After proving the existence of the memristor earlier this year, HP has announced its scientists are advancing the technology even further by successfully engineering control over a functioning device.

Memristors, previously theorized but never proven to exist. would be a whole
new fundamental building block for electrical engineering. A memristor has the unique ability to remember data stored in it without a source of power, opening the doors to entirely new fields of electrical circuit design. One major potential application is the development of new kinds of computer RAM and solidŽstate drives which would retain data when a computer is switched off, thus allowing for instantaneous booting, faster working, and the development of computer systems that remember and associate series of events in a manner similar to the way a human brain recognizes patterns.

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This could substantially improve today's facial recognition technology, enable security and privacy features that recognize a complex set
of biometric features of an authorized person to access personal information, or enable an appliance to learn from experience.

HP scientists have now developed a switch measuring 50 nm2 using memristor technology. However, this is only the model, and they are yet to turn it into new designs for integrated circuits. The technology will take many more years before it becomes ready to be launched in the mass market.