resistore

Resistore is a term used in speculative technology and science fiction to denote a device that can store and adjust the electrical resistance of a circuit element. It is not an established component in standard electronics, and the term does not appear in major engineering handbooks or standards.

Etymology and concept

The name resists common naming patterns by combining “resistance” with a storage-oriented suffix. In imagined implementations, a resistore would function as a programmable resistance element whose value can be set by control signals and, in some conceptions, persists when power is removed. Proposed approaches often invoke emerging memory technologies such as memristive, phase-change, or other non-volatile resistive elements to retain the stored value.

Architectures and behavior

In theory, resistores could be realized as a compact unit within a circuit, interfacing with digital controllers to set a target resistance. Variants might include direct resistance storage, programmable analog networks, or arrays of tunable resistors that collectively emulate a single programmable value. The device could operate as a non-volatile, reconfigurable load or as part of adaptive signal-processing structures.

Applications and context

The concept is mainly discussed in thought experiments, speculative designs, or fiction, where reconfigurable analog networks or neural-inspired hardware benefit from persistent resistance states. In real hardware, established technologies such as digital potentiometers, variable resistors, and memristor-based memory devices serve related roles without using the resisting term resistore.

See also

Resistor, Memristor, Digital potentiometer, Variable resistor, Non-volatile memory.