Soon, there occurs a very interesting change into fundamental building blocks of all computing devices that would give birth to faster and efficient machines. Scientists at computer firm Hewlett Packard (HP) have exhibited working devices made of the memristors that is described as an electronic missing link. Though proposed 40 years ago these devices were constructed in 2008.

That devices can be used for crunching data as to prepare better and advanced chips can replace transistors the tiny switches which are used in creating modern chips. The unique proprieties of memristors allow future chips to both store and process data in the same device. Presently these functions are occurred on separate devices as transferring data into two thus slowing down the computation and wasting energy.

These devices can be compared with human brain’s synapses and axons and this has open possibility of creating real brain like computers as told to BBC News. Researchers at the University of Michigan recently showed that the devices can mimic synaptic activity in the brain. This entire work is published in the journal Nature. These devices get their name from their capacity to “remember” the amount of charge that has flowed through them after the power has been switched off. Therefore, they are suited for creating computer memory and storage, an application that is expected to be marketed within three years.

These devices would be great speed and saving energy device. Memristors could help with a problem that continues to challenge the chip industry, continuing to pack more and more computational power into smaller and smaller spaces. Currently, chip makers follow a path defined by Moore’s Law, which states that the number of transistors it is possible to squeeze in to a chip for a fixed cost doubles every two years.

This is currently achieved by producing transistors with ever smaller feature sizes. Current cutting edge chips have transistors with feature sizes as small as 22 nanometres (22 billionths of a metre). But this miniaturisation cannot continue forever, experts say.