CAREER: A Vertically Integrated Approach to Microprocessor Design for Unpredictable Silicon

用于构建微处理器的基本硬件技术和我们在其上运行的应用程序正在发生根本性的变化。硬件构建块变得越来越脆弱和容易出错，导致从根本上无法预测的硬件基板。应用程序也在不断变化，新兴的新应用程序类别越来越依赖概率方法。他们对不确定性有着与生俱来的容忍度，不需要硬件始终保持正确，这就提供了创造性地利用硬件的机会。这份职业建议书开发了一种垂直集成的方法，将这些硬件属性暴露给应用程序，以开发更高效的系统范围解决方案。这简化了微处理器的物理制造和设计，并可以提高它们的效率。PI统一了微电子系统堆栈不同部分的分析，以开发层之间的新接口和技术，以暴露这些层之间的更多信息。在综合教育计划中，PI寻求通过教育学生了解这些物理硅技术驱动因素对微处理器设计的影响来拓宽计算机体系结构课程。这项提案的研究部分对所有微电子系统都有广泛的影响，因为制造越来越小的设备变得越来越困难。建议的创新可以实现持续的技术扩展，并有可能降低整个微电子系统堆栈的复杂性和成本，并有助于保持美国在微电子领域的领先地位。该奖项由2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公共法律111-5)资助。

The basic hardware technology that is used to build microprocessors and the applications we run on them are are radically changing. Hardware building blocks are becoming increasingly brittle and error-prone, leading to a fundamentally unpredictable hardware substrate. Applications are also changing, and emerging new classes of applications are increasingly relying on probabilistic methods. They have an inherent tolerance for uncertainty, do not require hardware to be correct all the time, and this provides an opportunity to creatively utilize hardware.This CAREER proposal develops a vertically integrated approach that exposesthese hardware properties to the applications to develop more efficient system-wide solutions. This simplifies the physical manufacturing and design of microprocessors, and can make them more efficient. The PI unifies analyses in different parts of the microelectronics system stack to develop new interfaces between layers and techniques to expose more information across these layers. In the integrated education plan, the PI seeks to broaden the computerarchitecture curriculum by educating students on the implications of these physical silicon technology drivers on microprocessor designs. The research component of this proposal has broad implications across all microelectronic systems since it is becoming harder to manufacture smaller and smaller devices. The innovations proposed can enable continued technology scaling and have the potential to reduce complexity and cost in the overall micro-electronics system stack, and help maintain the US lead in microelectronics.This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009(Public Law 111-5).