The US National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $2.6m grant to develop next-generation chips, triggering a revolution in the design and operation of silicon chips.
As part of the three-year initiative, staff from Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for Silicon System Implementation (CSSI) will collaborate and use the grant to learn more from their own big data so they can better match the needs of the user.
CMU ECE professor, CSSI head Shawn Blanton said "Ironically, for a technology that has imbued nearly every object with some level of intelligence, the management of a silicon chip’s internal resources and infrastructure is largely ad hoc and piecemeal, leading to sub-optimal utilization of chip resources.
"This lack of sophistication means that today’s chips actually waste a significant fraction of the power they burn, leading to shorter battery lives, higher data center power demands, and ultimately less efficient use of the world’s shrinking energy supply."
The university has also launched the Statistical Learning In Chip (SLIC) project, which is aimed at integrating the management of a silicon chip’s resources through machine learning.
"A SLIC-enabled integrated circuit could continually monitor its own performance and conditions to ensure that it is always operating at optimal efficiency," Blanton added.
"The high-speed, high efficiency SLIC engines also will enhance applications outside the chip like improving new smart systems, such as sensors that predict blood sugar levels for controlling diabetes or streamlining brain-computer interfaces for controlling prosthetic limbs."
According to researchers at the University, SLIC can also be implemented to critical infrastructure supervisory control and data systems including the electric power grid, air traffic control and telecommunications infrastructure.
CMU ECE department head Ed Schlesinger and electrical and computer engineering professor David Edward Schramm Memorial said in a joint statement: "The research has tremendous impact as the team works essentially to develop a new paradigm in IC technology where the chips themselves have a kind of intelligence and thus provide far superior performance to the systems they are part of."
