- Vaire Computing’s Ice River Chip recycles energy, cuts the power with approx. 30 percent
- Leaders At Start -up, the test describes as proof of concept of reversible logic
- Despite the result, the chip is unlikely to convince hyperscale operators at this time
An experimental chip designed by a London startup has reached the proof of the concept stage, which shows that it can recycle part of the energy it uses.
Vaire Computing hopes that its work will go some way to accommodate the rising energy needs of artificial intelligence systems, although there are still questions about whether such a technology will appeal to hyperscale operators working on their own energy molding solutions.
Vaire’s chip, known as Ice River, was tested in August 2025 and used approx. 30% less energy than a standard processor that performed the same task, according to a report from Sciencenews.
More a pendulum than a hammer
The Ice River tackles two common sources of inefficiency in modern processors.
First, instead of just running a calculation, the chip’s reversible logic lets it work in both directions, which reuses input for further calculations rather than discarding them as heat.
Vaire explains, “While traditional computer chips can only use their stored energy once via a typical logical gate, the Ice River -Chip uses a reversible logical gate that allows energy to use energy in both directions.”
Secondly, the Ice River Adiabatic Computing uses. Conventional chips change tension suddenly, just as a hammer that turns down, generating extra heat. In the Ice River, tension and fall gradually rise instead.
This allows the system to recycle part of its own energy for subsequent operations.
Mike Frank, senior scientist at Vaire Computing, said the current devices “Using energy once and then throwing it away.” Ice River’s design is a shift from brute-force power to something more subtle. “You can think of [the energy] Like blasting back and forth, ”he said.
Or like Sciencenews Journalist Kathryn Hulick described it, the effect is “more like a pendulum than a hammer.”
For co -founder Hannah Earley, it was an important excitement to see the Ice River processor in action. “I’ve been drawing [the chip] On paper and [running it] in simulation, ”she said.
The company has placed itself for development in the longer term. By 2024, Vaiire Arm’s former unofficial tech futurologist Andrew Sloss brought in as his VP for technology and also joined the incubator Silicon Catalyst UK to support his work.
