What is a memristor?

Memristor is claimed to be the fourth basic element to electrical circuit theory along with the capacitor, resistor and inductor. It was recently discovered in HP Labs. It’s most interesting characteristic is that it remembers the amount of charge that flows through it. So, it is named as memory resistor or memristor. Researchers believe the discovery will pave the way for instantly booting PCs, more energy-efficient computers, and new analog computers that can process and associate information in a manner similar to the human brain.