Bespoke Processors: Cheap, Low-Power Chips That Only Do What’s Needed – IEEE Spectrum

http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/design/bespoke-processors-cheap-lowpower-chips-that-only-do-whats-needed

This article tells about interesting approach to processor design: Starting with a Texas Instruments openMSP430, they produced bespoke designs.

“Our approach was to figure out all the hardware that an application is guaranteed not to use irrespective of the input,” says Kumar. What’s left is “a union, or superset, of all possible paths that data can take. Then we take away the hardware that’s not touched.”