SHF: Small: Physically Adaptive Computing and its Applications

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

Investigators

Abstract

As integrated circuits (ICs) shrink to the nanometer range, unpredictable physical phenomena such as temperature changes and radiation-induced soft errors are starting to affect the accuracy and reliability of computers. To address this problem, this project will investigate physically adaptive computing (PAC), a new way to enable an IC to sense internal physical changes on-line and automatically reconfigure its structure to mitigate the negative effects of these changes. The work will exploit the flexibility of IC types like field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and nanoPLAs. It will also build on recent research at Michigan into FPGA applications, as well as fast methods to analyze probabilistic circuit behavior. A major goal is to obtain a deep understanding of PAC and its role in nanoscale computer design. The project will study virtual sensing techniques that use on-chip sensors to detect and infer a wide range of physical parameters. It will seek more cost-effective ways to exploit reprogrammable circuit types to implement fast, on-the-fly adaption schemes. Finally, it will investigate analytic methods to characterize fundamental trade-offs between computational accuracy and key physical parameters, especially energy usage. The theoretical research will be complemented and validated by software simulations and hardware experiments using FPGA-based equipment. The expected results should be of broad interest to computer engineers and scientists in academe, as well as circuit designers and design tool developers in the U.S. microelectronics industry and in the emerging nanotechnology field. A key goal of the project is to support the training of graduate students, who will participate directly in the research as part of their M.S. and Ph.D. programs at the University of Michigan. Recent graduate students of the PI have included women and minorities, and a special effort will be made to attract more such students to this emerging research area.