In the next 12 months, I'll be spending half my time as an HP Labs Visiting Scholar. The plan is to contribute to the definition of memristor architectures and other system-building efforts at HP. The memristor is one of three new non-volatile memory technologies that is being actively pursued by industry (STT-RAM and PCM are the other two). These new memory technologies have density, performance, energy, and endurance properties that lie somewhere between those of DRAM and Flash. They could be used as a new level in an existing memory hierarchy, or they could displace DRAM and/or Flash.
For a memory system academic like me, this should be a fun learning experience and a unique opportunity to impact future technologies and products. Thanks to the university administration for seeing the value in such an industry engagement and working through the details to make this happen!
In the coming year, I'll continue to work closely with my Ph.D. students on their on-going projects. I won't be teaching in Fall 2014. I will teach CS/ECE 6810 (Computer Architecture) in Spring 2015. CS/ECE 7810 (Advanced Computer Architecture) will not be taught in the 2014-2015 academic year. I will likely return to my normal teaching schedule in 2015-2016.
UPDATE: A Business Week article on the project that I'm contributing to.
