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IPFS News Link • Robots and Artificial Intelligence

We may soon have the building blocks for brain-like computers

• http://www.sciencealert.com, FIONA MACDONALD

Researchers in the US have taken a big step towards creating a computer that works like a human brain. That might sound creepy, but the brain is already the most efficient computer that we know of - it's super-fast, has nearly limitless memory, doesn't need to 'boot up', and requires hardly any energy to run. If we could find a way to make a computer that works in the same way, it would revolutionise technology.

One of the keys to making these devices is improving something called the memory resistor, or 'memristor', which remembers how much current has flown through it. This means that, unlike the flash and RAM memory we currently rely on, it will be much faster, and able to recall data even if the system loses power.

"Memristors could be used as a memory element in an integrated circuit or computer," said one of the team, computer engineer Mark Hersam from Northwestern University in the US, in a press release. "Unlike other memories that exist today in modern electronics, memristors are stable and remember their state even if you lose power."


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