Professors Jennifer Rupp and Markus Kubicek of ETH Zurich have built a memristor based on a slice of perovskite measuring just 5 nanometers thick.
According to Science Daily, the component features three stable resistive states. Essentially, this means the device is capable of storing the 0 or 1 of a standard bit, and can also be used for information encoded by three states: the 0, 1 and 2 of a “trit.”
Image Credit: Swiss National Science Foundation
“We were able to identify the carriers of electrical charge and understand their relationship with the three stable states,” Rupp explained. “This is extremely important knowledge for materials science which will be useful in refining the way the storage operates and in improving its efficiency.”
As Rupp notes, the new component could be useful for a new type of IT that is not based on binary logic, but rather, on a logic that provides for information located ‘between’ the 0 and 1.
“This has interesting implications for what is referred to as fuzzy logic, which seeks to incorporate a form of uncertainty into the processing of digital information,” she said. “You could describe it as less rigid computing.”
Another potential application for the new memristor component is neuromorphic computing, which uses electronic components to emulate how neurons in the brain process information.
“The properties of a memristor at a given point in time depend on what has happened before,” said Rupp. “This mimics the behavior of neurons, which only transmit information once a specific activation threshold has been reached.”
Interested in learning more about memristors? You can check out our article archive on the subject here.
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