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Summary: 0018-9162/04/$20.00 © 2004 IEEE March 2004 57
C O V E R F E A T U R E
Published by the IEEE Computer Society
Making Typical
Silicon Matter
with Razor
A
n old adage says, "If you're not failing
some of the time, you're not trying hard
enough." To address the power challenges
that current on-chip densities pose, we
adapted this precept to circuit design.
Razor,1
a voltage-scaling technology based on
dynamic detection and correction of circuit timing
errors, permits design optimizations that tune the
energy in a microprocessor pipeline to typical cir-
cuit operational levels. This eliminates the voltage
margins that traditional worst-case design method-
ologies require and allows digital systems to run
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