Efficient Computer recently emerged from stealth and introduced a new computer processor that is up to 100x more energy efficient than leading general-purpose CPUs today. Through a $16 million seed funding round led by Eclipse, Efficient created a transformative computer architecture and software stack that delivers unprecedented energy efficiency.
The introduction of Efficient’s processor marks the start of a new era of general-purpose edge computing that frees a wide range of applications from restrictive energy limitations. And the technology provides a quantum leap in device capabilities and battery lifetime, unleashing a wave of innovations in devices and applications across the Internet of Things, wearable and implantable health devices, space systems, and security and defense.
The devices in these domains are processing more locally, creating a demand for more efficient on-device computing solutions. And shifting computation on-device can save large amounts of energy by avoiding expensive off-device communication to the cloud. The existing general-purpose processors are over-designed for generality, spending most of their energy (>99%) on inessential internal data movement and instruction control overheads. Scaling performance requires complex and power-hungry optimizations that increase energy consumption further. The inefficiency of these designs rapidly kills the battery, limiting a device’s capability and requiring frequent battery recharges or replacements.
Efficient’s novel Fabric architecture offers a unique approach to general-purpose computation that eliminates the extreme energy overheads of existing general-purpose computer architectures. And Efficient’s new architecture enables dramatically more energy-efficient chips, bringing computing capabilities to use cases that were previously impossible due to the limited energy availability. For example, a smartwatch or health wearable could go weeks between charges and support more sophisticated sensor data analytics, or a remote-sensing satellite could provide high-fidelity data insights using the limited energy of a nanosatellite’s small battery.
The Efficient processor architecture features three key benefits that set it apart from other computer chips, including:
1.) Efficient’s Fabric makes computing much more efficient, prolonging battery life and increasing a device’s computing capabilities. This drives down operational expenses, enables larger fleet sizes, and reduces environmental impact (e.g., battery disposal).
2.) As a fully general-purpose programmable processor that supports mainstream and high-level programming languages, Efficient provides versatility across application domains and a seamless developer experience – enabling developers to concentrate on innovation, freeing them from the burden of learning cumbersome new languages and tools often associated with specialized hardware.
3.) The Efficient processor avoids expensive off-device communication to the cloud, allowing for more efficient on-device computing solutions and enabling more computing capabilities at the edge. Low energy consumption technology in edge devices avoids the need for costly and often unavailable communication to the cloud, further improving efficiency and data privacy.
KEY QUOTES:
“Energy consumption impacts nearly everything in modern computing, from where devices are located to the capabilities they offer and the scale of their deployment. We are removing the energy barrier from computing at the edge, while giving developers the freedom and flexibility to quickly build devices and applications at scale. Efficient hardware and software will significantly reduce energy consumption for computing, creating entirely new categories of use cases.”
– Brandon Lucia, co-founder and CEO of Efficient Computer
“The technology community’s long-held secret of highly inefficient general-purpose processors has slowed innovation and limited applications, particularly at the edge. More than just closing this gap, the Efficient team is introducing an entirely new category of processor that is enabling organizations to reconsider what is possible. With its unmatched energy efficiency, the software-agnostic processor is capable of powering a variety of smart devices with additional capabilities designed to improve the user experience, data consumption, and overall serves as a catalyst for innovation moving forward.”
– Greg Reichow, partner at Eclipse
