This new brain which is inspired by computer devices can help the neuroscientists to understand the function and operation of human brain. However; this new prototype computer known as the “memcomputer” which works by mimicking the human brain, can also perform the daily complex tasks such as; breaking codes, solving math’s problem and more. Theory of building blocks of memcomputer was first predicted in year 1970 however; it was first manufactured in 2008.
In traditional microchip, it is processor which executes computations and memory to store the data as separate components. However; it constant depends on the data between the memory and processor which consume energy and time to limit the performance of standard computers. In contrast Massimiliano Di Ventra, who is theoretical physicist at the University of California and his associates are constructing the memcomputer which is made-up from memprocessors and it is able to process and store data. These mimics and neurons make the human brains to serve as processor and the memory both.
In present with this memcomputer, researchers are investigating the class of problems which known as NP-complete. With the problems like NP-complete person can quickly confirm that whether he or she will be able to give solution or not, but he or she cannot figure out quick solution for same problem. However; one of the examples is “traveling salesman problem” in which salesman receives a list of cities and he or she have to find out the shortest possible route from his or her present city to another city where he or she need to visit. However; few people are able to take quick decision whether route of all cities are connected or not and for that he or she need to try every single combination or not, but problem get more complex when number of cities increases.
Problem with quantum computers:
Massimiliano Di Ventra and his associates are building prototype memcomputer and claim that it can efficiently solve one difficult computational problem; they have built this memcomputer from standard microelectronics. To solve the problems of NP- complete, researchers are adopting different strategy where they are involving the quantum computers that use the components which widely known as the qubits to investigate each and every solution for that particular problem simultaneously. But sometimes quantum computers have limitations too as its important to operate them at very low temperatures. As per the statement of Di Ventra “When it comes to memcomputers they have so standard technology to operate them at room temperature.” And apart from that memcomputers can handle the number of problem such as code breaking, which scientists are exploring with traditional quantum computers.
It’s easy to operate memprocessors with memcomputer as they work collectively as well as simultaneously to find every possible solution of any problems. While working on different paradigm of computation these problems are difficult to solve with traditional computers which can solve them more efficiently with memcomputers. But solving these kinds of problems is one of the advantages of these computers; in addition we are trying to understand the operation of brain through memcomputing.