Toward More Energy-Efficient Datacenters with Enhanced Programmable Silicon

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The ability to fabricate ever more transistors on a semiconductor chip has enabled ever more computation, transforming society with ubiquitous communications, advanced medical imaging, on-demand entertainment delivery and more. We have become accustomed to the cost and energy of computation dropping exponentially over time, enabling new applications and societal benefits that motivate investment in raising computational capabilities further. This virtuous cycle is now under threat as the energy required for a computation no longer drops sufficiently with improved manufacturing of conventional processors (CPUs). There is an alternative: configure specialized hardware into Field Programamble Gate Array (FPGA) chips instead of controlling general CPU hardware with software instructions. This allows FPGAs to use 10% or less of the energy required by a CPU for many computations.