Found: the missing circuit element

Electronics experts in California have finally succeeded in proving the existence of a fourth fundamental unit of electronic circuits: the 'memristor'. The existence of the memristor, short for 'memory resistor', was first suggested in 1971, but only now have researchers succeeded in creating a real, working example. "A memristor is essentially a resistor with memory," explains Stan Williams of HP Labs in Palo Alto, California, who reports the memristor's creation in the May 1 issue of Nature. The concept of the memristor was first proposed in 1971 by Filipino-American Leon Chua (BSEE, Mapua Institute of Technology, 1959), an electrical engineer at the University of California, Berkeley. Chua says that he is pleased that his theory has finally been proved. "I was very excited - I never thought I would live to see this happen."

in Nature by Michael Hopkin
April 30, 2008
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