I wanted to share with you a recent article published by the Times Union:

Air Force Research Lab aids professor in work using memristors

[caption id="attachment_20744" align="alignnone" width="740"] A closeup of a hybrid memristor chip which is the base technology for the new Air Force Research Lab project[/caption]

Albany

A SUNY Polytechnic Institute professor has been awarded a $1.2 million grant from the Air Force Research Lab to create a new generation of computer chips that would mimic the human brain.

The new microprocessors would use technology called memristors that scientists have been working on for decades. Memristors could one day replace traditional transistors in today's computer chips and act together more like the brain's network of neurons and synapses than transistors.

The grant was awarded to Nathaniel Cady, an associate professor of nanobioscience at SUNY Poly, and it is part of a larger, $2.4 million research project that Cady is conducting with researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

"We are delighted that the Air Force Research Lab has recognized this cutting-edge work," said Michael Liehr, who is vice president of research at SUNY Poly. "And we are excited to collaborate with our partners at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville to bring these advanced computing concepts from the lab to the fab."

The development of technology based on memristors comes at a critical time for the computer industry, which is being challenged by efforts to continually shrink the size of transistors to make increasingly powerful computer chips that can handle next-generation computing and networks.

The value of memristors would be that they would be able to leapfrog many of the limitations of transistors that are used in today's silicon-based chips. For instance, they could be more easily implanted into everyday devices such as coffee cups and windows — which is the idea behind "ubiquitous computing," in which it is envisioned that all devices, all things will be connected through chips, sharing data and talking, like humans.

Memristors are also being pursued because they can expand the binary code used by today's computer chips that currently communicate only in 1s and 0s as being on and off, allowing or not allowing electrons to flow. Memristors instead can deal with incremental resistance, allowing values beyond just 1 and 0, which would allow for chips to handle more complex sets of data.

Memristors also hold their memory after power has been shut off, allowing the devices to turn on instantly. The three-year program will allow researchers in Knoxville to design a prototype chip that will be manufactured in Albany.

"We look forward to collaborating with the research team at (Tennessee) to substantially improve computer memory," Cady said.

By Larry Rulison

Published 5:41 pm, Tuesday, January 19, 2016

lrulison@timesunion.com • 518-454-5504 • @larryrulison