{"id":144239,"date":"2022-08-16T04:24:51","date_gmt":"2022-08-16T09:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/synapses-as-a-model-solid-state-memory-in-neuromorphic-circuits"},"modified":"2022-08-16T04:24:51","modified_gmt":"2022-08-16T09:24:51","slug":"synapses-as-a-model-solid-state-memory-in-neuromorphic-circuits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/synapses-as-a-model-solid-state-memory-in-neuromorphic-circuits","title":{"rendered":"Synapses as a model: Solid-state memory in neuromorphic circuits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/synapses-as-a-model-solid-state-memory-in-neuromorphic-circuits3.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Certain tasks\u2014such as recognizing patterns and language\u2014are performed highly efficiently by a human brain, requiring only about one ten-thousandth of the energy of a conventional, so-called \u201cvon Neumann\u201d computer. One of the reasons lies in the structural differences: In a von Neumann architecture, there is a clear separation between memory and processor, which requires constant moving of large amounts of data. This is time-and energy-consuming\u2014the so-called von Neumann bottleneck. In the brain, the computational operation takes place directly in the data memory and the biological synapses perform the tasks of memory and processor at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>In Forschungszentrum J\u00fclich, scientists have been working for more than 15 years on special data storage devices and components that can have similar properties to the synapses in the human brain. So-called memristive memory devices, also known as <a href=\"https:\/\/techxplore.com\/tags\/memristors\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">memristors<\/a>, are considered to be extremely fast and energy-saving, and can be miniaturized very well down to the nanometer range. The functioning of memristive cells is based on a very special effect: Their electrical resistance is not constant, but can be changed and reset again by applying an external voltage, theoretically continuously. The change in resistance is controlled by the movement of oxygen ions. If these move out of the semiconducting metal oxide layer, the material becomes more conductive and the electrical resistance drops. This change in resistance can be used to store information.<\/p>\n<p>The processes that can occur in cells are complex and vary depending on the material system. Three researchers from the J\u00fclich Peter Gr\u00fcnberg Institute\u2014Prof. Regina Dittmann, Dr. Stephan Menzel, and Prof. Rainer Waser\u2014have therefore compiled their research results in a detailed review article, \u201cNanoionic memristive phenomena in metal oxides: the valence change mechanism.\u201d They explain in detail the various physical and chemical effects in memristors and shed light on the influence of these effects on the switching properties of memristive cells and their reliability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Certain tasks\u2014such as recognizing patterns and language\u2014are performed highly efficiently by a human brain, requiring only about one ten-thousandth of the energy of a conventional, so-called \u201cvon Neumann\u201d computer. One of the reasons lies in the structural differences: In a von Neumann architecture, there is a clear separation between memory and processor, which requires constant [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":556,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,19,1523,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biological","category-chemistry","category-computing","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/556"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}