Researchers Design Microchip Ten Times More Efficient 113
WirePosted writes to mention that a new highly efficient microchip has been announced by researchers from MIT and Texas Instruments. The new chip touts up to 10 times more energy efficiency than current generation chips. "One key to the new chip design, Chandrakasan says, was to build a high-efficiency DC-to-DC converter--which reduces the voltage to the lower level--right on the same chip, reducing the number of separate components. The redesigned memory and logic, along with the DC-to-DC converter, are all integrated to realize a complete system-on-a-chip solution."
Any chance of commercial success? (Score:5, Interesting)
Personally, I would love to see a chip that requires very low power make it into the mainstream market. I think it would great to have something like that for the miniITX form factor or something of that nature that hobbyists could tinker with and find fun applications for. The Transmeta, unfortunately, never realized that as far as I ever saw.
Re:Any chance of commercial success? (Score:5, Interesting)
Also, from the article: "So far the new chip is at the proof of concept stage. Commercial applications could become available "in five years, maybe even sooner, in a number of exciting areas," Chandrakasan says
Interesting but what about variability? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:wouldn't you want the voltage to be HIGHER? (Score:3, Interesting)
Every transistor leaks current to some extent. And as those transistors get smaller, that amount of leakage likes to get bigger, because the "off" resistance of the transistor decreases. There has been an awful lot of research into how to reduce the leakage, with some remarkable successes, but the problem is becoming harder as the features shrink. So in order to limit the amount of leakage, the manufacturers are working to lower the voltage required for the transistors to operate. A lower voltage across that same off resistance means less current leaking (V=IR), and so less power is lost. The fact that the power is a function of the square of the voltage (or current) means that even a relatively small decrease in the voltage means a significant power savings.
Re:Will we get these soon? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:wouldn't you want the voltage to be HIGHER? (Score:2, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Will we get these soon? (Score:2, Interesting)