'Pruned' Microchips Twice As Fast and Efficient 127
Zothecula writes "If you had to use a commuting bicycle in a race, you would probably set about removing the kickstand, fenders, racks and lights to make the thing as fast and efficient as possible. When engineers at Houston's Rice University are developing small, fast, energy-efficient chips for use in devices like hearing aids, it turns out they do pretty much the same thing. The removal of portions of circuits that aren't essential to the task at hand is known as 'probabilistic pruning,' and it results in chips that are twice as fast, use half the power, and are half the size of conventional chips."
Re:Hm (Score:3, Informative)
I suppose everyone in the world is not already as intelligent and knowledgeable as you and might possibly find this interesting. Perhaps you could find it in your heart to allow the less intelligent and knowledgeable the opportunity to discover something like this so that then they will be as intelligent and knowledgeable as you. :-)
Re:Hm (Score:4, Informative)
I actually know next to nothing about electronic circuits. I think the most complex thing I ever built was a metronome with variable tempo.
I would expect that almost everyone here would know this kind of stuff already...
Madman Muntz went bankrupt (Score:4, Informative)
What you didn't mention is that "Muntz admitted his business lost $1,457,000 from April to August 1953,[28] and although he tried to reorganize, Muntz TV filed bankruptcy and went out of business in 1959" (from the same Wikipedia article)
You see, engineers don't sprinkle components at random. Every component in an electronic circuit is there for a reason. If something can be removed, what you have is a defective specification, maybe your circuit is designed to perform a function that's not often used, maybe it's designed to function in a situation that never happens. In that case you can ask the engineer to redesign for looser specifications.
Removing components at random is just stupid.