Blog: Burned Once, Intel Prepares New Chip Fortified by Constant Tests (formal methods)

Burned Once, Intel Prepares New Chip Fortified by Constant Tests
The New York Times (11/17/08) P. B3; Markoff, John

Despite rigorous stress testing on dozens of computers, Intel's John Barton is still nervous about the upcoming release of Intel's new Core i7 microprocessor. Even after months of testing, Barton knows that it is impossible to predict exactly how the chip will function once it is installed in thousands of computers running tens of thousands of programs. The new chip, which has 731 million transistors, was designed for use in desktop computers, but the company hopes that it will eventually be used in everything from powerful servers to laptops. The design and testing of an advanced microprocessor is one of the most complex endeavors humans have undertaken. Intel now spends $500 million annually to test its chips before selling them. However, it still is impossible to test more than a fraction of the total number of "states" that the new Core i7 chip can be programmed in. "Now we are hitting systemic complexity," says Synopsys CEO Aart de Geus. "Things that came from different angles that used to be independent have become interdependent." In an effort to produce error-free chips, Intel in the 1990s turned to a group of mathematical theoreticians in the computer science field who had developed advanced techniques for evaluating hardware and software, known as formal methods. In another effort to minimize chip errors, the Core i7 also contains software that can be changed after the microprocessors are shipped, giving Intel the ability to correct flaws after the product's release.

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