Researchers have developed a way to help computer processors run more quickly.

Superscalar Performance Improvement Through Tolerating Timing Errors, or SPRIT3E, a method to overcome those everyday problems that may slow down your computer, was developed by ISU researchers.

Arun Somani, professor and chairman in electrical and computer engineering, has worked on SPRIT3E for the past couple years. The ISU Office of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer is in the process of obtaining a patent for SPRIT3E.

Somani said a microprocessor is a part of the computer that makes the applications work. Microprocessors that ran slower than others made all the processors and the entire computer slower and less efficient.

“SPRIT3E lets those [microprocessors] that are working slower to continue at their own level, but those that can run faster will do so,” Somani said.

Mikel Bezdek, an ISU alumnus who works for John Deere, worked with Somani on the project as a graduate student.

“Those [slower applications] that cause a delay will now have a smaller effect on a computer’s performance,” Bezdek said.

SPRIT3E typically allows a 20 percent increase in performance.

The National Science Foundation has provided grants for the project.

“We have enough to get through the year, but then we will need to ask for more,” Somani said.

The reason for more research comes from the negative effect to the process.

“The high performance increases the power consumption,” Somani said. “We need to figure out how to cool it.”

Viswanathan Subramania, graduate assistant in electrical and computer engineering, and Prasad Avirneni, a student on internship from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India, have recently accepted the task of solving the issue.

“With so many different types of computers and a large variety of processors, it makes the work complicated,” Subramania said. “We have ideas, but right now we are looking for concrete data.”

Somani is confident on the progress of the project.

“We will find the solution,” he said. “We are very excited about this technology and are now trying to find a customer to use it as well other possible usage’s of this technology.”