Memristors Are Here!

Started by Atomm · 17 posts · 2,042 views

  1. #1
    I won't pretend to know a lot about Eletrical Engineering, but I do know a bit about 1's and 0's. This new element would allow for computations in the grey area between 1 and 0.

    It's really out there, even for this geek, but it was a fun thing to read about.

    http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/04/scientists-prov.html
  2. #2
    One step closer to SkyNet....
  3. #3
    I for one welcome our Skynet Overlords......

  4. #4
    So. . .how long until we see this in products the average person can afford? 10 years? 20 years? My money's on 20+ years. (sigh)
  5. #5
    So Cameron will make it here before I am too old!!! Woohooooo
  6. #6
    I see this as the next step from Tubes to Circuits to Memristors. I bet it will be a 50 year thing before we start to really understand it. Think of all the unlearning we would have to do to use it properly.

  7. #7
    Bubbaspanky wrote:So Cameron will make it here before I am too old!!! Woohooooo

    Time travel. She was here ten years ago.
  8. #8
    Atomm wrote:I see this as the next step from Tubes to Circuits to Memristors. I bet it will be a 50 year thing before we start to really understand it. Think of all the unlearning we would have to do to use it properly.


    You mean Tubes, to transistors to Memristors.

    I love how the article says memristors are one of the 4 basic elements of circuits. the reality is that they arent'a basic part, but someday they may be.

    The real exciting thing about this is what this will do to structures... Every part of a circuit has an analog in structure... IE capacitance is the same as a beam in tension. Not many Civil or electrical engineers understand this, but god did it make life easy when I switched from being a structural eng to a Electrical Eng... I could eval a circuit and a bridge the same way. In fact there is a story of a guy who solved a bridge problem by modeling a circuit way back when.

    So the question is, what would be the structural analog to this?

  9. #9
    Bubbaspanky wrote:You mean Tubes, to transistors to Memristors.

    I love how the article says memristors are one of the 4 basic elements of circuits. the reality is that they arent'a basic part, but someday they may be.

    The real exciting thing about this is what this will do to structures... Every part of a circuit has an analog in structure... IE capacitance is the same as a beam in tension. Not many Civil or electrical engineers understand this, but god did it make life easy when I switched from being a structural eng to a Electrical Eng... I could eval a circuit and a bridge the same way. In fact there is a story of a guy who solved a bridge problem by modeling a circuit way back when.

    So the question is, what would be the structural analog to this?


    A stick?

    (bio major)
  10. #10
    Bamboo?

    I guess I don't get your bridge analogy.

  11. #11
    OK so you draw up a circuit, it has three main parts, inductance, resistance, and Capacitance. Each of those has an analog in a structure. I forget how it worked it was in my 2nd year in Elect Eng after 2 years of Civil Eng that I discovered it and talked to my prof who confirmed it. But say a beam in tension was the analog to capacitance in a circuit and a beam in compression was the analog to inductance.... thus with the same basic equations you could analyse either a circuit or a structure.
  12. #12
    Occassionally Bubba surprises me with how smart he is 😛
  13. #13
    Or just how many rediculous classes I took in college that in no way relate to the work that I do.
  14. #14
    yes, that too 😀
  15. #15
    I'm just amazed that he can still recite that stuff. I know less now than I did when I was in college.... In effect, I am dumber for attending.... 😈

    BTW, this article makes a heck of a lot more sense and even explains how the guy knew it was missing from the equation.

    Chua suspected that a memristor should exist based primarily on symmetry. There are four fundamental circuit variables: electric current, voltage, charge, and magnetic flux. For these variables, we have resistors to relate current to voltage, capacitors to relate voltage to charge, and inductors to relate current to magnetic flux, but we were missing one to relate charge to magnetic flux. That is where the memristor comes in.

    The memristor relates magnetic flux to charge...



    http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080...r-circuits.html

    This is very cool.
  16. #16
    I have to admit, I don't remember exactly how this "theory" I layed out works from memory anymore... but I knew at the time,...This is the best of my memory. Of course this stuff was like 2nd year stuff, rather basic.
  17. #17
    I just want to know when my Flux Capacitor will be ready? I'm ready to do 0 - 85......