HP memristor lets chip makers do more with less

This week at the newly created Memristor and Memristor Systems Symposium, in Berkeley, CA the true potential of the unleashed memristor has finally begun to be seen. One thing is clear -- the little device has the potential to rock the entire hardware industry.

When paired with transistors, memristors can be used to create new and unique circuits that function exactly like circuits with many more transistors. The new circuits are much smaller and consume far less power. In short, memristors allow you to do more with less.

Lead researcher Stan Williams, a senior research fellow at HP, states, "We're trying to give Moore's Law a boost."

Indeed, HP's new invention could allow licensed chipmakers to not only continue Moore's law, but to almost instantly leap ahead, shifting Moore's law years ahead. Williams describes this new mentality, stating, "We're not trying to crowd more transistors onto a chip or into a particular circuit. Hybrid memristor-transistor chips really have the promise for delivering a lot more performance."