Intel researchers have developed a prototype chip that operates in a low-power yet error-prone mode, but can detect and correct its errors. The researchers say this approach is 37 percent more power efficient compared with running in conventional mode and offers comparable performance. To compensate for the errors that occur while running at low voltage, Intel has developed a strategy known as resilient circuits. The prototype chip runs at low voltage, and when an error occurs, a calculation is done at high voltage to correct it. “When you have to correct an error, and reexecute a process more slowly, there is a tiny penalty,” says Intel’s Wen-Hann Wang. However, laboratory tests have shown the chip can either save 37 percent on power consumption, or operate 21 percent faster at a given power level. “They push it as close to the danger zone as they can, and things sometimes go bad, and they correct for it, which is very clever,” says Rice University professor Krishna Palem.
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Tel Aviv University (TAU) researchers are developing nano-sized sensors for microelectromechanical systems that are more sensitive and reliable than existing technology. The researchers say that more sensitive sensors could enhance video games and lead to better functioning prosthetic limbs, cars that can detect crashes before they occur, and missiles that can reach a target much more accurately. The researchers, led by TAU professors Yael Hanein and Slava Krylov, developed a method in which tiny carbon tubes that make up the sensors can arrange themselves on the surface of a silicon chip to accurately sense tiny movements and changes in gravity. “We’ve been able to fabricate a new device where the nano structures are put onto a big surface–and they can be arranged in a process that doesn’t require human intervention, so they’re easier to manufacture,” Hanein says.
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