Since the dawn of electronics, we've had only three types of circuit components--resistors, inductors, and capacitors. But in 1971, UC Berkeley researcher Leon Chua theorized the possibility of a fourth type of component, one that would be able to measure the flow of electric current: the memristor. Now, just 37 years later, Hewlett-Packard has built one.
The Memristor (Memory Resistor) is a device whose electrical resistance is not constant but depends on the history of current that had previously flowed through the device. meaning its present resistance depends on how much electric charge has flowed in what direction through it in the past.
By the looks of this, the Memristor is going to have a big impact on electronics with some annalists claiming that Memristors will replace all universal memory such as hard drives, RAM, flash, etc. in all computer devices in about 5-10 years.
Exciting stuff,
More to come soon.
By Padraigh Walsh
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