eASIC enables 3x energy efficiency for simulation supercomputer

ASIC devices provider eASIC Corp. has announced that Tokyo Institute of Technology, in collaboration with Hitotsubashi University, has successfully demonstrated a 3X increase in energy efficiency for a green supercomputer used for performing astronomical simulations.

Using eASIC's low power Nextreme-2 NEW ASIC devices, Tokyo Institute of Technology was able to achieve an energy efficiency ratio of 6.5 GFLOPS/Watt for its GRAPE-8 super computer.

According to the company, the key component in achieving the highest energy efficiency ratio for the GRAPE-8 system is the use of eASIC's Nextreme-2 NEW ASIC devices, which are commonly used for replacing FPGAs for high volume and power sensitive applications. Manufactured using a low-power 45nm LP process, and employing single via programming which eliminates the need for power hungry SRAMs that FPGAs require for programming look-up tables and routing, eASIC devices typically enable FPGA users to achieve up to 80 percent lower power consumption. eASIC's GreenPowerVia technology also enables users to completely turn off any logic and memories that are unused in a design, the company added.