Vaire Computing develops chips designed to recover energy lost as heat
The startup says its early-stage chip technology can recover energy during calculations, but its scalability and commercial viability remain unresolved.
Vaire Computing is developing computer chips designed to recover energy normally dissipated as heat during calculations. The approach, known as reversible computing, retains intermediate information so that some computations can potentially be run backwards.
Conventional chips generally erase information as calculations proceed, releasing energy as heat. Reversible computing seeks to preserve that information and use a resonator — a component that stores recovered energy — to reduce the energy lost during processing.
The concept is more than 50 years old but was previously considered impractical with existing transistors and circuits. Vaire cofounder and chief technology officer Hannah Earley began focusing on it during her PhD at the University of Cambridge, after studying research by reversible-computing pioneer Michael Frank.
Vaire reported last year that one of its chip resonators recovered more energy than it lost, including the energy required to operate the component. The result has not been independently verified in the supplied material, and the company has not provided detailed performance figures.
The startup says the technology could eventually improve the energy efficiency of data centres and consumer devices. It has raised more than US$12 million, hired Frank as a senior scientist and is working to adapt its hardware to existing devices and manufacturing systems.
The technology remains at an early stage. Its scalability, compatibility with established manufacturing and commercial viability are unresolved, while any substantial reduction in energy use remains prospective rather than demonstrated.
