Boffins at Intel’s research labs have built a resilient microprocessor that delivers as much as 41% more throughput using the same amount of energy as a comparable conventional core.

Keith Bowman, a researcher at Intel’s Circuit Research Laboratories said that if the technology was  applied to commercial processors, this resilient/adaptive design would deliver better than guaranteed throughput. Chips with a lower performance would get a better spec.  Under less than ideal conditions the  design would optimise performance and deliver guaranteed throughput more efficiently than would cores that adhere to conventional architectures.

It is a form of self-tuning by means of built-in error detection and correction. True, it  eats up cycles but not as many as would be eaten up by the conventional method that relies on cycle-wasting buffers called guardbands. The net result is more efficient processing. The Intel prototype core includes adaptive circuits that eliminate guardbands. Instead, these circuits detect errors caused by the voltage, temperature and aging factors and correct for them on the fly without requiring reserve cycles. That allows results in either maximized throughput or minimized energy requirements that in either case outstrip performance of conventional processors, Bowman said.