41 per cent more throughput for the same energy
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.