CPA: Collaborative Research: Formal Techniques for Designing Globally Asynchronous and Locally Synchronous Systems (FMGALS)

University Of Utah, Salt Lake City UT

Investigators

Abstract

Collaborative Proposal ID(s): 0702316 and 0702539 Title:: Collaborative Research: Formal Techniques for Designing Globally Asynchronous and Locally Synchronous Systems (FMGALS) PIs: Sandeep K. Shukla (Virginia Tech) & Kenneth Stevens (University of Utah) The increased momentum towards Globally Asynchronous and Locally Synchronous (GALS) design has been necessitated by three factors. First, due to decreasing feature size of CMOS technology, and increasing clock frequency in the gigahertz range, the clock period is diminishing towards a limit where efficient synchronous clocking throughout the chip is getting difficult. Second, IP reuse based System on Chip (SoC) design becomes easier if all IPs do not have to be optimized for the same clocking scheme, and finally, increasing power consumption in clock buffers, global repeaters and clock tree is a growing industrial concern. However, correctly designing GALS systems is error prone and difficult. Asynchronous design tools and methodologies are almost nonexistent outside academia with a few exceptions. Research towards tools and methodologies for GALS design is imperative. Given the subtlety and complexity of these problems, we believe that grounding any GALS methodology in formal methods is important and necessary. Real implementation of protocols into on-chip fabrics and experimental validation of the efficacy of such designs is necessary for the wide acceptance of the design methodologies. In this project, the Virginia Polytechnic and State University and the University of Utah teams will collaborate to develop a formal basis for designing and experimenting with the trade-offs of various GALS solutions, and actually fabricate such solutions on-chip to calibrate the solutions. Other than the research and educational impact of inventing new GALS techniques, and methodologies for formally capturing the protocols and verifying them, the broader impact of this project will constitute collaborative team work and training of students to work in a distributed development environment, inclusion of undergraduate researchers into research, and special effort of including minority students into the project.