'probabilistic computer chip': The chip, which thrives on random errors, ran seven times faster than today's best technology while using just 1⁄30th the electricity.
"The results were far greater than we expected," said Palem, a Rice University professor who envisions his chips migrating to mobile devices in less than a decade.
"At first, I almost couldn't believe them," he said. "I spent several sleepless nights verifying the results."
Probabilistic computer chips have already caught the attention of industry, especially with the end of Moore's Law looming for conventional chips.
"This logic will prove extremely important, because basic physics dictates that future transistor-based logic will need probabilistic methods," said Shekhar Borkar, director of Intel's Microprocessor Technology Lab.