Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

One AA battery is all you need to run this 1,000 core processor

A 1,000 core processor powered by a AA battery. It’s not science fiction: graduate students at the University of California in Davis designed such a processor, and IBM fabricated it using a 32-nanometer process. It’s likely the fastest processor designed at a university, Endgadget is reporting.

The chip, which contains 621 million transistors, is capable of 1.78 trillion instructions per second. Even cooler, the cores communicate directly with each other, meaning there’s no bottleneck of shared memory slowing everything down. Unused cores are capable of turning themselves off, helping a great deal with power management.

Recommended Videos

This means that, under the right conditions, this processor can run using only the power from a AA battery. For example, the 1,000 processors can execute 115 billion instructions per second while dissipating only 0.7 Watts.

“To the best of our knowledge, it is the world’s first 1,000-processor chip and it is the highest clock-rate processor ever designed in a university,” said Bevan Baas, professor of electrical and computer engineering at University of California, Davis.

Each individual processor can run a separate program, which could help break applications into small pieces and increase performance and lower energy usage. Individual cores run at an average maximum clock frequency of 1.78 GHz.

It all adds up to the most energy-efficient “many-core” design ever reported, according to Baas.

Don’t expect to buy the processor anytime soon, as only one has been made. And even if you get your hands on one, don’t expect to run many programs on it. The team has made a custom compiler, and a few applications for video processing and encryption, but not much else.

Still, it’s a pretty remarkable achievement. The team behind the processor includes graduate students Aaron Stillmaker, Jon Pimentel, Timothy Andreas, Bin Liu, Anh Tran and Emmanuel Adeagbo.

Justin Pot
Justin's always had a passion for trying out new software, asking questions, and explaining things – tech journalism is the…
Wimbledon’s robot line judges caught napping on Centre Court
wimbledon

Following in the footsteps of the U.S. Open and the Australian Open, Wimbledon finally did away with human line judges in favor of Hawk-Eye technology at this year's Championships.

All 18 courts have incorporated the system, which uses multiple high‑speed cameras and real‑time computer vision algorithms, with loudspeakers emitting an audible “out” to confirm a missed shot.

Read more
This Dyson doesn’t suck … it grows
Dyson's Hybrid Vertical Growing System.

While it's best known for vacuums and other household appliances, Dyson has also established itself in the world of farming, with a team of engineers coming up with tech-based solutions to improve efficiency and boost production.

A video (top) shared recently by the British company features a remarkable -- and remarkably huge -- Hybrid Vertical Growing System, located inside a greenhouse.

Read more
Watch how NASA is using VR to prep for upcoming moon missions
NASA using VR for training.

NASA is aiming to put astronauts back on the lunar surface in the Artemis III mission, currently scheduled for 2027. While the date could slip, the space agency will continue with training and other preparation for the highly anticipated mission, so that when the day for launch does finally come, the crew will be ready.

NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, has just dropped a video (top) showing how it’s utilizing virtual reality (VR) technology to prepare astronauts for spacewalks -- also known as extravehicular activities (EVAs) -- on the moon’s surface. 

Read more