Wireless Processor Interconnects Are Coming

Category: Science & Technology
Posted: July 20, 2012 06:09PM
Author: Guest_Jim_*

Wireless phones, wireless power, wireless networks; so much technology is going wireless, and a team of researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Washington State University, and the Georgia Institute of Technology have received an $800,000 grant from the NSF to make multicore processors wireless too. Intra-chip communications are becoming more and more important as the number of cores within a processor increases, and the limited space for wires is providing some challenges. By going to a wireless design though, not only is the issue of wires resolved but fewer resources are needed to coordinate communication.

The entire project is being overseen by Washington State University and is also responsible, with Rochester, for designing the architecture. The Georgia Tech researchers instead will have their focus on creating the on-chip antennae. The researchers are looking to mimic modern cell phone networks, with their ability to handle multiple users on the same antenna, but at a smaller scale. This is not going to be easy to accomplish though because the millimeter wavelength transmissions cannot be allowed to interfere with each other.

At this stage, there is no way to predict when this technology may be realized, but it will be a great leap forward when it is. Not only will intra-chip communication problems be solved but power requirements will drop as well, due to fewer resources being needed to send and direct data between the processors.

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