New computer chip promises a revolution in green computing

The CIO-level business angle on the latest tech

There’s a quiet revolution taking place in the science of computer chip technology. Within a few years, this revolution could impact everything from the portable devices we use to the way we encrypt sensitive information. And, it could vastly reduce the amount of energy our devices consume, giving us much greener computing.

Just what is this revolution? Some experts call it the extension of Moore's Law, the principle which dictates that the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit doubles every couple of years. This phenomenon was first observed in 1958 by Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel. It has proven to be true for at least 50 years, but the law might hit the limitations of physics in the next decade or so.

If Moore’s Law is about to hit the wall, what’s next on the horizon? Probabilistic computing is the next big thing, and it’s being developed by a team of scientists at Rice University in Houston and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. The team recently demonstrated a proof of concept microchip with remarkable results. The microchip has the ability to deliver a 30x improvement in energy consumption while simultaneously delivering a 7x improvement in speed over conventional computer chips.

What’s the catch, you ask? Well, the chip is prone to errors, but in a good way. These errors are intentional.

To continue reading, register here to become an Insider. You'll get free access to premium content from CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. See more Insider content or sign in.

There’s a quiet revolution taking place in the science of computer chip technology. Within a few years, this revolution could impact everything from the portable devices we use to the way we encrypt sensitive information. And, it could vastly reduce the amount of energy our devices consume, giving us much greener computing.

Just what is this revolution? Some experts call it the extension of Moore's Law, the principle which dictates that the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit doubles every couple of years. This phenomenon was first observed in 1958 by Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel. It has proven to be true for at least 50 years, but the law might hit the limitations of physics in the next decade or so.

If Moore’s Law is about to hit the wall, what’s next on the horizon? Probabilistic computing is the next big thing, and it’s being developed by a team of scientists at Rice University in Houston and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. The team recently demonstrated a proof of concept microchip with remarkable results. The microchip has the ability to deliver a 30x improvement in energy consumption while simultaneously delivering a 7x improvement in speed over conventional computer chips.

What’s the catch, you ask? Well, the chip is prone to errors, but in a good way. These errors are intentional.

Around the year 2000, Rice University professor Krishna Palem conceived the idea of a computer chip that would sacrifice absolute precision of its calculations in exchange for a reduction in energy consumption. Palem’s viewpoint was that not every bit of information is important. He allowed that, in some circumstances, it’s OK to drop a bit here and there in order to reduce power consumption while increasing the speed of the calculations. He calls this principle “probabilistic computing” because the errors manifest themselves in random bits that don’t have a significant impact on the outcome.

For example, when displaying video on a computer screen, it makes little difference to the human eye if a few frames out of the entire video are distorted. Our brains have the ability to compensate and comprehend the video as a whole. But this minor reduction in precision has big implications for the microprocessor that handles the video display.

Today’s conventional microprocessor chip is called a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor, or CMOS chip. It must always deliver perfect calculations. As we follow Moore’s Law and increase the computing power of the chip through more densely compacted transistors, more voltage is required to eliminate background noise that could cause errors. More voltage means more heat and more energy consumption.

Palem and his colleagues devised a chip called the probabilistic complementary metal-oxide semiconductor, or PCMOS chip. It allows for an error here or there, which means the electrons flowing through the transistors can be powered with low voltage, meaning less energy consumption.

When Palem first proposed this concept in 2002, his colleagues dismissed his ideas. The notion of intentional errors was pure heresy. In 2006, his research team simulated a circuit to validate the concept. The colleagues stopped scoffing and became believers. In 2009, the research team announced results of the first real-world test of the PCMOS chip. Now the future is bright.

Linda Musthaler is a principal analyst with Essential Solutions Corporation.