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

用于构建微处理器和在其上运行的应用程序的基本硬件技术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，导致硬件基础从根本上不可预测。应用程序也在变化，新兴的应用程序类别越来越依赖于概率方法。它们对不确定性具有固有的容忍度，不要求硬件始终保持正确，这为创造性地利用硬件提供了机会。本CAREER方案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，以开发更有效的系统级解决方案。这简化了微处理器的物理制造和设计，并可以使它们更高效。PI统一了微电子系统堆栈中不同部分的分析，以开发层与技术之间的新接口，从而在这些层之间暴露更多信息。在综合教育计划中，PI试图通过教育学生这些物理硅技术驱动对微处理器设计的影响来扩大计算机体系结构课程。该提案的研究部分对所有微电子系统具有广泛的影响，因为制造越来越小的设备变得越来越困难。提出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。该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。

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).