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TECHNEWS

Revolutionary microchip on cards

Mahdin Mahboob
RESEARCHERS at Rice University (USA) and Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) have developed a microchip that is cleaner and greener and yet 7 times faster than the chips in use today!
In the first real-world test of a revolutionary type of computing that thrives on random errors, scientists have created a microchip that uses 30 times less electricity while running seven times faster than today's best technology. The U.S.- Singapore team developing the technology, dubbed PCMOS revealed the results recently at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), the world's premier forum for engineers working at the cuttingedge of integrated-circuit design.
Conceived by Rice University Professor Krishna Palem. PCMOS is built on the "complementary metal-oxide semiconductor" technology, or CMOS, that chipmakers already use. That means chipmakers won't have to buy new equipment to support PCMOS. or "probabilistic" CMOS. Al though PCMOS runs on standard silicon, it breaks with computing's past by abandoning the set of mathematical rules -- called Boolean logic - that have thus far been used in all digital computers. PCMOS instead uses probabilistic logic, a new form of logic developed by Palem and his doctoral student, Lakshmi Chakrapani.
"PCMOS is fundamentally different,” Palem said. "We lower the voltage dramatically and deal with die resulting computational errors by embracing the errors and uncertainties dirough probabilistic logic. "
PCMOS was joindy validated by Rice and NanyangTechnologicaJ University (NTU) in Singapore via a joint institute (hat Palem founded in 2007, the Institute for Sustainable Nanoelectronics (1SNE). Directed by Palem, 1SNE is based at NTU, where the first prototype PCMOS chips were manufactured last year in collaboration with Professor Yeo KiatSeng andhis team.
The prototypes were application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, that were designed solely for encryption. Unlike the general- purpose microprocessors that power PCs and laptops, ASICs are designed for a specific purpose, and they are "embedded" by the millions each year in a growing constellation of products like automobiles, cell phones, MRI scanners and electronic toys. The Rice-NTU team plans to follow its proof-of-concept work on encryption with proof-of-concept tests on microchips for cell phones, graphics cards and medical implants.
Palem said PCMOS is ideally suited for encryption, a process that relies on generating random numbers. It's equally well-suited for graphics, but for different reasons. In a streaming video application on a cell phone, for example, it is unnecessary to conduct precise calculations. The small screen, combined with the human brain's ability to process less-than-
perfect pictures, results in a case where the picture looks just as good with a calculation that’s only approximately correct.
"The key is to consider the value that the computed information has for the user," said Palem, who directs Rice's Value of Information-based Sustainable E.mbedded Nanocomputing Center, or VISEN. "Our goal is green computing. We’re looking for applications where PCMOS can deliver as well as or better than existing technology but with a fraction of the energy."
If PCMOS can slash energy use for embedded ASICs in key devices, the implications are enormous. For consumers, it could mean the difference between charging a cell phone every few weeks instead of every few days. Globally, that would help reduce the information technology industry's carbon footprint. Information Source Rice National Metta Site