
Memristors built with 2-nanometer-thick parts - ToFab123
https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/11/memristors-built-with-2-nanometer-thick-parts/
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deepnotderp
To address the memristor existence questions: if you define a memristor as a
device which "remembers" its resistance via a pinched hysteresis I-V curve,
then we have had ReRAM/ memristor devices for some time now. On the other
hand, if you define memristor as a device with coupling between charge and
flux, then no.

Practically speaking, it's unlikely that memristors will replace transistors
because they're about 500X too slow and have about a billion times less
endurance. Same issue with memory replacement. They could in theory make
excellent flash memory replacement, but currently sneak paths, thermal
crosstalk and ion crosstalk remain challenges

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heydenberk
Are memristors real? This paper[0] in addition to a handful that have appeared
on HN in the last few months asserts that "the 2008 memristor is not the 1971
postulate and neither of them is fundamental" and moreover that "[t]he ideal
memristor is an unphysical active device and any physically realizable
memristor is a nonlinear composition of resistors with active hysteresis."

I'm confused by something like this being an open question, and even more
confused about why this debate isn't lighting up the electrical/computer
engineering community as far as I can tell.

[0]
[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-29394-7](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-29394-7)

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sgillen
It’s also worth pointing out that all ideal circuit devices are non physical.

But yes I think the name “memristor” is mostly PR.

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twtw
> It’s also worth pointing out that all ideal circuit devices are non physical

This is not a useful statement - in this framing, all of circuit theory is
unphysical.

Other ideal circuit elements _could_ exist in the sense that their existence
would not violate known physical laws. The criticisms of the memristor is that
its existence would violate fundamental thermodynamic principles (esp.
Landauer's principle).

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sgillen
I mean, an ideal voltage source also cannot exist, and I'm sure their
existence would violate several laws of physics. For example what happens when
you put two ideal voltage sources in parallel? or when you connect one to a
short circuit?

Despite that though we can use a combination of ideal elements to represent
real, non ideal, physical devices. So in that sense I disagree with your
statement that "in this framing, all of circuit theory is unphysical."

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aaaaaaaaaab
Can’t wait to have some of these memristors in my phone, powered by graphene
batteries, running on clean electricity from the regional fusion plant.

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fiblye
And the year after that will be the year of the Linux desktop.

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goodcanadian
I understand the joke, but I've been running Linux on my desktop for something
like 15 years. ;-)

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rini17
So, 11 atoms thick layer of platinum is major cost consideration? No, just bad
journalism.

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peter_d_sherman
I can just picture William Devane telling everyone to buy Platinum now...<g>

