By Mark Ward 25 May 2010
Silicon chips that are allowed to make mistakes could help ensure computers continue to get more powerful, say US researchers. As components shrink, chip makers struggle to get more performance out of them while meeting power needs. Research suggests relaxing the rules governing how they work and when they work correctly could mean they use less power but get a performance boost. Special software is also needed to cope with the error-laden chips. The silicon industry is defined by Moore's Law, which predicts that the number of transistors that can fit on a given area of silicon, for a given price will double every 18-24 months. This is usually accomplished by shrinking transistors and typically means that processing steadily gets more powerful. Transistors are tiny switches that are used as the fundamental building blocks of silicon chips. However, many experts point out that the relentless march of Moore's Law could stumble when components get so small they become unreliable. The unreliability - or "statistical variability" - of chips is a problem that many researchers were trying to deal with, said Professor Asen Asenov from the Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering at the University of Glasgow. Variability increases as components shrink, said Professor Asenov, who has been using large scale simulations on grid computers to study how the behaviour of transistors changes as they get smaller. For Professor Rakesh Kumar at University of Illinois the demise of Moore's Law is being hastened by an insistence on making silicon chips operate flawlessly.
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1 comment:
Hahaha a research partly funded by Intel is trying to convince people into accepting and believing Flawed CPU's that are allowed to create errors in order to increase clock speed performance and perhaps future sales is the best way to go. They are trying to revive Moores Law and are in denial that it has been dead for awhile now. It's totaly absurd but not suprising that a CPU company that has a track record of producing error laden CPUs is supporting this. But seriously they are trying to sell the idea that you should buy CPUs in the future that are flawed. error prone and would require software to fix these errors. Talk about overreaching and self serving. Taking this approach just so they can increase clock speed,sales and bragging rights and revive Moore's Law proves why the company supporting this idea is out of touch and has been for decades. You have to read this nonsense!! It's laughable at best sad at worst.
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