5 ms·
An asynchronous multicore chip http://www.greenarraychips.com http://www.greenarraychips.com NO CLOCKS: Most computing devices have one or more clocks that syn
by avodonosov 9y ago
An asynchronous multicore chip http://www.greenarraychips.com http://www.greenarraychips.com
NO CLOCKS: Most computing devices have one or more clocks that synchronize all
operations. When a conventional computer is powered up and waiting to respond
quickly to stimuli, clock generation and distribution are consuming energy at a huge rate
by our standards, yet accomplishing nothing. This is why “starting” and “stopping” the
clock is a big deal and takes much time and energy for other architectures. Our
architecture explicitly omits a clock, saving energy and time among other benefits.
- a_imho 9y agosaving energy and time among other benefits Wouldn't (bitcoin) miners be a good fit for async circuits? Simple logic, low power, high performance.
- rocqua 9y agoThe quote totes an advantage whilst waiting for input. I take that to mean having really good idle performance. Miner ASICs don't make money when idle.
- ithkuil 9y agoI don't know the details of the circuitry needed for bitcoin hashing, but it can contain steps that are not executed continuously and hence being idle until they have some work to do (i.e. they have some inputs). Reducing the power consumption of a miner directly translates into making more money.
- a_imho 9y agoI mean could doing away with the clock improve signal propagation time while reducing consumption while hashing in theory? Maybe even reduce chip size?
- avodonosov 9y agoYou're reading my thoughts. I'm thinking about usage of that chip for mining for 5 days already (since advertising it in another thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15249289 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15249289 This chip has other good properties in addition to "no clock".