Simulation and Performance Optimization of Large-Scale Systems in the Presence of Uncertainties

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Therapid evolution of the global electronic industry is unceasingly introducingnew products operating at ever higher frequencies and bitrates. At such highdata rates, high-frequency effects become the dominant factor limiting theoverall performance of microelectronic systems. In addition, the fast risingdemand for multifunction and miniature products warrants integration ofheterogeneous circuit modules. As a result, the traditional boundaries betweendifferent design domains are fast vanishing. Moreover, variability of thegeometrical and physical parameters and its effect on the system performance isadding another major concern. This uncertainty becomes inevitable at all levelsof the design hierarchy. For example, manufacturing uncertainties cansignificantly influence the performance of on-chip interconnects, leading totiming variations that can propagate to the circuit or board level withnegative impact on the whole system performance and yield. The researchproposal calls for a paradigm shift in the development of the underlying designalgorithms and methodologies by promoting “Design for Uncertainties” as a majoringredient in the design process. As a step towards this goal, several of theplanned research activities are focused on the development of specializedstochastic algorithms to model and simulate the underlying statisticalinformation at different levels of the design hierarchy. In addition,systematic methods will be developed to incorporate these algorithms in thedesign cycle to achieve optimal design centering. The planned researchaddresses generic strategic issues common to high-speed applications and willadvance the state-of-art in a broad spectrum of interrelated topics. Thesuccess of the proposed research will provide designers with the ability toefficiently plan and design large-scale systems that are not currentlyfeasible; resulting in superior and more reliable multi-function electronic andcommunication products. In addition, the benefits of the proposed research are notlimited to the design of high-speed electronic systems since large-scale anduncertainty quantification challenges are common issues in several other fieldswithin engineering and science.