HP Creates First Hybrid Memristor Chip 155
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."
Hybrid, eh? (Score:3, Funny)
But does it get better gas mileage??
Unsurprisingly, yes (Score:5, Interesting)
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)
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?
Re:Well that was faster than expected... (Score:5, Funny)
Thank you! I'll be here all week!
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm afraid it's a little too early to mod him "funny."
Typo? (Score:2)
Yes, the U.S. Constitution.
Thank you! I'll be here all week!
I think you have a typo there. You really meant "Communist Manifesto".
Re: (Score:2)
If HP have *any* brains at all, they'll cut everything else they have going on to bring this to market.
If everything works out, the development of this technology could almost be as important as the development of the transistor was in the 20th century.
Now, can we start pooling out money to buy this technology from of HP to put in the public domain for the benefit of mankind?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'll remember that link, though, for future occasions where I need to be condescending while at the same time mildly informative.
Re: (Score:2)
I agree. However, part of the definition of "recession", and a central part of the definition of "depression" is in particular, There's no savings, no "cushion" to maintain operations during a downturn. Naturally, credit tightens up. (This one reason the Fed loosens the money supply during recessions: Easier credit implies easier borrowing implies business investment in development, equipment, etc.)
I (developer not economist) have always had a problem with one aspect of the way U.S. capitalism is practiced
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.
Re: (Score:1)
So when will we see commercially available devices?
The article says around three years, and from what I understood initially could be used to lower the cost and/or lower the size and/or increase the performance of FPGA circuits amongst other applications, but the memristor knowledge isn't widespread in the development community.
Re:Well that was faster than expected... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
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
Re: (Score:2)
Unless the resistor can store more than 1 level of resistance.
Re: (Score:2)
In other words, the more current that has flowed through the memristor, the higher the resistance. This suggests all sorts of applications, from timing devices (coupled with a cap or two), to the obvious memory application, to who knows what.
It's as if chemists had discovered another element -- a fourth one, thought to exist but never before seen, where previously there h
Re: (Score:2)
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.
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.
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
Re: (Score:1, Funny)
I believe yours says Etch-a-Sketch on the side.
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...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Sorry bud, but SPICE is for simulation, not diagramming (CAD software is for the latter).
You were so confident about that observation that you had to write two comments, I see.
Re: (Score:2)
He who controls the SPICE, controls the universe!
Re: (Score:2)
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, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
See the original article for equivalent diagrams.
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=1083337 [ieee.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Unfortunate (Score:1, Flamebait)
I get it, its a hybridization of technologies, but that does not require a name which is so ridiculous to pronounce. Say it outload a few times.
Now, who wants to try their hand at coming up with a better name?
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)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Unfortunate (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Unfortunate (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
For a car analogy, a memristor is like a faulty transmission in the car that is a sentence's flow. It lurches and degrades the overall ride.
Pronounce it as mem-reh-store. That flows just as easily as trans-zis-store.
Re: (Score:2)
Mem-riss-tor isn't exactly hard to say either.
Re: (Score:2)
* I couldn't properly use the following strings since IPA is filtered out by Slashdot even in HTML entity notatio
Re: (Score:2)
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: (Score:2)
Re:Unfortunate (Score:5, Funny)
Autopots! Transist and roll out!
How does it replace multiple transistors (Score:1)
Re:How does it replace multiple transistors (Score:5, Informative)
Re:How does it replace multiple transistors (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
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:2)
All resistors "remember their resistance". What the memristor does is something quite different and outside the range of comprehension of the author of the linked article. Go read the Wikipedia article.
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.
**** SPOILER ALERT **** (Score:5, Funny)
Re:**** SPOILER ALERT **** (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
No, it is the flux-capacitor.(love is the 7th element)
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]
Re:More than 2 states are now possible. (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, sorry for that arrogant posting on my part thenXD. Didn't even notice the low /. number I was replying to (not that it means everything).
I'll read up more on it then.
Re: (Score:2)
No apology necessary. I thank you for bringing out the points that you did which caused me to reflect further.
I don't necessarily see the memristor as an analog device (although it probably could be used as one like a dimmer switch) where it can have infinite positions but rather as a device that would have a discrete amount of static positions such as 3, 10, 12, etc. and would be just as accurate as a 1 or 0 is in binary.
There are a lot of smart younger individuals like you and others that post here on the
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm sure that they will use 2^n states and consider them as groups of bits.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
My understanding is that binary is used because it makes the circuitry simpler and minimises noise (switching to base-3 cuts the difference between signal voltage/current/whatever in half).
While we could make circuits that use arbitrary bases now, there is little point because the circuitry would be a pain in the arse to design, more expensive to build, and be less reliable.
Re: (Score:2)
Wouldn't an adder just involve writing to two memristors and reading their values in series? If you write to them in what the rest of your hardware considers base 10, that's how they will get interpreted once you are actually dealing with numbers again.
So long as I don't have to do anything other than add, I don't see where the problem is(other than needless conversions to binary and back).
Re: (Score:2)
Hello, please explain to me how e makes any sense as a numeric base. My plain english definition of 'base' would be 'the number of unique symbols in the number system'. How can you have 'e' symbols in a number system? What does base 'e' even *mean*?
Also I read that the formula used to determine the 'optimal' base is the one which the formula:
(# digits in a given number) * (# unique symbols in base)
has a minimal sum for all numbers.
Then some calculus tricks are played to compute the minimum using derivati
Wow (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
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
Yes (Score:2)
HP has already done some internal research [ieee.org] within the same group on using memristor chips with neural network type logic.
They also have a major collaborative grant proposal underway for studying the use of memristor chips as the basis for neural networks, but it hasn't been finalized.
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Robots !!! (Score:2)
Because of the "features" of a memristor, we might see very 'smart' robots someday.
I, for one, will welcome our new memristor-powered robot overlords.
Especially if they look like Gort or Robbie.
Promises Promises (Score:2)
Re:Feds Deregulating Hybrid Corn for ETHANOL?? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:4th? Try 5th fundamental (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Recension
1. A critical revision of a text incorporating the most plausible elements found in varying sources.
2. A text so revised.
From answers.com [answers.com]