Approximation may reduce energy use of electronics

MIT Technology Review : The ability to quickly make precise calculations is one of the benefits of the modern microchip. But it is an energy-intensive process. Two research groups have shown that by using approximation, the energy use of microchips and the amount of flash memory needed to store the results can both be significantly reduced. Swagath Venkataramani of Purdue University in Indiana and his colleagues have developed a microchip that can determine how precise it needs to be from the code it is running. And it may be possible to use software to control the level of precision directly, which could reduce the energy use even further. Luis Ceze of the University of Washington and his colleagues have developed flash memory that can store more data by reducing the data’s precision. The combination of such techniques may soon allow for approximate computing to be practical in certain commercial applications.