802 research outputs found
Teaching Memory Circuit Elements via Experiment-Based Learning
The class of memory circuit elements which comprises memristive,
memcapacitive, and meminductive systems, is gaining considerable attention in a
broad range of disciplines. This is due to the enormous flexibility these
elements provide in solving diverse problems in analog/neuromorphic and
digital/quantum computation; the possibility to use them in an integrated
computing-memory paradigm, massively-parallel solution of different
optimization problems, learning, neural networks, etc. The time is therefore
ripe to introduce these elements to the next generation of physicists and
engineers with appropriate teaching tools that can be easily implemented in
undergraduate teaching laboratories. In this paper, we suggest the use of
easy-to-build emulators to provide a hands-on experience for the students to
learn the fundamental properties and realize several applications of these
memelements. We provide explicit examples of problems that could be tackled
with these emulators that range in difficulty from the demonstration of the
basic properties of memristive, memcapacitive, and meminductive systems to
logic/computation and cross-bar memory. The emulators can be built from
off-the-shelf components, with a total cost of a few tens of dollars, thus
providing a relatively inexpensive platform for the implementation of these
exercises in the classroom. We anticipate that this experiment-based learning
can be easily adopted and expanded by the instructors with many more case
studies.Comment: IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine (in press
A Compact CMOS Memristor Emulator Circuit and its Applications
Conceptual memristors have recently gathered wider interest due to their
diverse application in non-von Neumann computing, machine learning,
neuromorphic computing, and chaotic circuits. We introduce a compact CMOS
circuit that emulates idealized memristor characteristics and can bridge the
gap between concepts to chip-scale realization by transcending device
challenges. The CMOS memristor circuit embodies a two-terminal variable
resistor whose resistance is controlled by the voltage applied across its
terminals. The memristor 'state' is held in a capacitor that controls the
resistor value. This work presents the design and simulation of the memristor
emulation circuit, and applies it to a memcomputing application of maze solving
using analog parallelism. Furthermore, the memristor emulator circuit can be
designed and fabricated using standard commercial CMOS technologies and opens
doors to interesting applications in neuromorphic and machine learning
circuits.Comment: Submitted to International Symposium of Circuits and Systems (ISCAS)
201
- …