nanoREV.

HP plans nanoscale RRAM by 2009

Last week researchers at Hewlett-Packard indicated that their nanoscale crossbar arrays may see commercialization as early as next year in ultra high density non-volatile memory. While the initial research into nanoscale crossbar technology was performed by Stan Williams and Phil Kuekes in the late 1990’s, the recent discovery of the “memristor“ characterized as a fourth fundamental circuit component and having both the properties of a resistor and a memory storage element has apparently propelled crossbar technology to the fast track. While presently looking toward non-volatile memory as the main application there have been hints of applications in other areas such as programmable logic and neural networks which may contribute to a merge between software and hardware (i.e. morphware) which underlies present trends in reconfigurable programming and artificial intelligence. One thing HP may need to watch out for is competitors such as Samsung which already has a dominating position in the non-volatile memory market as well as a patent application claiming a competing version of HP’s memristor.