[Robotgroup] the memristor buzz

[Gray Mack]

In case anyone hasn't heard, the cnn article hypes it
a bit, I found more Q&A on the slashdot site.

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/30/211228&from=rss

text quoted below -----------

"Researchers at HP Labs have solved a decades-old
mystery by proving the existence of a fourth basic
element in integrated circuits that could make it
possible to develop computers that turn on and off
like an electric light. The memristor — short for
memory resistor — could make it possible to develop
far more energy-efficient computing systems with
memories that retain information even after the power
is off, so there's no wait for the system to boot up
after turning the computer on. It may even be possible
to create systems with some of the pattern-matching
abilities of the human brain. Leon Chua, a
distinguished faculty member at the University of
California at Berkeley, initially theorized about and
named the element in an academic paper published 37
years ago. Chua argued that the memristor was the
fourth fundamental circuit element, along with the
resistor, capacitor and inductor, and that it had
properties that could not be duplicated by any
combination of the other three elements."
 
----------- from slashdot comment
There are four fundamental circuit variables; current,
voltage, charge, and flux.

We can define the relationships between charge and
current and between flux and voltage. (charge as an
integral of current, flux as an integral of voltage
over time)

A resistor provides a function to relate voltage and
current.
A capacitor provides a function to relate charge and
voltage.
An inductor provides a function to relate flux and
current.

Until now we did not know how to construct a passive
device which would provide a function relating charge
and flux. The only remaining combination of these
fundamental variables.


      ____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better friend, newshound, and 
know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try it now.  http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