How We Found the Missing Memristor

Newswise — The memristor will transform 21st century electronics as fundamentally as the transistor transformed the electronics of the 20th century. So says Stanley Williams, the HP Labs senior fellow who introduced the memristor--the fourth fundamental circuit design element--to the world in early 2008. In the December issue of IEEE Spectrum, Williams tells the story of the memristor's past and future: it was theorized 37 years ago, forgotten for decades, and after 12 years of frustration and experiments, was quite accidentally created at HP Labs. Williams addresses the controversy that the memristor is not a fundamental circuit design element, and lays out how the memristor will advance electronics design--from mundane improvements like ultra-stable, ultra-dense computer memories to sophisticated neural networks that can analyze problems in ways that mimic the human brain.