Near-threshold computing (NTC) has emerged as a promising approach to achieving
an order of magnitude improvement in energy efficiency of microprocessors. The
key feature of NTC is to lower the supply voltage of chips to a value only
slightly higher than the threshold voltage. NTC lowers power consumption by an
order of magnitude or more. The reduction in power however comes with associated
costs and challenges that include low operating frequency, less reliable
operation of both logic and memory and much higher sensitivity to parameter
variability. Industry is actively investigating the technology and has produced
prototypes that show promising initial results. However, many challenges
remain before NTC becomes mainstream.