A multinational research group has created an inexact chip design it claims is at least 50 times more efficient than conventional chips. The design reportedly improves power and resource efficiency by allowing for occasional hardware errors. Because the system manages the probability of errors and limits those calculations that produce errors, the chip has greater performance and lower energy consumption. Scientists from the US’s Rice University, Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, Switzerland’s Center for Electronics and Microtechnology, and the University of California, Berkeley developed the chip. Initial applications could be special-purpose, embedded microchips used in hearing aids, cameras and other electronic devices. The researchers expect prototype hearing aids containing these chips to be available by 2013. They presented their work at this week’s ACM International Conference on Computing Frontiers. (EurekAlert)(Rice University)
