SHF: Small: A Digital System Paradigm for Yield and Robustness Enhancement via Global Analysis and Compensation

每一代新纳米技术的采用都伴随着更低的产量、停滞不前的性能或芯片间性能变异性的增加，以及对环境压力的稳健性的降低。本研究的目的是确定设计、分析和测试的新途径，以帮助弥补这些趋势。本研究对模块在整个系统架构中的作用进行了全面的考察。本研究将重点关注两个具体问题，即(1)模块故障对整个系统运行和性能的影响，以及(2)通过防止故障影响任何系统或用户任务的正确运行，重新配置一个模块以补偿另一个模块故障的能力。将进行额外的案例研究，以进一步证明全局视图的这两个方面都显著提高了系统产量和性能。一个系统的方法将开发利用这样一个全局的观点，以显着提高产量，性能和稳健性。一个全新的框架？模型、信息、分析和算法？对于使用有故障（和无故障）组件的装配系统？也将被开发。这个项目给社会带来的功利收益可能是巨大的。首先，在不改变任何现有设计的情况下，所提出的分析和测试方法将显著提高产率、性能和对软错误的鲁棒性。其次，所提出的分析、设计、测试和全局补偿技术也将有助于提高产量。由于本研究直接适用的系统类型包括高性能处理器，因此所提供的好处将被此类处理器的高价格和高产量所放大。此外，由于这项研究与许多正在进行的提高产量和性能的研究是正交的，因此它提供的改进可以与其他方法提供的改进相结合。最后，该项目将为南加州大学的学生以及该领域的专业人士提供独特的教育和培训机会。

Adoption of each new generation of nano-scale technology is accompanied by lower yields, stagnant performance or increasing chip-to-chip performance variability, and decreasing robustness to environmental stress. The objective of this research is to identify new avenues for design, analysis, and testing to help compensate for these trends. This research takes a global view of the role of a module in the overall system architecture. This research will focus on two specific issues, namely (1) the impact of a fault in a module on the overall system operation and performance, and (2) the ability to reconfigure one module to compensate for a fault in another module by preventing it from affecting the correct operation of any system or user task. Additional case studies will be conducted to further demonstrate that both these aspects of a global view significantly improve system yield and performance. A systematic approach will be developed to exploit such a global view to dramatically improve yield, performance, and robustness. A completely new framework ? models, information, analysis, and algorithms ? for assembling systems using faulty (and fault-free) components ? will also be developed. The utilitarian gains to society of this project are likely to be substantial. First, without changing any existing design, the proposed analysis and test approaches will provide significant improvements in yield, performance, and robustness to soft-errors. Second, the proposed analysis, design, test, and global compensation techniques will also help improve yields. Since the types of systems where this research is directly applicable include high-performance processors, the benefits provided will be amplified by the high price such processors fetch and the high volumes in which they are manufactured. Furthermore, since this research is orthogonal to much of the on-going research for improving yield and performance, improvements it provides can be combined with those provided by other approaches. Finally, this project will provide unique educational and training opportunities, for USC students as well as working professionals in the field.