CAREER: Timing-Aware Dynamic Thermal Management in High-Performance Embedded Systems

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

Today, more and more high-performance embedded applications such as avionics and flight control, space shuttle systems, vehicles, and instrumentation in medical and emergency facilities, demand greatly increased computation capabilities from processors. Meanwhile, semiconductor manufacturing technologies keep scaling processors to smaller feature sizes. As a result, power density in processors becomes increasingly high. Due to the high power density, processors are prone to overheating, which affects not only reliability but also performance, power and cost of embedded systems. As such, thermal management becomes a prominent issue in system design. On the other hand, high-performance embedded applications demand increasingly stringent need for timing guarantees. As high-performance embedded systems become more and more thermally-constrained, the issue of how to provide timing guarantees under the constraints of thermal behavior and thermal control mechanisms must be addressed. The objective of this NSF CAREER research project is to provide timing-guaranteed services for real-time applications while maintaining safe temperature levels for processors in high-performance embedded systems. This project focuses on development of timing-aware dynamic thermal management methodology, algorithms design analysis and system implementation in a variety of problem domains. The project seeks to significantly advance real-time system design by furthering understanding of the fundamental thermally-constrained and timing-constrained problems in high-performance embedded systems. Furthermore, this research provides an important foundation for addressing external environmental effects (such as thermal environments) on real-time systems. The impacts of this project also extend to academia through graduate and undergraduate research, curriculum development, and industrial collaboration and community outreaching.