CAREER: Overcoming Power Challenges in Embedded System Design With Subthreshold-Voltage Technology

提案编号：0747262标题：职业：利用亚阈值电压技术克服嵌入式系统设计中的功耗挑战PI姓名：Nazhandali Nazhandali，Leyla机构：弗吉尼亚理工学院和州立大学随着超过98%的可编程处理器运行在嵌入式模式下，预计将提供越来越复杂的功能，"功耗斗争”已成为一个越来越关键的问题。所谓的功率包络所施加的功率限制，再加上嵌入式系统中的电池寿命，迫使设计人员牺牲性能以降低功耗。此外，无法使用理论方法破解密码系统的黑客已经转向这些系统的秘密揭示物理属性，例如变化的功耗，以推断秘密信息;这些攻击被称为功率侧信道攻击。该提议的目的是克服这两个密切相关的挑战，这两个挑战是由高功耗水平和暴露秘密信息的功率水平的高度变化引起的。该提案的统一方法来解决这些问题的各个方面是亚阈值电压技术的开发。这种技术是一种极端的情况下，电压缩放，使工作电压低于？门槛？该提案计划通过亚阈值电压微架构技术的创新来推进安全和低功耗嵌入式系统设计的状态，重点关注两个具体的研究方向：1）设计具有亚阈值电压核的多核架构，预期其提供与常规设计相同的性能，同时消耗少90%的功率，以及2）将安全设计划分为安全关键区域和非关键区域，使得前者在亚阈值电压下运行，而后者在超阈值电压下运行，从而最大化性能并最小化侧信道攻击的风险。该建议旨在通过开发CAD工具、架构技术和基于性能/功耗分析的案例研究，为嵌入式系统设计人员提供基于亚阈值的硬件设计。反过来，这将导致该技术的使用增加，从而实现新的低功耗里程碑，这是由于传统技术造成的障碍而迄今为止不可能实现的。一些可预见的应用领域，可以通过推进有针对性的推力显着改善，包括电子护照，无线安全摄像头，救援和恢复机器人，手持地雷探测器。作为这项建议的教育方面的一部分，一个动手的大学预科课程，称为？嵌入式生活，？将建立，以提出计算机工程学科的创造性和有益的方面。它将展示嵌入式微处理器在改善我们生活中的应用。该方案将与IEEE、SWE和NSBE合作开发和宣传，将鼓励妇女和少数民族在地方和国家一级参与计算机工程。

Proposal No: 0747262 Title: CAREER: Overcoming Power Challenges in Embedded System Design With Subthreshold-Voltage Technology PI Name: Nazhandali Nazhandali,Leyla Institution: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University With more than 98% of all programmable processors running in embedded mode that are expected to deliver increasingly more sophisticated functionalities, the ``power struggle" has become an increasingly critical issue. Power restrictions imposed by the so-called power envelope, further aggravated by the battery life in embedded systems, compel designers to trade performance for reduced power. Furthermore, hackers, unable to break the cryptosystems using theoretical methods, have turned to secret-revealing physical properties of these systems, such as varying power consumption, to deduce secret information; these attacks are known as power side-channel attacks. The objective of this proposal is to overcome these two closely related challenges resulting from high levels of power consumption and from high degrees of variations in power levels that reveal secret information. The proposal's uniform approach to solve various facets of these problems is the exploitation of the subthreshold-voltage technology. This technique is an extreme case of voltage scaling so that the operating voltage is below the ?threshold? that turns the transistors on. This proposal plans to advance the state of secure and low-power embedded system design through innovations in subthreshold-voltage microarchitectural techniques focusing on two specific research thrusts: 1) designing a multi-core architecture with subthreshold voltage cores, which is expected to deliver the same performance as a regular design while consuming 90% less power, and 2) partitioning a secure design into security-critical and non-critical regions so that the former runs at subthreshold voltage and the latter in superthreshold, thus maximizing the performance and minimizing the risk of side-channel attacks. This proposal aims to facilitate the use of subthreshold-based hardware design for embedded system designers by developing CAD tools, architectural techniques, and performance/power profiling-based case studies. This, in turn, will result in increased use of this technology, enabling the achievement of new low-power milestones hitherto impossible because of the barriers imposed by traditional technologies. Some of the foreseeable application areas that could be significantly improved by advancing the targeted thrusts include electronic passports, wireless security cameras, rescue and recovery robots, and handheld landmine detectors. As part of the educational aspect of this proposal, a hands-on pre-college program, called ?Embedded for Life,? will be established in order to present the creative and beneficial aspects of the computer engineering discipline. It will showcase the use of embedded microprocessors in bettering our lives. This program, which will be developed and publicized in collaboration with IEEE, SWE, and NSBE, will encourage participation of women and minorities in computer engineering on a local and national level.