cool, but there is something that confuses me.
Near the beginning of this article...
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/may08/6207
we are told that the memristor is a new fundamental
circuit element because it cannot be made from a combination of the
three known fundamental circuit elements - the resistor, the capacity and the inductor.
Then we are told further down the article that the theoretician behind the memristor built a memresitor
in the 1970's using a bunch of standard circuit elements. These are contradictory claims.
Harry
----- Original Message -----
From: Terry Blanton <[email protected]> Date: Wednesday, December 31, 2008 8:21 am Subject: Re: [Vo]:OFF TOPIC A prediction about future computers > There is a new innovation in electronics which will renew the> computing industry:
>
> http://www.hpl.hp.com/news/2008/apr-jun/memristor.html
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memristor
>
> This two port device is "written" by a voltage and duration (fixing
> its resistance) and "read" by a much lower voltage. Moore was banging
> his head against quantum physics with transistors approaching 250
> atoms in size; but, the memristor will renew the law. Unlike dynamic
> ram, the memristor does not need to be refreshed so that, when you
> turn your computer on, it will "instantly" return to the state prior
> to power off.
>
> IEEE Spectrum has several articles including the story of how the
> device was built:
>
> http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/dec08/7024
>
> Terry
>
> On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 5:55 PM, Jed Rothwell
& gt; <[email protected]> wrote:
> > It is common knowledge that in the not so distant future hard
> disks will be
> > replaced with solid state memory, and MPP architecture will become
> > commonplace. No doubt computers will run thousands of times
> faster than they
> > do now, just as today's computers run anywhere from 1000 to
> 100,000 times
> > faster than personal computers did circa 1980 (my estimate -- I
> would like
> > to see a more authoritative estimate).
> >
> > Anyway, I would like to make a prediction about these upcoming
> machines.> Despite the fact that they will run thousands of times
> faster, I predict
> > that it will still take two minutes to turn Windows on. And to
> turn it off,
> > for crying out loud! Why it takes so long to terminate a program
> is a
> > mystery. The disk access light flutters and twitches, but the
> program gives
> > no hint what it is up to. By the standards of 1980 these things are
> > supercomputers and in two minutes you could probably enumerate
> every person
> > in the U.S. Anyway, two minutes seems to be a built-in computer
> constant,> along with the price of whatever computer you want to
> buy, which Dave Barry
> > defined as: "$500 more than you hoped to pay."
> >
> > - Jed
> >
>
>
