A computer chip developed by the founding director of NTU's Institute for Sustainable Nanoelectronics (ISNE) is named among the world's ten most promising, life-changing technologies.
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Prof Palem is behind a groundbreaking microchip based on PCMOS (Probabilistic Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) technology that has been named to Technology Review's coveted annual top-10 list of emerging technologies.
His invention, developed at Rice University, where he is Ken and Audrey Kennedy Professor in Computer Science, was featured in the April 2008 edition of Technology Review, one of the world's oldest and most respected trade publications with more than 109 years of history.
PCMOS is an anomaly in the world of microchips as it allows researchers to trade a small degree of accuracy in computation for substantial energy savings. In the short term, PCMOS designs could significantly increase battery life in mobile devices. The Rice chip, for instance, could boost battery life as much as tenfold on mobile phones and laptops while slashing development costs for chipmakers. Applications where the limits of human perception reduce the need for precision are perfectly suited to PCMOS designs.
Whole New Way of Problem-Solving
Previous research done by Prof Palem and his team has shown that viewers watching video on a cell phone cannot tell the difference between video processed on regular microchips and PCMOS chips. The key, it seems, is knowing when a user's experience is compromised. In other words, it may be sufficient to create a product that is designed to be "just good enough" for the task it needs to perform.
At NTU's ISNE, Prof Palem has received seed funding of S$4 million over two years to spearhead research on sustainable nanoelectronics. His team's work draws on PCMOS technology and aims to develop the next-generation of low-cost embedded integrated circuit (IC) chips that will consume over 100 times less energy.
ISNE enjoys a close working relationship with Rice University's new Value of Information-based Sustainable Embedded Nanocomputing Centre (VISEN), also founded and directed by Prof Palem. The NTU-Rice team actively taps an exclusive network of leading electronics and computing experts from Caltech, Georgia Institute of Technology and Harvard University. Prof Palem is also working with scientists at NTU's Centre for Integrated Circuits and Systems.
The research breakthroughs expected will be highly attractive to international semiconductor and IC design companies.
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