The modular designs are rapidly becoming a viable option within the industry, as we have seen implementations ranging from stadiums, watches and of course smartphones, which is the segment that most seeks to exploit the possibilities with bets like LG G5, Moto Z or expected Ara Google.
Now thanks to DARPA, the division of advanced military projects in the United States, the modular design will be adapted to the chips as they seek both robots, such as drones and other machines exploit the possibilities of sharing functions offered by this type of design in addition to other advantages.
CHIPS, the project seeks to create a new architecture for microchips
Yes, the DARPA project has the original name of ‘CHIPS’ and is based on the creation of a new architecture that mix and match small microchips known as ‘chiplets’, where each of them has a specific function that will be installed in the motherboard.
According to DARPA, design circuits and chips is costly, time consuming and tests, and only serve for specific tasks, therefore seeks to have this very architecture where modular chiplets allow open the range and have more possibilities on the same plate, as identifying objects and actions in real-time video, language translation, coordinate movements and actions, data storage, signal processing and a lot of options.
This will allow you to program robots, drones, vehicles or other machines without having to constantly changing architecture or processor, plus it will be easier to design, since the same plate can serve a large number of devices to which you only need to change the chiplets according to needs.
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An important point is that DARPA is doing this movement not only for military or national security projects, but could also be used for commercial use and thus end the complex patent battle that make each time you want to use an architecture specific , you must checkout and pay the companies that own the intellectual property, because today using a plate to create a device requires purchase multiple licenses of patents
The United States Department of Defense is conducting that anyone can design chiplets without purchasing a license, this will boost the project and gradually these chips modular design will be adopted by all types of industries, that and this belongs to the community of developers and not a few private companies.
