Design Methods and Architectures of Reliable and Dependable Microelectronic Systems

该项目的重点是在具有严格可靠性要求的环境中使用商用现成（COTS）集成电路（IC）和微电子技术。事实上，2011年和2012年推出的采用28纳米技术制造的旗舰处理器和现场可编程门阵列（FPGA）包含多达70亿个晶体管。与之相关的非经常性工程（NRE）成本在这些技术用于实现专用集成电路（ASIC）或集成电路上的系统（SoC）时上升到很少有人能负担得起的水平。例如，从头开始设计并将一个新的复杂SoC推向市场的成本约为1亿美元，即使充分利用现有的设计方法。随着处理器和FPGA的不断改进，削减NRE的可编程和可配置设备可以满足越来越多的应用需求。这对在可靠的应用中使用COTS复杂组件提出了强烈的需求。该建议涉及，第一，调查设计方法和架构，指导和支持设计人员走向有效的解决方案，第二，提出方法来设计可靠的系统的基础上不太可靠的COTS组件。 拟议的研究侧重于几个互补的一般性问题。第一个主要问题是，大多数现有的IC是为了满足大批量应用的要求而开发的，对于大批量应用，可靠性和可靠性充其量是第二阶考虑因素。此外，现有的技术和架构更倾向于平均性能而不是最坏情况性能，并且它们的复杂性使得精确的最坏情况性能非常难以保证。存储器和FPGA的另一个主要问题是它们对单粒子效应（SEE）的敏感性，这些效应会导致IC中的瞬变和错误。 拟议研究的高层次目标是：1）研究设计方法和架构，指导和支持设计过程，以实现有效的解决方案; 2）探索用非专门设计的组件制造更可靠和更可靠的电子系统的方法。我们特别建议调查设计具有复杂嵌入式组件的集成系统的方法，以及无处不在的宇宙射线引起的单粒子效应（SEE）的建模和缓解。这些高级别目标被细化为以下具体目标： A）、 提出并验证新方法，以开发将嵌入式处理器与硬件支持相结合的系统的节能实现; （B） 提出并验证建模和抽象SEE的方法，以及验证结果系统的鲁棒性的方法; C）、 改进了故障特征建模方法; D）、 包括SEE缓解技术的基于FPGA的系统的模型可靠性和可靠性。 这项工作的重要性源于电子系统的普遍性以及我们日常生活中对这些技术的日益依赖，当COTS组件出于经济原因广泛用于关键应用时，这可能是一个真实的问题。使用从这项研究中得出的方法，开发人员将更好地了解在何处，何时，为什么以及如何采用COTS技术，以满足各种形式的电子系统的可靠性和可靠性要求。该提案不仅旨在纯粹的发现型贡献，而且还旨在提供一个极好的框架，以培训高素质的人员，使发现研究工作与加拿大工业和社会相关，并利用先进的电子系统设计方法、最先进的计算机辅助设计工具和技术发展深厚的知识和技能，以实现实用的电子系统。

This proposed project focuses on using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) integrated circuits (ICs) and microelectronic technologies in environments that have stringent reliability requirements. Indeed, flagship processors and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) introduced in 2011 and 2012, fabricated in 28 nm technologies, contain as many as 7 billion transistors. Non-Recurring Engineering (NRE) costs associated with them escalated at levels that few can afford when those technologies are used to implement Application Specific ICs (ASICs) or Systems on an IC (SoCs). For instance, designing from scratch and bringing to market a new complex SoC costs on the order of 100 million dollars, even when existing design methods are fully leveraged. As processors and FPGAs keep improving, programmable and configurable devices that slash NREs can satisfy the needs of a growing set of applications. This sets a strong demand for using COTS complex components in dependable applications. This proposal relates to, first, investigate design methods and architectures that guide and support the designers toward effective solutions, and, second, propose ways to design reliable systems based on less reliable COTS components. The proposed research focuses on several complementary generic concerns. A first main concern is that most existing ICs are developed to meet requirements of high volume applications, for which reliability and dependability are second order considerations at best. Also, existing techniques and architectures favor average performance over worst case performance, and their complexity makes precise worst case performance very difficult to guarantee. Another main concern with memories and FPGAs is their sensitivity to Single Event Effects (SEEs) causing transients and errors in ICs. The high level objectives of the proposed research are: 1) to investigate design methods and architectures that guide and support the design process toward effective solutions and 2) to explore means of making more reliable and dependable electronic systems from components not specifically designed for that. We notably propose investigating means of designing integrated systems with complex embedded components, as well as modeling and mitigation of single event effects (SEEs) caused by ubiquitous cosmic rays. These high level objectives are refined as the following specific objectives: A) Propose and validate new methods for developing energy efficient implementations of systems combining embedded processors with hardware support; B) Propose and validate methods for modeling and abstracting SEEs, and for validating robustness of resulting systems ; C) Refine the faulty signature modeling method; D) Model reliability and dependability of FPGA based systems comprising SEE mitigation techniques. The importance of the work stems from the pervasive nature of electronic systems and the increasing reliance on these technologies in our daily lives, which can be a real concern when COTS components are widely used in critical applications for economic reasons. Using methods resulting from this research, developers will better understand where, when, why, and how COTS technologies can be adopted to meet reliability and dependability requirements of various forms of electronic systems. The proposal not only aims at pure discovery type contributions, but is also structured to provide an excellent framework for training highly qualified personnel at making discovery research work relevant for Canadian industry and for society as well as for developing deep knowledge and skills with advanced electronic system design methods, state-of-the-art computer aided design tools and technologies for implementing practical electronic systems.