"Named for 'memory resistor', a memristor is a single component composed of a thin film of material that remembers the last voltage it experienced.

"At its core, the memristor is a resistor with memory."

"Memristors, which not only use less energy than other memory devices and can retain information when the power if off, is built from metal oxides like titanium dioxide, rather than silicon."

RE: flexible "The process of developing such flexible memories starts with polymer sheets that are similar to transparencies used for overhead projectors. A thin layer of titanium dioxide is placed on the surface of the polymer and while the conventional method of depositing titanium dioxide requires the use of expensive equipment, NIST engineers employed a relatively inexpensive technique called "sol gel process."

The titanium dioxide is spun in liquid form and then left to set. The team then adds electrical contacts to produce the flexible memory switch that can function on little less than 10 volts. The switch preserves its memory when power is discontinued, and still operates after being flexed over 4,000 times."

A memristor could be represented as a resistor that modifies its resistance based on the level of current that flows through it. When power is stopped, the memristor retains this resistance.

RE: 2008 HP...3-D memristor chip

"Memristor crossbars include two titanium dioxide layers between two perpendicular arrays of metal lines. One layer of titanium oxide is doped with oxygen vacancies, making it a semiconductor. The adjacent layer is undoped, leaving it in its natural state as an insulator.

When a crossbar junction is addressed by simultaneously applying a voltage to one crossbar line on the top and bottom layers, oxygen vacancies drift from the doped to the undoped layer. This causes it to begin conducting, turning "on" the memory bit. The bit can again be turned "off" by changing the current direction, whereupon oxygen vacancies migrate back into the doped layer."