Hp Discovers Fourth Type Of Circuit

[XGhozt 410]

HP Discovers Fourth Type of Circuit

 

CHICAGO (Reuters) - It took about 40 years to find it, but scientists at Hewlett-Packard said on Wednesday they discovered a fourth basic type of electrical circuit that could lead to a computer you never have to boot up.

 

The finding proves what until now had only been theory—but could save millions from the tedium of waiting for a computer to find its "place," the researchers said.

 

Basic electronics theory teaches that there are three fundamental elements of a passive circuit—resistors, capacitors and inductors.

 

But in the 1970s, Leon Chua of the University of California at Berkeley, theorized there should be a fourth called a memory resistor, or memristor, for short, and he worked out the mathematical equations to prove it.

 

Now, a team at Hewlett-Packard led by Stanley Williams has proven that 'memristance' exists. They developed a mathematical model and a physical example of a memristor, which they describe in the journal Nature.

 

"It's very different from any other electrical device," Williams said of his memristor in a telephone interview. "No combination of resistor, capacitor or inductor will give you that property."

 

Williams likens the property to water flowing through a garden hose. In a regular circuit, the water flows from more than one direction.

 

But in a memory resistor, the hose remembers what direction the water (or current) is flowing from, and it expands in that direction to improve the flow. If water or current flows from the other direction, the hose shrinks.

 

"It remembers both the direction and the amount of charge that flows through it. ... That is the memory," Williams said.

 

The discovery is more than an academic pursuit for Williams, who said the finding could lead a new kind of computer memory that would never need booting up.

 

Conventional computers use dynamic random access memory or DRAM, which is lost when the power is turned off, and must be accessed from the hard drive when the computer goes back on.

 

But a computer that incorporates this new kind of memory circuit would never lose it place, even when the power is turned off.

 

"If you turn on your computer it will come up instantly where it was when you turned it off. That is a very interesting potential application, and one that is very realistic," Williams said.

 

But he said understanding this new circuit element could be critical as companies attempt to build ever smaller devices.

 

"It's essential that people understand this to be able to go further into the world of nanoelectronics," referring to electronics on the nano scale—objects tens of thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair.

 

"It turns out that memristance, this property, gets more important as the device gets smaller. That is another major reason it took so long to find," Williams said.

 

Source(s): http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2290101,00.asp

[Speedskater 167]

I like the idea of never having to boot up

[dragoonerzerg 0]

useless.

[Ruler of War 169]

*drools* i like this idea... i mean booting up and all you know thats fine but no boot.... my god... that will be awesome....

[dragoonerzerg 0]

useless.

[Kenshyn 638]

Ok, cool, now make it so we never have to wait for the internet to connect and so that the internet is lag free.

[dragoonerzerg 0]

Ok, cool, now make it so we never have to wait for the internet to connect and so that the internet is lag free.

now thats useful!

[Azqato 503]

useless.

 

Well, never booting up = always being online = being able to 24/7 on bots and im.

[Ruler of War 169]

not true 951 what its saying is that it will be like you never left the computer but all the power will be off meaning... you will be off line...

[Azqato 503]

not true 951 what its saying is that it will be like you never left the computer but all the power will be off meaning... you will be off line...

Well....now I am confuzled. How would that never have to turn the computer on then?

 

Nevermind, I get it now. My mistake.

[dragoonerzerg 0]

useless.

[ProSlasher 176]

I don't think this is a good idea. It reminds me of the matrix. Lets see. If we use this sort of technology, we are teaching the computer responses. Then maybe one day, the computer will start responding on its own, and begin to form its own ways of ideas.

 

This video has something to do with this... I am too tired to explain exactly what I mean. I'll think of an example tomorrow.

 

The Machine is Us/ing Us

 

 

Read this too: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.08/tech.html

[Fc3sZero 78]

useless.

useless.

useless.

 

Wow. After 3 posts saying the same thing, I think we all get your opinion on the matter.

 

 

 

Is there any other supposed benefit with this? Not having to wait to boot up sounds cool but fairly minor. Most modern computers only take a minute or less to boot up.

 

Now that I think about it. What about removing virus' from your computer? Most of the time you have to restart and remove it before windows (or whatever you are using) boots up. I'm sure they will acknowledge this if they ever decide to implement this tech. into personal computers.

Edited May 7, 2008 by Fc3sZero

[ProSlasher 176]

Yea, Gooner was warned for the spam.

 

Uhm. I was thinking that couldn't the virus force the memory to remember the virus as well?

[ShadowScourge 61]

Sounds spiffy. I don't quite understand why try to shrink everything. The MacBook Air would be great if it had more f'in ports. Etc...

[dragoonerzerg 0]

useless.

[Dr.Winkey 57]

Very good technology. I have worked with some of it at the University of Utah. It helps nano technology to be more of a reality than sci-fi. The thing about this article that they didn't mentions was, it was university student working on his masters in engineering that came up with this new technology using the equations from Leon Chua's work.

[ShadowScourge 61]

Max 300, i know i'm not an admin/mod, but you're blatantly spamming in a topic that is not in the spam board.

Dude, stop.

[plutomic 76]

Ok, cool, now make it so we never have to wait for the internet to connect and so that the internet is lag free.

lol? They do...

 

Its called Cable or Dsl...

 

dumbass broke piece of shit.. Get off 56k already.

[Cripp 167]

Really all it is doing is jacking up your electricity bill. Meaning more money for them...

[Fc3sZero 78]

Its called Cable or Dsl...

 

Unfortunately in some areas people have to fight over bandwidth with Cable or DSL. But yeah... 56k is hardly practical now a days

[can u c me3 0]

I've heard about something like this they use special magnets that don't get erased when the comp turns off.