An Experimental Open-Source Memristor/Programmable “Diode”

A memristor is a passive component like a resistor, capacitor, or inductor. It’s not widely known, as it was first postulated in the early 1970s. The concept can be boiled down to a resistor that changes resistance based on current, and has a “memory” of that resistance. When you push current one way, the resistance will rise up. You can lower it by pushing current in the opposite direction. Once it reaches 0 (or some threshold), it will then rise again. Alternatively, a memristor can become more conductive with current, returning to its resistive state when the current is reversed. This function is very similar to how the connections between neurons function, and thus memristors have become a focal point for creating neural networks on chips. For more information read https://www.americanscientist.org/article/the-memristor

For updates on this design see my followup article: The Crafted Mind: Building an electrolytic memristor neural network, Part 2

In your brain, or in a computer AI, a neuron has a certain value to determine if it is “on” or “off”. In your brain, this value is stored but it’s the strength or weakness of that neuron’s connections to other neurons that matter in the big picture. Those connections function much like a memristor, once the neuron reaches some threshold of inputs, it “activates” and sends signals to other neurons. These signals are resisted/modified by the connections between neurons, the equivalent of a memristor. If you can create a reliable memristor…