Modern technology is
characterized by a continuing search for methods capable of making devices that
provide higher performance, smaller size, lower cost, longer independent
operation and improved energy efficiency.
The cost of faster devices has been high in power as well as
hardware.
Finesse
will replace conventional systems by an innovative, scalable fabric of
distributed fuel cells commingled with logic.
Each fuel cell will provide
power to one logical domain. A seamless
flow of logic will be supported across domain boundaries. The use of distributed self-biasing
logic/power modules will:
(i)
Increase device
functional density;
(ii)
Decrease power
distribution complexity;
(iii)
Decrease guard
bands;
(iv)
Reduce manufacturing
steps;
(v)
Decrease power
requirements;
(vi)
Improve reliability;
(vii)
Reduce assembly
costs.
The design rules for the
fuel cells will be expressed in hardware description language (HDL), so that
integrated fuel cell/logic modules can be designed, compiled and then produced
using standard wafer processing steps.
The economies of commercial mass fabrication in a foundry will then
extend to complete devices. The result will be general computing systems that
can operate with higher performance purely from fuels and oxidants.
A problem with current
technology is
that the power requirement is on a per-cycle basis. Each clock-cycle takes one current pulse from the power
source. The pulse sizes differ, but the
maximum value in a complex CPU can be high.
The distribution of power to support large sets of logical gates has
become challenging because the voltages and their tolerances continue to
decrease while the worst-case currents continue to increase. Finesse has developed a completely new
paradigm: Small groups of gates have smaller ratios of worst case to average
inrush current and are independent of the surrounding logic.
This
paradigm presents a means of reducing the
power distribution problem. It produces the required bias voltage in a
distributed manner. The bias of small
sets of gates has small distribution loss.
The power is supplied by distribution of fuel and oxidant. The fuel
source is
of high energy density and content. The bias of such small sets of components produces little
noise. Fuel is depleted mainly as power
is drawn rather than through regulators and lossy passive elements so system
power is low. The high energy density
and low energy use will lead to increased operational lifetimes and/or
functionality.
This fuel cell technology
contributes a system of integrating a power source on a logic wafer and removes
many connections and conditioning functions involved in fitting complex systems
into smaller spaces. The development of
ever-smaller nano-scale electronic elements requires new solutions to be
identified with respect to routing power while isolating various types of
unwanted signaling paths. These
currently involve costly additional process steps. This distributed power concept will provide a new degree of
freedom for designing and compiling more versatile electronic devices. The ubiquitous presence of microelectronics
in society renders a tremendous application potential for the proposed
modules. Within the field of portable
microelectronics; laptop computers, mobile communication devices, satellites
for reconnaissance or communication, space land rovers, and deferred deployment
systems, can all benefit from this technology.
The method with the least constraints inevitably becomes pervasive, just
as integrated circuits have supplanted discrete component designs.