Researchers at HP Labs claim to have built a once-theoretical basic component for electrical engineering.

Known as a memory resistor, or 'memristor', the tiny device has the ability to retain the amount of electrical charge which flows through it.

The concept was first suggested in 1971 by University of California researcher Leon Chua, who posited that the memristor was the missing companion to the resistor, capacitor and inductor devices traditionally used to build circuits.

"To find something new, and yet so fundamental, in the mature field of electrical engineering is a big surprise, and has significant implications for the future of computer science," said Dr R Stanley Williams, lead researcher on the project.

"By providing a mathematical model for the physics of a memristor, HP has made it possible for engineers to develop integrated circuit designs that could dramatically improve the performance and energy efficiency of PCs and data centres."

HP envisions the memristor eventually replacing conventional DRam memory chips, allowing system memory to retain data after being shut down and virtually eliminating the concept of a booting process when the machine is turned on.

The researchers see the memristor having its greatest impact on cloud computing, where the power and speed advantages can be leveraged on hundreds of machines at once.

The technology could even change the way computers function. HP believes that memristor circuits will eventually power machines that mimic the human brain.

Such machines could learn from previous experience and retain information for future use in associating events and recognising patterns.