Inventing New Technologies and Markets
by Brian Bergstein from Technology Review
[...]Selecting the TR50 isn't simple, but some companies are easy picks because their technologies jump out as fresh ways of doing things. Lyric Semiconductor has redesigned the microprocessor so computers can better deal with probabilities; such an approach could make fraud detection faster and recommendation software smarter. More >>
A Chip That Digests Data and Calculates the Odds
by Ashlee Vance from The New York Times
Complex as they may seem, traditional computers deal in a simple art. They rely on tiny switches that turn on and off, producing the streams of ones and zeros that software eventually translates into something meaningful to a human. More >>
Lyric’s Chips Probably Interest Spooks, Shoppers
by Don Clark from The Wall Street Journal
Many people could probably guess some of the reasons the U.S. government would fund chip research by Lyric Semiconductor. CEO Ben Vigoda probably–make that definitely–won’t say much on that point. More >>
Down with Digital? New Circuit Design Promises to Take Guesswork out of Probability Processing
by Larry Greenemeier from Scientific American
Probability calculations are at the heart of the software most of us rely on daily, whether it is Amazon.com or iTunes recommending new products based on previous purchases, a spam filter weeding out junk e-mail or a credit card processing program searching for potentially fraudulent transactions. Making these applications faster and more accurate has generally meant throwing more number-crunching capacity at them, but one Cambridge, Mass.–based start-up claims to have developed a cheaper and more energy-efficient approach that eschews digital processing. More >>
Lyric Takes Aim at Intel, AMD with Probability Processing
by Jeffrey Burt from eWeek
To Lyric Semiconductor founder and CEO Ben Vigoda, the world of computing is moving away from the binary 1s and 0s and toward probabilities.
The yes/no nature of binary computing is fine for such tasks as operating systems, databases and spreadsheets, Vigoda said in an interview with eWEEK. More >>
Chip Startup Developing Probability Processor
by Sumner Lemon from PC World
Lyric Semiconductor, a startup company founded by an MIT scientist and a veteran semiconductor executive, is working on a processor designed to calculate probabilities that could dramatically increase computer performance in certain applications. More >>
DARPA-Funded Chip Calculates With Probabilities, Not Hard Binary Logic
by Clay Dillow from Popular Science
Most people with even the most fundamental knowledge of how computer chips work are familiar with binary logic -- the system of ones and zeros that enable modern computing to occur -- in which an input always results in a solid result (either a one or a zero). Now, a Boston-based startup is rewiring the basic concept of computation with a probability processor that deals in chance rather than binary logic, creating a chip that could speed all kinds of processes from flash memory in smartphones to better decision-making software for machines. More >>
New Chip Startup Plays the Odds on Probability Processing
by Richard Adhikari from TechNewsWorld
Lyric Semiconductor, a spinout from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, announced on Tuesday a new approach to a technology called "probability processing." Probability processing uses probability bits, which calculate the probability of an event happening. This technology required the company to redesign processors to natively process probabilities from the ground up and to write a new programming language to express probabilities. More >>
Chip Startup Developing Probability Processor
at Digital Science
Lyric Semiconductor, a DARPA- and venture-funded MIT spin-out, emerged from stealth mode to launch a new technology called probability processing. With over a decade of development at MIT and at Lyric Semiconductor, Lyric’s probability processing technology calculates in a completely new way, enabling orders-of-magnitude improvement in processor efficiency. More >>
New error-correction chip promises to shrink flash memory
at Electronista
A new chip, created by startup Lyric Semiconductor, promises to shrink flash memory and provide new methods for spam filtering or other processes. The technology utilizes "probability processing" to solve certain problems that can benefit from determining the probability of bits being zero or one. Lyric's LEC chips are designed with new gates, architecture and language dedicated solely to processing probabilities.
