Slashdot Log In
HP Creates First Hybrid Memristor Chip
Posted by
timothy
on Tue Nov 25, 2008 11:53 AM
from the stitch-in-time dept.
from the stitch-in-time dept.
An anonymous reader writes "HP researchers have built the first functioning hybrid memristor-transistor chip. Lead researcher Stanley Williams and his team built the very first memristor — the '4th fundamental element' of integrated circuits after resistors, capacitors and inductors — back in April. Memristors can remember their resistance, leading to novel electronic capabilities. The new FPGA circuit uses memristors to perform tasks normally carried out by (many more) transistors and is therefore smaller, more power efficient and cheaper to make, HP says. Memristors could also turn out to be a more compact, faster alternative to flash memory."
Related Stories
[+]
Memristor — 4th Basic Element of Circuits 291 comments
esocid writes "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."
Submission: First Hybrid Memristor Chip Created by HP by Anonymous Coward
[+]
New Memristor Makes Low-Cost, High-Density Memory 86 comments
KentuckyFC writes "A group of electronics engineers have discovered that a thin layer of vanadium oxide acts as a memristor, the fourth basic component of circuits after resistors, capacitors, and inductors that was discovered last year. At a critical temperature, a current passing through the layer causes it to change from an insulating state to a metal-like state, thereby changing its resistance (abstract). The effect lasts many hours — which is what makes the layer a memristor (a resistor with memory). The team says this could be scaled up to make resistive random access memory, or RRAM, at very low cost, from little more than layers of vanadium oxide."
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
Hybrid, eh? (Score:3, Funny)
But does it get better gas mileage??
Unsurprisingly, yes (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Well that was faster than expected... (Score:5, Interesting)
Am I the only when that thought memristors would remain the the 5-10 year category for the next couple of decades? Granted, this is just a proof of concept chip but it is moving along very rapidly compared to most 'game changing' advances.
20 years of theory and work just to make the first memristor, less than a year to use the new memristor in a device that actually improves over the standard technology. So when will we see commercially available devices? Next year some time at this rate?
Re:Well that was faster than expected... (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Well that was faster than expected... (Score:4, Funny)
Right now they still think we are in a recension.
We're in a critical revision of a text?
Parent
Re:Well that was faster than expected... (Score:5, Funny)
Thank you! I'll be here all week!
Parent
From the article (Score:5, Insightful)
"Williams says. Still, he predicts that memristors will arrive in commercial circuits within the next three years."
It seems fast because nobody was talking about these things for the last 30 years. It's only because of technological advances in circuit printing and general computing that we can make these things and integrate them without having to develop a lot of additional technology. The transistor is very old but only after developing a lot of supporting tech have we been able to shrink them down to fit billions in a processor. That same tech can already be applied to memristors. We don't need to wait decades before we can shrink a memristor down to practical levels for ICs.
Parent
Re:Well that was faster than expected... (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Well that was faster than expected... (Score:4, Funny)
Am I the only when that thought memristors would remain the the 5-10 year category for the next couple of decades?...So when will we see commercially available devices?
In 5-10 years.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Ahh, but what's the resolution of that one 'bit'? AFAIK this is an analog device, not at all limited to 1 or 0, but able to be used as such to to the handy-dandy DAC. :-D At first this is a thing for circuit-nerds, but don't despair, as when the circuit-nerds have hand their hands dirty for a minute, computer nerds are going to get to write "programs" for FPGAs, and then not long after that, libraries will emerge that let C nerds (and regular ole' C monkeys) utilize the goodness of these little variable c
size? (Score:2)
Re:size? (Score:5, Funny)
Does anyone know what size features the chip was etched at? um? nm? That might give a clue how close it is to being used in other products.
