Solving mazes with memristors: a massively-parallel approach

in Papers of Interest:

Format: Journal Abstract
Title: “Solving mazes with memristors: a massively-parallel approach”
Authors: Yuriy V. Pershin (Department of Physics and Astronomy, USC Nanocenter, University of South Carolina) and Massimiliano Di Ventra (Department of Physics, University of California San Diego)
Source: Physical Review E, Vol. 84, Issue 4 (2011)
Publication Date: 14 October 2011
(c) Attribution: © 2011 American Physical Society

Synopsis: “[…] Mazes are prototype models in graph theory, topology, robotics, traffic optimization, psychology, and in many other areas of science and technology. However, when maze complexity increases their solution becomes cumbersome and very time consuming. Here, we show that a network of memristors […] can solve such a non-trivial problem quite easily. In particular, maze solving by the network of memristors occurs in a massively parallel fashion since all memristors in the network participate simultaneously in the calculation. The result of the calculation is then recorded into the memristors states, and can be used and-or recovered at a later time. Furthermore, the network of memristors finds all possible solutions in multiple solution mazes, and sorts out the solution paths according to their length. Our results demonstrate not only the first application of memristive networks to the field of massively-parallel computing, but also a novel algorithm to solve mazes which could find applications in different research fields.”

Full Abstract at http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevE.84.046703, DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.84.046703