Technology Review - Published By MIT
Advertisement

Better Computer Chips, Sooner

Continued from page 1

By Kate Greene

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

smaller text tool iconmedium text tool iconlarger text tool icon

The Michigan researchers wrote software that automatically specifies the electrical input to chips being tested and analyzes their output to find problem areas. Ideally, engineers would want to know the output of each transistor on a chip. But consumer chips will soon have more than a billion transistors, which will make such precise testing far too time consuming, explains Bertacco. So the Michigan algorithm tests a number of inputs across a large portion of the chip. Based on the output errors, it knows which part of the chip to concentrate on, "narrowing down a search to a few promising candidate bugs," says Bertacco. In a similar manner, the software identifies ways to fix the bugs, running through a series of simulations to find a design variation that offers the fastest and most cost-effective solution.

One of the big advantages of the Michigan researchers' approach, says Rutenbar, is that their software can sometimes come up with counterintuitive solutions. An engineer, he says, might see that the logical way to fix a bug is to rewire a number of circuits. But the software can tell when flipping a few wires will get the same result. "When humans look at it, it's not at all obvious," Rutenbar says.

In case studies, the researchers showed that their software can automatically repair about 70 percent of major silicon bugs, and they claim that they could reduce the amount of time required to find a particular bug from weeks to days.

Intel is keeping an eye on the work, as it is always looking for better ways to improve the chip-making process. Debugging silicon is a "serious problem," says Shekhar Borkar, an Intel research fellow. He says that Intel uses "the same kind of techniques" that the Michigan researchers do, "but maybe in a different form." Borkar adds that "there are some advances in the [Michigan] paper." He says that the Michigan research is a good start to solving the problem but still needs to be proved outside the lab.

Comments

  • Software
    So, who debugs the software that debugs the hardware?
    Rate this comment: 12345

    makornitzky
    11/20/2007
    Posts:11
    Avg Rating:
    4/5
    • Re: Software
      Another software
      Rate this comment: 12345

      97007
      11/20/2007
      Posts:1
      • Re: Software
        another software run on one of the processors that has supposedly been debugged
        Rate this comment: 12345

        urian1975
        11/21/2007
        Posts:16
        Avg Rating:
        2/5
        • Re: Software
          It's why "Engineering" will never be the same as "Math" :)
          Rate this comment: 12345

          beceo
          11/24/2007
          Posts:1

Log In

Forgot your password?     Register »
Advertisement

Videos

Laser-Triggered Chemical Reactions
Featured Content
Sponsored by:
White Papers

Twelve ways to reduce costs with SQL Server 2008
Find out how to reduce costs and get more efficient

Download

Total Economic Impact of SQL Server 2008 Upgrade
Forrester reports on increasing productivity and management capabilities

Download 

Achieving Cost and Resource Savings with UC
How Office Communications Server R2 and Exchange Server can make your business smarter and more efficient

Download 

The Compelling Case for Conferencing
Read how you can improve workload support and find IT efficiencies

Download

How Windows Server 2008 R2 Helps Optimize IT and Save you Money
Read how you can improve workload support and find IT efficiencies

Download

Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Live Migration
See how Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V enable virtualization and Live Migration

Download
Advertisement
Subscribe to Technology Review's daily e-mail update. Enter your e-mail address

TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES
Advertisement
MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology © 2009 Technology Review. All Rights Reserved.