What technology has reached

    imageI wrote a lot of words in defense of energy efficiency, which is often called the "fifth type of fuel" - today all developments in the field of reducing energy consumption of microcircuits, as well as new developments, including processors operating at minimum voltage, are almost the most priority at Intel. We already know that it is impossible to endlessly increase power by increasing the number of transistors on a silicon substrate, as well as the fact that multithreading has its own theoretical ceiling. In any case, peak performance is currently critical except for the builders of supercomputers - the average user has long had enough of the frequencies that are provided in abundance by vendors.

    For this reason, reducing the need for high voltage is a promising area that in the foreseeable future will allow mobile devices, laptops, and desktop or server solutions to significantly reduce energy consumption, and hence the electricity bill. Moreover, Intel researchers are already showing off-the-shelf products that require a postage stamp-sized solar cell to run.

    This is where we start.

    IDF 2011it may not have brought any revolution in the field of processor engineering, but it clearly opened the eyes of the general public to the widespread use of low-voltage processors. This is proved by the effect that the presentation of the experimental chip using the so-called NTV (near-threshold voltage). This processor, codenamed “Claremont”, requires minimal energy (the threshold value for turning on the semiconductor) to start the calculation, but in fact, it can be powered by an extremely compact and economical source of energy: from a solar panel — as was demonstrated, theoretically, to potatoes or lemon.

    At the demonstration, the processor showed the operation of a personal computer based on the Linux OS and was powered by a tiny solar battery. In addition, another novelty - the so-called. The Hybrid Memory Cube (experimental DRAM built on a three-dimensional principle) worked in conjunction with the Claremont processor, demonstrating not only low power consumption, but also the ability to reach medium or high performance if necessary. Fortunately, the potential of both systems is really high.



    Intel Speaker Connie Brown said in an interview that "a solar cell of such a small size was used specifically to show how low voltage is enough for this system to work." And although Claremont is just an experimental model - this experience will be reflected in the work of future processors, which are planned with the preservation of the tradition of reducing energy dependence.

    In order to achieve this result, Intel specialists took several years, so in fact, the Claremont architecture is quite simple and resembles Pentium chips rather than the latest generation of processors. But the technology of switching to ultra-low voltage when the processor load is minimal will be used in future generations of Intel processors. Claremont has shown that it can operate at a consumption of less than 10 milliwatts, accelerating 10 times as necessary with increasing energy consumption.

    That is, it’s not even quite a “job." Instead of completely shutting down, the processor allows the device to enter an ultra-economical mode, which will extend the autonomous operation of future devices with extended operating time without recharging - it is also planned to make ultrabooks that will allow up to 10 days in the background (with the lid closed), getting mail, news from the Internet and various updates. The same technology is also used by Intel to create “zero energy consumption” architectures - it is quite possible that after 5 years our devices will not have to be connected to the electric network at all, and they will be charged due to vibration or movement and, ultimately, solar energy.

    The result of applying new approaches in the Claremont prototype in dry numbers is as follows - it consumes 5-10 times (depending on workload / task) less energy than the most modern processors.

    Sriram Wangal (in the photo above) says that “most digital devices today operate with a nominal voltage of 1 volt. NTV operates between 400 and 500 millivolts. ” But it is difficult to constantly maintain the operation of the device in such conditions - the difference between 0 and 1 becomes more and more blurry, in the sense of the presence and / or absence of an electrical signal.

    As I have already noted, this is progress not only in the field of consumer technology of the future, but also in high-performance systems. The company's goal is to reduce the power consumption of processors by 300 times in 10 years. This is a very ambitious goal, on a large scale - today in order to get 100 gigaflops of performance, you need to spend about 200 watts of energy at the output, Intel hopes to reduce this number to at least 2 watts over time.

    The second, perhaps even more interesting novelty in a sense, was the Hybrid Memory Cube - a RAM unit made using new technology using a microprocessor that controls the operation of the entire memory chip.

    Actually, the production of RAM was simply a limitation - even with the release of DDR-3, companies were not able to achieve a significant increase in productivity by improving the technological process of its production. Therefore, Intel decided to follow the already beaten path and created a memory module made using 3D technology - just like the future Ivy Bridge processors. This allowed to increase the density of transistors, reduce its power consumption, as well as increase the speed of the bus, at a logical level.

    The result of cooperation with Micron Technology was the emergence of a completely new form factor memory - a hybrid cube, which became the world's fastest DRAM device with a data transfer rate of 1 terabit per second. In addition, it is the most energy-efficient DRAM module in the world, which consumes much less power compared to the most popular and productive memory models. As a result, the Hybrid Memory Cube is almost ten times faster and 7 times more economical than the most advanced DDR3 module on the market.

    It is not yet clear whether a new solution will be reflected in mid-range systems (such as home computers) in the near future, however, many server manufacturers have already expressed their desire to apply this development. It is possible that the HMC will be a serious step in building data centers and supercomputers of the future, as powerful as economical. Architects of such systems will no longer be limited by memory performance, which means they will be able to increase the scalability of all systems without a serious blow to their pockets due to the gluttony of microcircuits.

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