Towards In-Memory Computing: Arithmetic Operations on Real Memristors

In-memory-computing is an emerging approach that aims to shift computational load away from CPUs. It does so by taking over simple calculations that can be performed in memory. Apart from improving performance for these operations, this also results in a lower energy consumption, effectively rendering this technique very suitable for embedded systems. Due to being variable as well as non-volatile resistors, memristors are capable of storing analog values. This renders them particularly useful for in-memory computing. This paper presents a prototypical implementation of analog calculations (addition, subtraction and multiplication), including a way of representing the value zero. The prototype shown is based on an ESP32 microcontroller and typical calculations currently take around 1μs.