More >>
The odds are good that Lyric Semiconductor will change computing
by Dean Takahashi from VentureBeat
Lyric Semiconductor hopes to find a gold mine in checking memory errors. The Cambridge, Mass.-based company has created a new kind of computer circuit that calculates probabilities much faster than traditional computer chips. And its first real application is in error correction chips for flash memory devices, which have become ubiquitous in everything from cameras to servers. More >>
A New Kind of Microchip
by Tom Simonite from Technology Review
A computer chip that performs calculations using probabilities, instead of binary logic, could accelerate everything from online banking systems to the flash memory in smart phones and other gadgets.Rewriting some fundamental features of computer chips, Lyric Semiconductor has unveiled its first "probability processor," a silicon chip that computes with electrical signals that represent chances, not digital 1s and 0s. More >>
Probabilistic Chip Promises Better Flash Memory, Spam Filtering
by Priya Ganapati from Wired.com
A new chip could improve error correction in flash memory, and might also lead to more efficient spam filtering and shopping recommendations.
Lyric Semiconductor, a small MIT spinoff, has created an error correction chip that uses a technique called “probability processing” to guess the right answer or solve a problem.
More >>
Startup developing probability processor
by Rick Merritt from EETimes.com
A startup that is developing a microprocessor geared for calculating statistical probabilities has come out of stealth mode to introduce a product using its technology. Lyric Semiconductor is licensing a technique to develop an error correction device for NAND flash it claims provides superior performance to today's approaches while using a faction of their power. More >>
DARPA funds Mr Spock on a Chip: Lyric's probability processor
by Timothy Prickett Morgan from The Register
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency financed the basic research necessary to create a processor that thinks in terms of probabilities instead of the certainties of ones and zeros. And now Lyric Semiconductor, the spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where the work was done, is going to spend the next couple of years building a commercial probability processor called the GP5. More >>
Lyric Semiconductor aims for world’s first probability processor
by Iain Thomson from V3.co.uk
Lyric Semiconductor is looking to create a new design structure for chips built around probability processing.
In a video interview founder Ben Vigoda told V3.co.uk that the new chips would are built to allow fixed function probability processing. Rather than looked at a yes/no output from a transistor the new chip architecture aims for percentages More >>
Startup Aims to Transform Computing with Probability Processing
by Michael Feldman from HPCWire
MIT spin-out Lyric Semiconductor Inc. has launched a new breed of integrated circuits that replaces the binary logic of traditional computing with probabilistic logic. The aim is to deliver a much more efficient architecture for applications based on probability computing. For these types of workloads, the company is promising orders-of-magnitude improvement in energy efficiency, performance and cost. More >>
Lyric Semiconductor Debuts “Probability Logic”
by Jim Turley from Embedded Technology Journal
The old joke has finally come true: the AND, OR, and XOR gates are finally being joined by the “maybe gate.”
Boston-based startup Lyric Semiconductor has taken the wraps off its “probability logic,” a new kind of digital circuit based on Bayesian, rather than Boolean, arithmetic. Although the phrase might sound iffy and unpredictable, a sort of rehash of fuzzy logic, Lyric’s gates are actually completely reliable and deterministic. More >>
Can 18th Century Math Radically Curb Computer Power?
by Michael Kanellos from Greentech Media
Lyric Semiconductor has developed a type of chip that won't give you a simple yes-or-no answer -- and that's the beauty of it.
And if the idea one day takes flight, the MIT spinout plans to accomplish things like drastically improving online recommendation engines, mapping an individual's genome cheaply in a matter of minutes, or more accurately detecting fraud and spam on the internet. More >>
Startup Makes Probability-Based Chips for Big Data Apps
by Om Malik from GigaOm
Lyric Semiconductor, a Cambridge, Mass.-based startup that was spun out of MIT in 2006, today announced a revolutionary new approach to processing data called probability processing. It wants to make chips that are fit for a world drowning in information and dealing with data deluge. More >>
Could Lyric's GP5 technology revolutionize gaming?
by Aharon Etengoff from TGDaily
Lyric Semiconductor's sophisticated error correction component is helping to optimize flash memory. But could the company use its advanced probability processing to revolutionize the gaming industry? More >>
Startup Aims to Transform Computing with Probability Processing
at NextBigFuture
MIT spin-out Lyric Semiconductor Inc. has launched a new breed of integrated circuits that replaces the binary logic of traditional computing with probabilistic logic. The aim is to deliver a much more efficient architecture for applications based on probability computing. For these types of workloads, the company is promising orders-of-magnitude improvement in energy efficiency, performance and cost.
Essentially, what Lyric has come up with is a fifth processor architecture, following CPUs, GPUs, DSPs, and FPGAs. More >>
