A new technology developed at Rice University and tested this week at a conference in San Francisco is capable of operating seven times faster than currently existing microchips while using 30 times less power.

The new probabilistic complementary metal oxide semiconductor chip (PCMOS) is based on standard CMOS technology that chipmakers currently use to manufacture microchips, and as a result can be easily incorporated into existing equipment without requiring investments in new technologies.

The PCMOS chip gets its speed and efficiency by using probabilistic logic rather than conventional Boolean logic to perform calculations. Rather than being accurate nearly 100 percent of the time, as is the case in Boolean logic, probabilistic logic is correct fewer times -- 8 out of 10 or less. Because engineers have traditionally boosted the power levels to help ensure high levels of accuracy, the PCMOS chip cuts back on energy use through reduced accuracy.

"PCMOS is fundamentally different," said Krishna Palem, the Rice University professor who developed the chip and the director of the Institute for Sustainable Nanoelectonics at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, which helped put the chip through its paces. "We lower the voltage dramatically and deal with the resulting computational errors by embracing the errors and uncertainties through probabilistic logic."

Palem said that the technology is well suited for encryption technologies, but also for graphics processes, mobile phones and electronic toys. The Rice University team said that if PCMOS can be put to use in devices like these, it will have enormous implications, like charging a cell phone every few weeks rather than every day.

Palem has posted a PDF of the outline of her presntation to the International Solid-State Circuits Conference, where the PCMOS chip was unveiled, on the Rice University website.

Microchip photo CC-licensed by Flickr user BotheredByBees.