Neuromorphic, Digital and Quantum Computation with Memory Circuit Elements

Memory effects are ubiquitous in nature and the class of memory circuit elements - which includes memristors, memcapacitors and meminductors - shows great potential to understand and simulate the associated fundamental physical processes. Here, we show that such elements can also be used in electronic schemes mimicking biologically-inspired computer architectures, performing digital logic and arithmetic operations, and can expand the capabilities of certain quantum computation schemes. In particular, we will discuss few examples where the concept of memory elements is relevant to the realization of associative memory in neuronal circuits, spike-timing-dependent plasticity of synapses, digital and field-programmable quantum computing

First order devices, hybrid memristors, and the frontiers of nonlinear circuit theory

Several devices exhibiting memory effects have shown up in nonlinear circuit theory in recent years. Among others, these circuit elements include Chua's memristors, as well as memcapacitors and meminductors. These and other related devices seem to be beyond the, say, classical scope of circuit theory, which is formulated in terms of resistors, capacitors, inductors, and voltage and current sources. We explore in this paper the potential extent of nonlinear circuit theory by classifying such mem-devices in terms of the variables involved in their constitutive relations and the notions of the differential- and the state-order of a device. Within this framework, the frontier of first order circuit theory is defined by so-called hybrid memristors, which are proposed here to accommodate a characteristic relating all four fundamental circuit variables. Devices with differential order two and mem-systems are discussed in less detail. We allow for fully nonlinear characteristics in all circuit elements, arriving at a rather exhaustive taxonomy of C^1-devices. Additionally, we extend the notion of a topologically degenerate configuration to circuits with memcapacitors, meminductors and all types of memristors, and characterize the differential-algebraic index of nodal models of such circuits.Comment: Published in 2013. Journal reference included as a footnote in the first pag