Processor, heal thyself

Forget the saying, “Doctor, heal thyself!” – it seems that future multi-core processors might just fulfil that niche, assuming the team of a quartet of companies and a couple of universities attempt to develop chips which are far smaller and thinner than today, and yet is able to gauge its own performance while rerouting tasks around damaged portions of its own architecture. This is neat – and will such chips actually make our devices self-aware, launching a real life version of SkyNet to catch humanity unawares and result in Judgment Day for everyone? Known as Cutting-Edge Reconfigurable ICs for Stream Processing, or rather, CRISP, with the objective of introducing architecture that will degrade gracefully over time. After all, a damaged chip should not just stop working, but will still be able to work and function through different routes. Does this mean the upgrade period in between new processor releases will lengthened, since processors by then are far more resilient?

Edwin Kee
Categories: Computers, Top Stories
Tags: Processors