m. It could be a while.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
You joke but look at this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memristor#Titanium_dioxide_memristor [wikipedia.org]
Although the HP memristor is a major discovery for electrical engineering theory, it has yet to be demonstrated in operation at practical speeds and densities. Graphs in Williams' original report show switching operation at only ~1 Hz. Although the small dimension of the device seem to imply fast operation, the charge carriers move very slowly, with an ion mobility of 10E-10 cm2/(V s). In comparison, the highest known drift ionic mobilities occur in advanced superionic conductors, such as rubidium silver iodide with about 2*10E-4 cm^2/(V s) conducting silver ions at room temperature. Electrons and holes in silicon have a mobility ~1000 cm^2/(V s), a figure which is essential to the performance of transistors. However, a relatively low bias of 1 volt was used, and the plots appear to be generated by a mathematical model rather than a laboratory experiment.[8]
1Hz? Next!
Re:size? (Score:4, Insightful)
the plots appear to be generated by a mathematical model rather than a laboratory experiment
This is what I would say "NEXT!" for, but to each their own.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
1Hz? Next!
The application they talk about is the programmable transistors in FPGAs.
You can find FPGAs in all kinds of consumer electronics. Typically, the chip has some onboard flash from which it loads its configuration during power on. These transistors which load from flash during power on are the ones the researchers are talking about replacing with memresistors (memristors?). For this kind of application, a 1Hz write speed is completely reasonable. The write will be done once in the factory.
Re:size? (Score:5, Informative)
Does anyone know what size features the chip was etched at? um? nm? That might give a clue how close it is to being used in other products.
The memristors made in April were 50 nm wide
Parent
Spice model (Score:3, Insightful)
Is there a spice model available?
Re:Spice model (Score:5, Informative)
Who is the idiot modding this as Funny? A SPICE model is an engineering tool used to diagram circuits. It is NOT related to any of the Spice Girls!!! :p
Where's the link to MetaModerate?? grrr...
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know... I didn't get my degree in EE or anything, but I was able to guess what "spice" was from the context.
So I say it's no excuse.
Re: (Score:2)
FTA:
Ultimately, the next few years could be very important for memristor research. Right now, "the biggest impediment to getting memristors in the marketplace is having [so few] people who can actually design circuits [using memristors]," Williams says. Still, he predicts that memristors will arrive in commercial circuits within the next three years.
So probably not yet. From what I've seen just from a quick Google search, it will involve updating not just the models but the core code as well. [cadence.com]
Re:Spice model (Score:5, Informative)
I think you could build one from components if you had data about the memristance function. Start with a voltage controlled resistance element (Gxxx) connected to the two exposed terminals. Add a hidden element of a current controlled current source, sensing on the VCR element, injecting current into a hidden capacitor. The voltage on that capacitor is proportional to the total charge that has passed through the memristor device. The exposed VCR element senses voltage on the hidden capacitor, and uses an interpolated table of resistance vs voltage rather than a linear relationship.
That doesn't capture the hysteretic behavior of the current devices, which stop integrating at the some limiting points, but it's a starting point. You could add such behavior with a few more hidden components (back-to-back ideal zeners across the hidden cap, for example), though getting the right behavior might be a little tricky.
Parent
**** SPOILER ALERT **** (Score:5, Funny)
Re:**** SPOILER ALERT **** (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
More than 2 states are now possible. (Score:5, Insightful)
Binary was chosen earlier in computer work for it could represent accurately a digit representive such as 1001 equals 9. Also magnetic core memory could hold only the two states.
With memristors (once they are perfected) can have multi-state such as trinary (base 3) or decinary (base 10) eliminating all of the conversion that is neccessary in the present binary system that require cpu cycles. 123 in the decinary system represents 123 where in binary it would be 1111011 and need to be converted in order to be meaningful.
For instance I have heard for those studying DNA that using base 12 has certain benefits in directly expressing information. Perhaps this will open a whole new arena of possibility that previously could only be simulated in binary.
The mind can imagine many new possibilities if the memristor actually is.
