Reconfigurable Chaos-Based Microchips Offer Possible Solution To Moore’s Law

Megalith

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Researchers are attempting to get “more out of less” by applying chaos theory to transistor circuits, which allows them to be programmed to perform different tasks. 100 million transistors could perform work equivalent to three billion transistors.

"In current processors you don't utilize all the circuitry on the processor all the time, which is wasteful," Kia says. "Our design allows the circuit to be rapidly morphed and reconfigured to perform a desired digital function in each clock cycle. The heart of the design is an analog nonlinear circuit, but the interface is fully digital, enabling the circuit to operate as a fully morphable digital circuit that can be easily connected to the other digital systems." The researchers have produced an alternative approach for computing that is compatible with existing technology and utilizes the same fabrication process and CAD tools as existing computer chips, which could aid commercial adoption.
 
i always found it funny how we really want our development of electronics to adhere to moore's law. it was more of an observation at the time than anything, and yes it's held true for many years. but let's be realistic here for a minute - it's not a law of nature or science. if we don't keep up with moore's law it's not like a critical law of physics has been broken and a singularity will open destroying earth....
 
Totally agree here. It's not a fundamental law of nature but since my last name is Moore I'm cool with it. ;)
 
Except Moore's law doesn't apply here. Moore was talking about doubling of transistors, they're just making things more efficient. So when transistor density stops doubling, Moore's law in it's original sense is dead.
 
Researchers are attempting to get “more out of less” by applying chaos theory to transistor circuits, which allows them to be programmed to perform different tasks. 100 million transistors could perform work equivalent to three billion transistors.

"In current processors you don't utilize all the circuitry on the processor all the time, which is wasteful," Kia says. "Our design allows the circuit to be rapidly morphed and reconfigured to perform a desired digital function in each clock cycle. The heart of the design is an analog nonlinear circuit, but the interface is fully digital, enabling the circuit to operate as a fully morphable digital circuit that can be easily connected to the other digital systems." The researchers have produced an alternative approach for computing that is compatible with existing technology and utilizes the same fabrication process and CAD tools as existing computer chips, which could aid commercial adoption.
But will it blend?
 
They are not mentioning that the cache is what takes up most of the die space in the first place.

Sure, cut out the cache and see how crappily it will perform.

And I can't imagine how bad the latency cost is on a chip that can reconfigure itself at every single clock cycle.
 
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