ESNA spoke with ReSolve, part of Arrow's newly launched reverse logistics group, which also includes Intechra, an IT asset disposition services company and Converge, an independent distributor, to discuss the importance of a reverse supply chain logistics program. 
The aftermath of Japan's earthquake last month has left the electronics supply chain struggling with production stoppages and shipment delays of electronic components and raw materials supply.
Because the DRAM market is highly volatile the current buyer's market could quickly swing into a seller's market during the second half of 2011. Buyers will need to keep an eye on several key issues.
HP Labs ‘memristor’ can dramatically change computer system design
Researchers at HB Labs have discovered that the “memristor,” first demonstrated by the group in 2008, has more capabilities than was previously thought. Researchers now say that the memristor can perform logic, enabling computation in the future to be performed in chips where data is stored, rather than on a specialized central processing unit. The latest findings are detailed in a paper published by Nature.
The memristor is described as a resistor with memory that represents the fourth basic circuit element in electrical engineering.
“Memristive devices could change the standard paradigm of computing by enabling calculations to be performed in the chips where data is stored rather than in a specialized central processing unit. Thus, we anticipate the ability to make more compact and power-efficient computing systems well into the future, even after it is no longer possible to make transistors smaller via the traditional Moore’s Law approach,” said R. Stanley Williams, senior fellow and director, Information and Quantum Systems Lab, HP, in a statement.
HP said it has created development-ready architectures for memory chips using memristors and believes it is possible that devices incorporating the element could come to market within the next few years.
HP researchers also have designed a new architecture within which multiple layers of memristor memory can be stacked on top of each other in a single chip. In five years, the computer maker believes these chips could be used to create handheld devices that offer ten times greater embedded memory than exists today. The devices could also be used to “power supercomputers that allow work like movie rendering and genomic research to be done dramatically faster than Moore’s Law suggests is possible.”
Memristors could also deliver more energy-efficient products since these devices require less energy to operate, are faster than present solid-state storage technologies, and can store at least twice as much data in the same area.
In addition, HP researchers said the memristors are virtually immune from radiation, which make them viable solutions for smaller and more powerful devices. They can also enable computers to turn and off like a light switch.
Additional resources:
IEEE Spectrum’s “Six-Minute Memristor Guide“: Stan Williams gives a whiteboard talk about how the memristor works.
“The Next Step in Revolutionary Electronics“: Video about the discovery of the memristor.
Delphi Automotive intros an aluminum cable as an alternative to more expensive copper cabling in automotive applications.