7 ms·

Can anyone quantify how this could help microchips or processors?

• cdumler 4y ago
  I don't know communication tell well enough to know to what they might be speaking specifically because it's rather vague to me from the article. So, this is about transistors and memristors. We think of transistors like switches (on/off), but they're really analog devices. There is always going to be some level of leakage. We can think of them really as having two voltages (high/low). Another thing that acts like this is a set of resistors and tapping the spot between them. Depending on the ratio of resistance between the two will determine the voltage at the tap. A memristor has the property that the amount of resistance can vary. Depending on the direction and amount of flow, it will increase or decrease over time. Paired with another resistor, you now have something that can have changing voltage states like a transistor. If design the chip to compute over a range of values, you have an analog computer: a device that continuously changes output over a range of values, such as a frequency. The challenge to memristors has been reliability. They are normally made of nano-materials that physically alter their structure. Being mechanical, they wear out and break.