Wednesday, March 20, 2013
How Self-Healing Microchips Recover
The chip comes from the High-Speed Integrated Circuits laboratory, which specializes in microchip technology. There are thousands of pathways by which information can travel through a microchip, but because each one is very specialized, a single fault traditionally renders the whole system inoperative.
Each chip contains more than 100,000 transistors (the most basic component in a microchip), which don't all function simultaneously. Rather, the researchers burned vast swaths of transistors out of the chip with a laser, then allowed the systems to recalibrate. As long as the blast did not catch any data caches in its crosshairs, the chip could seek out alternate routes and continue to function. With the help of an application-specific integrated-circuit (ASIC) processor on each chip, the system could "learn" which pathways were broken and adjust accordingly.
If a traditional microchip is comparable to an electric circuit (remove one piece and the entire system collapses), this newtechnology is more similar to a human brain. If one pathway becomes inaccessible, the brain will discover novel ways to relay information. Of course, it is possible to inflict catastrophic damage on a system (be it brain or microchip) from which it cannot recover, but with more than 100,000 methods of delivery, these microchips could prove to be extremely robust.
The self-healing chips are an intriguing step in machine evolution, but they do lack one crucial feature of actual living things: the ability to regenerate over time. While the Caltech microchips can withstand extensive damage and figure out ways to work around it, a section fried by lasers will still be fried years later. Unlike biological tissue, which repairs itself over time, each chip has a limited shelf life. [See also: Bionic Humans: Top 10 Technologies]
Still, the fact that the microchip is not yet completely analogous to living things should not take away from the novelty of the invention or its potential usefulness. Right now, if a microchip in your computer or cell phone burns out, the whole system is essentially out of commission until you can replace the chip, to say nothing of any data you had stored on it. Implementing these devices in consumer tech could save countless hours and dollars in tech support. "Bringing this type of electronic immune system to integrated-circuit chips opens up a world of possibilities," said Ali Hajimiri, a Caltech engineering professor. "[Microchips] can now both diagnose and fix their own problems without any human intervention, moving one step closer to indestructible circuits." That's all well and good when a flood leaves your next PC intact, but might be less desirable when the robot armies rise up to take vengeance upon humanity. Hopefully, the former is a likelier option.
Thanks to scientificamerican
One of the reasons why robots and artificial intelligence programs — even very sophisticated ones — do not qualify as living things is because they lack the capacity for self-repair. Fry a machine's circuits, and it can do nothing except wait for a human to repair it. A team of researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has taken some of the first steps toward making a self-healing machine by creating a computer chip that can learn to heal its own information pathways.
The chip comes from the High-Speed Integrated Circuits laboratory, which specializes in microchip technology. There are thousands of pathways by which information can travel through a microchip, but because each one is very specialized, a single fault traditionally renders the whole system inoperative.
Each chip contains more than 100,000 transistors (the most basic component in a microchip), which don't all function simultaneously. Rather, the researchers burned vast swaths of transistors out of the chip with a laser, then allowed the systems to recalibrate. As long as the blast did not catch any data caches in its crosshairs, the chip could seek out alternate routes and continue to function. With the help of an application-specific integrated-circuit (ASIC) processor on each chip, the system could "learn" which pathways were broken and adjust accordingly.
If a traditional microchip is comparable to an electric circuit (remove one piece and the entire system collapses), this newtechnology is more similar to a human brain. If one pathway becomes inaccessible, the brain will discover novel ways to relay information. Of course, it is possible to inflict catastrophic damage on a system (be it brain or microchip) from which it cannot recover, but with more than 100,000 methods of delivery, these microchips could prove to be extremely robust.
The self-healing chips are an intriguing step in machine evolution, but they do lack one crucial feature of actual living things: the ability to regenerate over time. While the Caltech microchips can withstand extensive damage and figure out ways to work around it, a section fried by lasers will still be fried years later. Unlike biological tissue, which repairs itself over time, each chip has a limited shelf life. [See also: Bionic Humans: Top 10 Technologies] Still, the fact that the microchip is not yet completely analogous to living things should not take away from the novelty of the invention or its potential usefulness. Right now, if a microchip in your computer or cell phone burns out, the whole system is essentially out of commission until you can replace the chip, to say nothing of any data you had stored on it. Implementing these devices in consumer tech could save countless hours and dollars in tech support. "Bringing this type of electronic immune system to integrated-circuit chips opens up a world of possibilities," said Ali Hajimiri, a Caltech engineering professor. "[Microchips] can now both diagnose and fix their own problems without any human intervention, moving one step closer to indestructible circuits." That's all well and good when a flood leaves your next PC intact, but might be less desirable when the robot armies rise up to take vengeance upon humanity. Hopefully, the former is a likelier option.
Thanks to scientificamerican
Check The Pulse
Popular Posts
-
Do the bastards think that we are not their equal in fighting? We are men who believe there is no shame in killing. We don't turn from ...
-
Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, harass them, lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem o...
-
Take the risk of thinking for yourself, much more happiness, truth, beauty, and wisdom will come to you that way. Christopher Hitchens ...
-
The Jews were made to come down, and Allah's Messenger imprisoned them. Then the Prophet went out into the marketplace of Medina, and he...
-
Allah is the Bestest. Allah is the Greatest God... of Savage Subnormal Muhamanoid Homicidal ButchersYou will find the Jews and disbelievers [defined as Christians in 5:73] the most vehement in hatred for the Muslims. Koran: 5:82 “T h...
-
You will surely find the most intense of the people in animosity toward the believers [to be] the Jews... Koran: 5:82 Jordanian newsp...
-
Your chances of being split open sternum to sphincter for a medical procedure are quickly declining Thanks to Gizmodo Your cha...
-
You may have whomever you desire; there is no blame Koran 33:51 Police are investigating a serious sexual assault in Bradford. A 23-year-o...
-
Wretchedness and baseness were stamped on the Jews and they were visited with wrath from Allah. Koran 2:96 Muslim cleric from Internationa...
-
Maryam Namazie: The human face of atheism Corageous woman. He lives in an igloo at the north pole. He gives stuff away once a year t...
