[Richard Wallace]

OK, so I am a curious geek. I had to know more, so I got the article: Nature 453, 80-83 (1 May 2008)

It is available online if you have a Nature subscription, or for a fee. If your school library has a subscription that may be your easiest route.

The gist is that for two-terminal circuit elements a non-linear relationship between electric charge and magnetic flux gives rise to a hysteretic relationship (read: memory) between current and voltage. The HP investigators who authored the Nature article cited above have realized an experimental memristive device using a thin film of titanium dioxide doped with oxygen-poor impurities; the missing oxygen acts as a mobile positive charge. The effect increases as the mobility of the dopant increases, and as the length of the film decreases -- so nanoscale devices look the most promising for potential applications.

Alan's comment re: ac probing is consistent with the examples given by the authors of the Nature article.

[edit]

Originally Posted by JesseK

... there are much broader implications for this. I wonder how HP will release/license this.

HP filed two US Patent Applications in April 2006 and February 2007, which became public last month. They are US2008/0090337 and US2008/0079029, respectively. Both describe electrically actuated switches based on the concepts described in the Nature article.

I interpret these US Patent Applications as a sign that HP, a company well known for technology leadership, anticipates that commercially viable devices will be made using these ideas.[/edit]