HP research Lab has demonstrated the use of memristor often referred to as the eletronics missing link. Memristors, first manufactured in 2008 were effectively used by HP, which can revolutionize the entire chip industry.
Memristors first purposed by Professor Chua in 1971, known as the fourth electronic element after resistor, capacitor and inductor, are thought to replace transistors, the basic buidling block of todays chips. Using memristors means that the data could be processed and saved at the same time on the same chip. It means that the processor and the memory would one and the same thing. Today the computational power of advanced high speed chips is limited by time wastage due to data transfer between memory and the processor chip.
The research team lead by Professor Williams demonstrated the 3-D array structure, in which thousands of memristors could be packed, enormously increasing the data storage and processing capabilities of advanced chips and reshaping the future of electronic and the chip industry.