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Memristor Technology – From Lab to Fab

H

P researchers demonstrate that memristors – a fourth basic element in integrated circuits

which only existed in theory until 2008 – are capable of performing logic functions. It’s further evidence that memristors have the potential to make an im- pact on real world computing, says Stanley Williams,

director of HP’s Information & Quantum Systems

Lab and lead researcher on the project.

“Our research is now moving out of the lab and towards fabrication of memristor-based circuitry,” Wiliams reports. “And as we’re getting closer to the practical implementation of memristor technology, we’re learning more and more about it.”

If memristors can perform logic, they might one day be used to create computer processors, suggests Williams. And since those processors could be made with industry-standard materials and processes, memristors might help extend Moore’s Law past the point where silicon technology runs up against insur- mountable technical barriers, he says.

Memristor Crossbar, © HP

In the much nearer term, Williams expects to see

memristors used in computer memory chips

within the next few years. HP Labs already has a production-ready architecture for such a chip.

Memristor chips require less energy to operate than current alternatives, such as flash memory. They also

Julien Borghetti, Gregory S. Snider, Philip J. Kuekes, J. Jos- hua Yang, Duncan R. Stewart, R. Stanley Williams: ‘Mem- ristive’ switches enable ‘stateful’ logic operations via mate- rial implication, In: Nature, Vol. 464(2010), Number 7290, April 2010, Pages 873-876, DOI:10.1038/nature08940: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature08940

store data in approximately half the space required by flash chips and are virtually immune to interfe- rence from radiation – making them attractive to any manufacturer looking to create ever-smaller but ever-more-powerful devices.

10-04 :: April 2010