Re:More than 2 states are now possible. (Score:4, Informative)
Um, for the most part, the computer only has to convert from binary to decimal when it displays base 10 numbers on the screen (ie using the calculator). It's hardly computer intensive. All the operations (add, subtract, multiply, divide) are going to be in it's native binary, no conversion needed.
Computers convert data all the time - this text you are reading now is really just a series of binary numbers converted to ascii or unicode or whatever with lots of other conversions needed to throw it on the screen.
Native base 10 has been done before (basically ignoring bits representing 10-15) and all that was found was that it wasted space as conversion in those scenarios are beyond trivial. Here's a book for you:
http://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Software/dp/0735611319 [amazon.com]
Parent
Re:More than 2 states are now possible. (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re:More than 2 states are now possible. (Score:4, Interesting)
Thanks for the suggestion on the book.
I can write those books and have in the past. My experience stems from 1962 being a systems Analyst for a computer system. In the old days before IC's and even before transistors were a part of computers the vacuum tube was used.
In those days the adder section, rather than being a single chip was composed of discrete components. Once an adder problem was a wire wrap on the back panel that was making poor connection causing it not to promote a "carry" from the previous position.
I really do understand binary but keep in mind that having more than the two states of binary permits a smaller size over all. For instance the 123 I mentioned needs 7 positions in binary but only 3 positions in decinary.
Watch for it. Eventually this will be the going thing. Binary locked us in and was very restrictive while this invention and others in a similar vein will present opportunities we could not imagine before.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
I'm sure that they will use 2^n states and consider them as groups of bits.
Wow (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Neural nets? (Score:3, Interesting)
This memristor technology sounds like it could be an ideal device for implementing neural nets. Anyone working on that, I wonder?
-jcr
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
huh?
This Memristor technology sounds like it could be an ideal device for mounting lasers onto sharks. Anyone working on that, I wonder?
-SNS
Symbol (Score:2, Interesting)
FPGA FUD from TFA (Score:3, Informative)
This isn't really true. The rising fixed costs of an ASIC is prohibitive for low volume embedded projects where a $1 FPGA will do just fine. High performance FPGA chips are about the same cost as a CPU and they are commonly used as reconfigurable co-processors for supercomputing applications or embedded DSP. And I get way more GigaOps per dollar with FPGAs than with a CPU and for much less power.
Re:How does it replace multiple transistors (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:How does it replace multiple transistors (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
They can replace SRAM cells, which take multiple transistors. They also retain state without needing power (similar to FeRAM, which can also replace SRAM). However, unlike FeRAM the memristor can also store analog values.
In the digital realm they're likely useful mostly as memory. However, given the analog properties, they could be useful in creating "fuzzy" neural nets.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Is there any free circuit simulation software that includes simulated memristors for me to fool about with?
I still don't get quite how they work.
Re: (Score:2)
"Hybrid memristor-transistor chip" doesn't really sound ridiculous to me. Would you have preferred he created a marketing name to describe a new fundamental technology?
Current technology contains stuff like "metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors," we just don't call them that very often.
Re: (Score:2)
Hymtric?
MOSFET is a pretty common "spoken acronym" in the electronics world.
Re:Unfortunate (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:Unfortunate (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Unfortunate (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Unfortunate:Commitment. (Score:2)
"Now, who wants to try their hand at coming up with a better name?"
Hysterical Electronics:They lose their cool before you do.
Re:Unfortunate (Score:5, Funny)
Autopots! Transist and roll out!
Parent
Re:Feds Deregulating Hybrid Corn for ETHANOL?? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:4th? Try 5th fundamental (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:4th? Try 5th fundamental (Score:4, Informative)
It is the fourth fundamental linear circuit element. Transistors (I = k*V^2) and diodes (I = e^V) are not linear. Resistors V = k*I, capacitors I = k*dV/dt (the derivative is a linear operation), inductors V = k*dI/dt, memristors V=k(t)*I are linear.
The reason there are four linear circuit elements is clear if you write these equations in terms and flux and charge.
Parent