Memristor cross bar arrays for faster AI neural nets and math?

I have an issue with calling a memristor a 'computing device'. If you accept that, then so are capacitors and inductors!

Jeroen Belleman

On a sunny day (Mon, 18 Mar 2024 11:02:33 +0100) it happened Jeroen Belleman snipped-for-privacy@nospam.please wrote in <ut93d2$43ac$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

If you can do matrix computations with it why not? quote from that llnk: "When organized into a crossbar array, such a memristive circuit does analog computing by using physical laws in a massively parallel fashion, substantially accelerating matrix operation, the most frequently used but very power-hungry computation in neural networks "

Well you could store analog info in CMOS too, even in capacitors. Inductors? not so sure, not so easy for a long time?

I don't see the problem. Switches, relays, beads on a string can all be computing devices - and not all of them have 'memories'. Pots have been used as computing elements on the front panel of analogue computers for years, so what is the difference between them (set by hand) and a memristor (set electronically)?

...and yes, capacitors are definitely computing devices: Blumlein/Miller integrator.

Does core memory qualify as inductors?

Danke,

Memory cores have a very wide hysteresis. You need a fair bit of current to magnetize them, and when they do, they go straight into saturation and stay there when the current is removed. You have to reverse the current to magnetize them the other way and again will flip the whole way.

That's why they were useful as memory. As inductors, not so much.

Jeroen Belleman

Well, then so is any electronic component.

I'm old enough to have played with analog computers. They were fun to solve differential equations with. Not necessarily electronic, either. I've also done it with pneumatic stuff, bellows, nozzles and flapper valves, and with water levels in vertical pipes. Those were real fun too. You could *see* what was going on without instrumentation.

It's been quite a while since I last did that, though. These days, everything is electronic.

Jeroen Belleman

I'm surprised they don't claim you can charge your phone with it.

Jeroen Belleman

Whiffle tree? Used in player pianos and organs for converting binary pneumatic signals into analogue movement. (...and previous to that, for summing the tractive effort of a team of horses.)

The top hat on the duck turns out to be the critical element.

Here are some:

A million dollars was a lot of money back then.

On a sunny day (Mon, 18 Mar 2024 12:37:02 -0000 (UTC)) it happened "Don" snipped-for-privacy@crcomp.net wrote in snipped-for-privacy@crcomp.net:

No, that is magnetic storage. You could use a stepper motor (also uses an inductor) to set a value to to some thing too. Memory is not that hard. Mechanical, old 78 rpm records store even music. Books, printing. Processing it more difficult, but we can read the books and do the math described.

They were also used for data. The WWII transatlantic telephone scrambler system used "one-time records" (like a one-time pad) to synchronise the encoding and decoding of the audio bands.

(I'm not sure where I came across that, but I think it could be hidden away in either the 'cdvandt' or the Crypto museum websites.)

Well said! This take on the Two-Capacitor Paradox ironically illustrates intrisic inductance:

Learning from the Two-Capacitor Paradox: Do Capacitance and Inductance Exist?

Danke,