New 'memristor' technology can bring brain-like computing closer to reality

A team of Northwestern researchers has accomplished a new step forward in electronics that can bring brain-like computing closer to reality.

Researchers are always searching for improved technologies, but the most efficient computer possible already exists in the form of human brain, which can learn and adapt without needing to be programmed or updated, has nearly limitless memory, is difficult to crash and works at extremely fast speeds.

Both academic and industrial laboratories are working to develop computers that operate more like the human brain. Instead of operating like a conventional, digital system, these new devices could potentially function more like a network of neurons.

Northwestern University's Mark Hersam said that computers are very impressive in many ways, but they're not equal to the mind, adding that neurons can achieve very complicated computation with very low power consumption compared to a digital computer.

The Northwestern researchers' team's work advances memory resistors, or "memristors," which are resistors in a circuit that "remember" how much current has flowed through them.

Hersam added that memristors could be used as a memory element in an integrated circuit or computer and unlike other memories that exist today in modern electronics, memristors are stable and remember their state even if you lose power.

Current computers use random access memory (RAM), which moves very quickly as a user works but does not retain unsaved data if power is lost. Flash drives, on the other hand, store information when they are not powered but work much slower. Memristors could provide a memory that is the best of both worlds: fast and reliable.

However, there's a problem: memristors are two-terminal electronic devices, which can only control one voltage channel. Hersam wanted to transform it into a three-terminal device, allowing it to be used in more complex electronic circuits and systems.

With a memristor that can be tuned with a third electrode, they have the possibility to realize a function you could not previously achieve, Hersam said. "A three-terminal memristor has been proposed as a means of realizing brain-like computing. They are now actively exploring this possibility in the laboratory.

The study appears in Nature Nanotechnology.