The annual top 10 list from MIT’s Technology Review includes a “gambling” computing chip from Rice University (and underwrtten by Intel and the U.S. Department of Defense) that could boost battery life for networked devices and cut costs for chipmakers. Here’s how the Probabilistic CMOS inventor describes the twist:
The PCMOS concept is deceptively simple; slash power to some transistors on the processor and take a chance that a few calculations will be incorrect. The technology piggybacks onto “complementary metal-oxide semiconductor” technology, or CMOS, the basic technology chipmakers already use. The probability of calculation errors yields the name “probabilistic” CMOS, or PCMOS.
Also on the Tech Review list are offline Web applications and something called “reality mining,” which involves gathering data from cell phones to gain more insight into human interactions.
