Scientists Finally Create Memristor

A memristor (memory resistor) is a basic electronic circuit element like a resistor, capacitor or inductor. It was first described in 1971 in a series of equations written by Leon Chua, but until now engineers were unable to actually build one.

A memristor's resistance depends on how much charge has gone through it. Push the charge one way and the resistance increases. Push the charge the other way and it decreases. It remembers this resistance until a charge starts flowing again and it changes.

Scientists at HP have finally created a memristor. The challenge now is going to be to figure out what to do with it. Right off the bat it appears that non-volatile memory would be an excellent application; imagine computers that would instantly boot up right where they left off before you shut them down. Analog computers that work more like the human brain are going to be one giant step closer soon.

I'll bet this is how Skynet gets created...

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