Memristor ( /ˈmɛmrɨstər/; a portmanteau of "memory resistor") is a passive two-terminal electrical component envisioned as a fundamental non-linear circuit element relating charge and magnetic flux linkage and has been claimed to be the oldest known circuit element with its effects predating the resistor, capacitor and inductor. The memristor is currently under development by a team at Hewlett-Packard.

When current flows in one direction through the device, the electrical resistance increases; and when current flows in the opposite direction, the resistance decreases. When the current is stopped, the component retains the last resistance that it had, and when the flow of charge starts again, the resistance of the circuit will be what it was when it was last active. It has a regime of operation with an approximately linear charge-resistance relationship as long as the time-integral of the current stays within certain bounds.

Memristor theory was formulated and named by Leon Chua in a 1971 paper. In 2008, a team at HP Labs announced the development of a switching memristor based on a thin film of titanium dioxide. These devices are being developed for application in nanoelectronic memories, computer logic, and neuromorphic computer architectures. In October 2011, the same team announced the commercial availability of memristor technology within 18 months, as a replacement for Flash, SSD, DRAM and SRAM. In March 2012, a team of researchers from HRL Laboratories and the University of Michigan announced the first functioning memristor array built on a CMOS chip for applications in neuromorphic computer architectures.

Margaret Cushing "Meg" Whitman (born August 4, 1956) is an American business executive. She is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett-Packard. A native of Long Island, New York, she is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School. Whitman served as an executive in The Walt Disney Company where she was vice president of strategic planning throughout the 1980s. In the 1990s, she served as an executive for Procter & Gamble and Hasbro. Whitman served as President and Chief Executive Officer of eBay from 1998 to 2008. During her ten years with the company, she oversaw expansion from 30 employees and $4 million in annual revenue to more than 15,000 employees and $8 billion in annual revenue.

In February 2009, Whitman announced her candidacy for Governor of California, becoming the third woman in a twenty year period to run for the office. She won the Republican primary in June 2010. The fourth wealthiest woman in the state of California with a net worth of $1.3 billion in 2010, she spent more of her own money on the race than any other political candidate spent on a single election in American history, spending $144 million total of her own fortune and $178.5 million including donors. Whitman lost to Jerry Brown in the November 2 election.