Reversible computing startup Vaire develops an energy-recovering chip component
Hannah Earley, cofounder and chief technology officer of Vaire Computing, argues that the energy chips throw away as heat can be recovered. In the approach, known as reversible computing, the circuit retains the information from intermediate steps instead of erasing it, so the computation can be run backwards and part of the energy reclaimed. The idea has been known for more than fifty years but proved impractical with existing transistors. Earley designed a patent-pending resonator that stores the recovered energy for reuse.
Last year the company announced a chip whose resonator recovered more energy than it lost, even counting the energy needed to power the component. Founded in 2021, Vaire has raised more than $12 million and hired Michael Frank, a pioneer of the field, as a senior scientist.