able to create the long theorized electrical element, the Memristor. While most people have not heard anything about the memristor, it will soon change the whole face of our electronics world. The Memristor was a theoretical element in electronics that was postulated in the late 1960’s and was finally created in 2008. Our entire electronics work today is only based on the other 3 elements – Resistor, Capacitor, and Inductor.
Why should you care?
Imagine your next computer with 10 terabytes of RAM, with no hard drive and no need to “load” programs. Imagine the same computer powered off without loosing any information, requiring no voltage draw and at a fraction of the size of the smallest computers today – heck I could have described the iPhone of the future.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Analog processors, extremely fast crossbars, and others are on the near horizon. 20-50 years? No. I’m talking about the next 2-5 years.
Here’s a few links regarding the memristor: