This paper describes a model to simulate electrical characteristics of nonvolatile floating gate quantum dot memory (NVFGQDM) cells. The charging mechanism is based on tunneling of electrons from the quantum well channel to the quantum dot gate. The tunneling rate of electrons is computed using the transition-Hamiltonian of Bardeen. The wave functions and potential energies of the quantum well channel and quantum dot gate are calculated using a self-consistent numerical solution of Schrodinger and Poisson equations. Current voltage characteristics are obtained using BSIM3v3. Capacitance voltage characteristics showing the effect of the dot charge are also described. The application of a quantum dot memory cell as a programmable resistor is presented. The results show that by changing the quantum dot charge, the resistor values can be changed by 40%. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.