Fast computation with memory circuit elements

Memory circuit elements — resistors, capacitors and inductors with memory — are electronic components with great potential in a wide range of applications. In particular, they are ideally suited to enhance all three major computing paradigms: binary, analog and quantum. Here, we consider how to achieve a faster computation with these elements. Specifically, we will show that a binary logic architecture combining memristive and memcapacitive elements requires considerably less steps to process information compared to architectures employing only memristive elements. In addition, we demonstrate that a network of memristive — as well as memcapacitive or meminductive — systems can solve a complex optimization problem — the maze problem — with unprecedented speed due to the analog parallelism afforded by these elements.