HP Backs Memristor Mass Production 116
neo12 writes with news that Hewlett-Packard is teaming with Hynix Semiconductor, the world's second-largest producer of memory chips, to mass produce memristors for the first time. Quoting the BBC:
"HP says the first memristors should be widely available in about three years. The devices started as a theoretical prediction in 1971 but HP's demonstration and publication of a real working device has put them on a possible roadmap to replace memory chips or even hard drives. ... Steve Furber, professor of computer engineering at the University of Manchester, explained that the potential benefits lie in the fact that memristors are 'much simpler in principle than transistors. Because they are formed as a film between two wires, they don't have to be implanted into the silicon surface — as do transistors, which form the storage locations in Flash — so they could be built in layers in 3D,' he told BBC News. 'Of course, the devil is in the detail, and I don't think the manufacturing challenges have been fully exposed yet.'"
Re:Neural nets (Score:2, Funny)
One step closer to real AI?
As opposed to artificial AI?
Re:Can someone explain how the memristor work? (Score:3, Funny)
Presumably they'd have some capacitors over the power supply for the memristor to stabilize the power a bit. And I'm sure they don't use raw AC - there's probably a low-voltage DC inverter in there.
This is HP we're talking about; of course you won't be using raw AC power. These will obviously only work when used in conjunction with genuine HP power supplies; HP can't guarantee that electrical current from other sources won't damage your memristor, so a special chip in the memristor package will ensure that only genuine HP electrical current is used.
Now quit mixing your technical discussion up with my (poor) jokes.
Re:Just big chips? (Score:2, Funny)