Reprogrammable chip - upgradeable over time

Tabula working on reprogrammable chips - coming to an electronic device near you soon.

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This could well be the future folks, reprogrammable chips. Startup company, Tabula, is trying to create the hardware equivalent of software - a chip that over time, can have hardware improvements without completely replacing the device. If a programmable chip like this makes it to the market, it would replace the current mantra of replacing the entire device when a new, faster device comes out.

Reprogrammable chip - upgradeable over time | TweakTown.com


The idea isn't new, field programmable gate array (FPGA) is a similar technology which is used in some finished devices or prototypes before production begins. But right now FPGA chips are large as they require all the space for the reprogrammable circuitry. This of course makes them slow and expensive.

Tabula hopesto change this and their technology is vastly different - they've solved this issue by allowing the chip to mimic the way a stacked, 3D chip might function. Tabula explains this like a person stepping into an elevator that doesn't move up or down. If the doors close the floor outside is (very) quickly rearranged to look like a different floor - when the doors open a person inside the elevator would think they have traveled to a different floor - but they have not moved at all. This improves speed because the person doesn't actually physically move.

Tabula's magical chips are capable of reconfiguring themselves in eight different ways at a rate of 1.6 gigahertz (this is 1.6 billion times per second). Insane numbers. This means a single chip can function like an eight-layer chip, fooling data into thinking it has hopped to a completely new layer on the chip.

The speed of the chip mixed with the advantages of being updatable could mean gigantic, tectonic shifts in the computer and electronics industry. This of course hangs in the balance of delivering this technology to the masses. Right now there are a few roadblocks for Tabula's ideas: reconfigurable chips use tonnes of power, secondly - this type of jump in tech is not cheap.

But, Tabula have recently secured $108 million in funding which is the largest round of investment acquired by a chipmaker in a decade - this is a sign of confidence.
NEWS SOURCE:gizmodo.com.au

Anthony joined the TweakTown team in 2010 and has since reviewed 100s of graphics cards. Anthony is a long time PC enthusiast with a passion of hate for games built around consoles. FPS gaming since the pre-Quake days, where you were insulted if you used a mouse to aim, he has been addicted to gaming and hardware ever since. Working in IT retail for 10 years gave him great experience with custom-built PCs. His addiction to GPU tech is unwavering and has recently taken a keen interest in artificial intelligence (AI) hardware.

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