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Clockless Chips?

S

ShadowDJ

Senior member
I was wondering if anyone knew anything about this. Supposedly Intel had a prototype of one that performed very well and used less power. Is this true? I'm just wondering because I heard someone mention the development.
 
Sorry for not being clear enough. By clockless I mean that they supposedly did not use a clock generator, operations would reprt being finished or something to that effect. The CPU essentially would not have a clock speed. That's about all I know about them from the conversation.
 


<< I was wondering if anyone knew anything about this. Supposedly Intel had a prototype of one that performed very well and used less power. Is this true? I'm just wondering because I heard someone mention the development. >>


Correct. Intel did have a prototype of a clockless CPU a long time ago, but decided not to use it because CPUs-with-clock were easier to design and manufacture.

Problems with clockless chipdesigns form the extremely complex development. Since there is no clock to coordinate the operations, it is the design itself, the structure, which must ensure that all operations are carried out in the right order and at the right time.

A single flaw in the design will have serious repercussions, possibly resulting in a total failure of the CPU to work.

However, the performance to be gained from a clockless CPU are rather high (there is no clock to a) hold up operations while others are being completed so everything goes literally as fast as possible and b) there is no die-size wasted on a clock (which might result in a 1/3th decrease in the number of transistors).

Clockless designs are used for chips which are employed in audio-systems and similar devices. The P4 also has some parts which are clockless.

However, designing a completely clockless CPU is still a rather challenge. The economical climate does not promote the investment in such a design either, so we won't see any clockless CPUs anytime soon.

What we will see, I think, is the use of more clockless parts in future CPUs.
 
The ultimate chip will be when it can adjust itself, building more transisters and interconnects as needed and decreasing others as needed. You'd actually have to teach your CPU to do certain things and have certain features and do certain operations well, but that way, 1 CPU will fit all operations and do them very fast.
 


<< The ultimate chip will be when it can adjust itself, building more transisters and interconnects as needed and decreasing others as needed. You'd actually have to teach your CPU to do certain things and have certain features and do certain operations well, but that way, 1 CPU will fit all operations and do them very fast. >>


Wasn't there an experiment some time ago where a circuit was allowed to develop, to evolve? It was so successful that not only was the circuit much more efficient than any Human could ever have constructed it, it also made use of properties no one had thought of, like EM-interference: a number of parts were not connected to the rest of the circuit, they were at first thought to be non-functional, but then the researchers discovered that the circuit could not function without those parts. The circuit had adapted to make use of the EM-interference created by those parts.

A most intriguing experiment.
 
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