Blog: Remapping Computer Circuitry to Avert Impending Bottlenecks

Remapping Computer Circuitry to Avert Impending Bottlenecks
New York Times (02/28/11) John Markoff

Hewlett-Packard (HP) researchers have proposed a fundamental redesign of the modern computer that combines memory and computing power to significantly limit energy consumption. The new computing paradigm would be based on memory chips called nanostores, which are hybrid, three-dimensional systems in which lower-level circuits are based on memristors. The nanostore chips have a multi-story design, with silicon-based computing circuits that use minimal energy. HP's Parthasarathy Ranganathan says that in about seven years nanostore chips could hold up to one trillion bits of memory and contain 128 processors. He says the key is their ability to move data using very little energy. "What's going to be the killer app 10 years from now?" Ranganathan asks. "It's fairly clear it's going to be about data; that's not rocket science. In the future every piece of storage on the planet will come with a built-in computer." Other technologies also are being developed to help computing become more energy efficient. Recently, researchers at Harvard University and Mitre Corporation developed nanoprocessor tiles made from germanium-silicon wires. IBM researchers have been studying phase-change memories based on the ability to use an electric current to switch a material from a crystalline to an amorphous state and vice versa.

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