Collaborative Research: Eliminating the Energy Efficiency Barrier of Reconfigurable Architectures for Diverse Signal Processing in Mobile Devices

目标：该计划的目标是结合使用粗粒度可重构设备和高度可扩展的非易失性存储技术，从根本上提高未来移动设备的能效。新的设备架构提供了动态利用大多数信号处理任务固有的显著运行时计算工作量变化和较大的算法设计自由度的能力，从而有效地实现了恰到好处的计算。这种方法包含了许多信号处理任务的内存密集型和时变性，可以利用这些任务来降低整体系统能耗。此外，这些方法使得在可重构体系结构上应用积极的运行时电源管理以最大限度地减少静态能耗成为可能。为了充分评估这些新机会的潜力，使用了包括电路、体系结构、编译器和运行时系统在内的综合设计方法。智能价值：这项研究的智能价值在于结合集成和使用粗粒度可重构设备，该设备包括与高密度非易失性存储器技术的接口。该接口在系统级被用来动态调整计算密集型信号处理应用，以实现显著的能源节约。更广泛的影响：该项目的更广泛影响是：1)增强嵌入式系统和集成电路设计的研究生课程，2)在NSF赞助的协作和自适应大气传感工程研究中心(CASA)应用新技术，3)为教育和培训传播研究基础设施，以及4)面向高中生。拟议的架构将通过支持能效，使未来的移动设备能够继续跟踪其历史性能和功能扩展。

Objective: The objective of this program is to cohesively use coarse-grained reconfigurable devices and highly-scalable non-volatile memory technologies to fundamentally improve energy efficiency in future mobile devices. The new device architecture provides the capability to dynamically exploit significant run-time computational workload variation and large algorithm design freedom inherent in most signal processing tasks, effectively enabling just-enough computation. The approach embraces the memory-intensive and time-varying nature of many signal processing tasks, which can be leveraged to reduce overall system energy consumption. In addition, these approaches make it feasible to apply aggressive run-time power management on reconfigurable architectures to minimize static energy consumption. To fully evaluate the potential of these new opportunities, a comprehensive design methodology including circuits, architectures, compiler, and run-time system is used. Intellectual Merit: The intellectual merit of this research lies in the cohesive integration and use of a coarse-grained reconfigurable device which includes interfaces to high-density non-volatile memory technology. This interface is exploited at the system level to dynamically adapt computation-intensive signal processing applications for significant energy savings. Broader Impacts: The broader impacts of this project are: 1) enhancement to graduate curricula in embedded systems and integrated circuit design, 2) application of the new technologies in the NSF-sponsored Engineering Research Center for Collaborative and Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA), 3) research infrastructure dissemination for education and training, and 4) outreach to high school students. The proposed architecture will enable future mobile devices to continue to track their historic performance and functionality scaling by supporting energy efficiency.