Exploiting memristive device behavior for emerging digital logic and memory applications

In many ways, conventional integrated circuit technology (i.e., bulk Si CMOS) continues to follow the predictions of Moore's Law but true physical limits are lurking around the corner. Even as the scaling of conventional technologies continues many performance issues (e.g., high power dissipation, increasing thermal effects, and process variations) are forcing circuit and microarchitectural designers to look for novel approaches for emerging systems. One such direction is to utilize the unconventional behavior of novel nanoelectronic devices (e.g., memristors) to develop novel computational architectures that may not be reasonably implementable using conventional CMOS. In this way, emerging architectures may not only allow continued performance improvements but may also open new avenues for computing. The particular technology of interest for this talk, the memristor or memory resistor, has gained a lot of interest in recent years due to its great potential for emerging circuits and systems. We have been working with several collaborators to develop memristive device technologies with the goal of integrating these devices into digital circuits and systems. As part of this talk, an overview of memristors and memristive systems will be provided along with some exploration of how these devices can be leveraged in digital logic and memory circuits.