The New Computer Chip

Scientists have created an ultra-fast computer chip which is 20 times faster than current desktop computers.

Modern PCs have a processor with two, four or sometimes 16 cores to carry out tasks. But the central processing unit (CPU) developed by the researchers effectively had 1,000 cores on a single chip.

The developments could usher in a new age of high-speed computing in the next few years for home users frustrated with slow-running systems.

Scientists used a chip called a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), which can be configured into specific circuits by the user. This enabled the team to divide up the transistors within the chip into small groups and ask each to perform a different task. By creating more than 1，000 mini-circuits within the FPGA chip, the scientists effectively turned the chip into a 1，000-core processor-each core working on its own instructions.

The team was led by Dr. Wim Vanderbauwhede, of the University of Glasgow, and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.