Self-healing chips could function forever

Although you may have never given a thought to what transistors do to repair themselves when certain sectors fail, there are a few organizations who make it their life's work. Researchers from the National Science Foundation, the Semiconductor Research Corporation, and the University of Michigan have a mission to complete before their grant money runs dry: to create semiconductors that can heal themselves without the burdensome redundancy currently used. The goal here, which could seem a tad superfluous until you consider these chips operate in things like airplanes and medical devices -- you know, fairly critical applications -- is to design a semiconductor that runs more efficiently and can be counted on to function no matter how crucial the situation. By designing a chip that can auto-detect a problem, then shift the resources to a functioning area while the chip diagnoses and repairs the issue with help from "online collaboration software," you'll get a slimmer semiconductor that suffers no noticeable loss in performance while self-repairing. If this circuitry talk has your wires all crossed up, here's the skinny: more dependable chips will make everyone's life a bit easier, and if the team's plan is free of defects, we can expect to see prototypes within the next three years.

[Via Mobilemag]

[robotrock @ Jul 27th 2006 12:42PM]

That's Star Trek shit man!

[Sam Jackson @ Jul 27th 2006 12:57PM]

Wonderful. Semiconductors that develope cancer.

[Todd @ Jul 27th 2006 1:22PM]

( spoken with heavy Austrian accent )"...on July 28th, 2009 Skynet achieved self-awareness and proceeded to...."

[Justin @ Jul 27th 2006 1:45PM]

That's some T-1000 shit right there!

[Donnie @ Jul 27th 2006 1:45PM]

What happens in a few decades when chips get so "smart" that they won't let you turn them off? Self-healing + AI = Welcome to the Matrix. :>)

[buck @ Jul 27th 2006 2:16PM]

I, for one, welcome our robot overlords.

[Andres @ Jul 27th 2006 2:33PM]

I was gonna say, we're one step closer to getting a real terminator.

[Octavus @ Jul 27th 2006 2:54PM]

I am wondering if they will be using FPGAs for the chip. If they have ample room left over the the FPGA then repairing would be a whole lot easier.

[Peter @ Jul 27th 2006 5:29PM]

Why waste loads money in research on all these small evolutionary steps? Zyvex Corporation is already focused on what really matters - the molecular nanotechnology assembler.

All.SelfHealing();

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembler_%28nanotechnology%29

[Felix @ Jul 27th 2006 5:50PM]

Why does every article somehow relates to terminator? lol.

[Joshua @ Jul 27th 2006 5:54PM]

The only problem with this is that the first part of the chip to fail will be the part that detects whether or not a part of the chip has failed.

[flamsmark @ Jul 27th 2006 7:12PM]

@Joshua

unless thier design is even a teency bit smarter than you think it is.

[SHEiK124 @ Jul 27th 2006 8:44PM]

"( spoken with heavy Austrian accent )"...on July 28th, 2009 Skynet achieved self-awareness and proceeded to....""

LMAO Todd

[Owen @ Jul 28th 2006 5:24AM]

This is nothing. You can see in the film/documentry "Super Size Me" that MacDonalds invented chips that last forever ages ago.

I guess you might have to be British to get that one.

[bakersdozen @ Jul 28th 2006 3:17PM]

lol @ owen