Memristors simulate neural synapses

What is memory?
It is the computer's physical workspace that stores the instructions, programs and data needed to accomplish the tasks executed by the processor for some interval of time, even after electrical power to the computer is turned off.

What is a memristor?
A memristor (short for "memory resistor") is a passive two-terminal circuit element that maintains a functional relationship between the time integrals of current and voltage. This function, called memristance, is similar to variable resistance.
In 1971, Leon Chua, a University of California, Berkeley engineer, examined the relationships between charge and flux in resistors, capacitors, and inductors in a paper and postulated the existence of a fourth element called the memory resistor.
On April 30, 2008 a team at HP Labs announced the development of a switching memristor. The HP device is composed of a 50nm titanium dioxide film between two 5nm thick electrodes, one Ti, the other Pt.
In November 2008, HP researcher Qiangfei Xia provided details of a prototype 3D memristor chip that stacked memristor crossbar memory cells on top of a CMOS logic IC.
In March 2009, Yiran Chen and Xiaobin Wang, researchers at disc-drive manufacturer Seagate Technology, described more examples of possible magnetic memristors.
Memristor devices could find applications in computing. For instance, researchers claim that a memory based on memristors could be 1,000 times faster than magnetic disks while using less power.


What does analogue mean?
A continuously varying signal. For example, if an analogue signal's range is from 0V to 5V, the signal can assume any voltage within that range such as 1.2, 2.4, or 4.7V. Microprocessors and microcontrollers usually cannot process analogue signals directly and require conversion by an A/D converter before they can process the signal.