CSR: Small: Collaborative Research: A Wireless Batteryless System-on-a-Chip Platform for the Internet of Things

研究人员、技术专家、大公司和公众都认为，物联网（IoT）是下一波计算机浪潮，将在未来十年推动半导体市场的增长，因为几乎所有东西都将由无线传感器进行仪表化并连接到网络。许多预测者预测，这种新兴的物联网将部署超过1万亿（1 T）的无线传感设备，思科在最近的CES主题演讲中估计其价值将达到14.4万亿美元。令人惊讶的是，几乎没有评论者指出这一愿景的一个明显障碍：电力问题。具体来说，物联网应用要求这些嵌入式传感器小型化，但使用传统的电子解决方案，所需的功能消耗毫瓦的功率。这意味着节点的大小需要显著增加，或者它们的电池寿命非常短。设想的物联网的规模大大加剧了这个问题。即使1万亿个物联网设备中的每一个都有10年的电池寿命，每天也需要更换2.74亿个电池。这也适用于可充电电池，它们随着时间的推移而失去效用，需要更换。显然需要一种无电池平台，它可以使用收集的能量可靠地满足功能需求。该项目利用低功耗电路和系统的创新，在计算机系统平台上进行基础研究，用于从收集的能量供电的嵌入式无线传感器。设想的平台为实现物联网的预测规模提供了基础。该项目通过研究物联网的灵活、能量收集、功率感知平台，解决了在50微瓦的功率预算内提供完整无线传感解决方案的问题。该平台包括一个芯片上的系统，该系统具有足够低的功率，可以专门从其内置的采集电子设备中操作，能够与各种采集器连接。灵活平台实现这种超低功耗（ULP）操作的唯一方法是从地下室到屋顶构建节能、电源感知和电源管理挂钩。每个模块、模块之间的每个接口、每个操作模式、每个通信策略和每个软件选项都必须协同工作，以实现管理和节能。这项研究追求最佳的接口、架构、旋钮和功能，以满足平台的灵活性和功耗需求，同时关注跨1 T节点的可扩展性、可靠性和易用性。该项目利用了计算机系统中的几个不同的基础研究领域，包括计算机体系结构和系统规划，电源管理和调节，RF，模拟，混合信号和数字电路的ULP电路设计，无线通信原理，先进的DSP算法和硬件/软件划分。这些领域汇聚在一起，支持平台研究，通过跨应用的基于仿真的研究以及物联网应用的完整无线声学监控器的硬件演示来证明这一点。

Researchers, technologists, major corporations, and the public all agree that the Internet of Things (IoT) is the next wave of computers that will fuel growth in the semiconductor markets for the next decade as nearly everything becomes instrumented by wireless sensors and connected to the web. Numerous forecasters predict the deployment of over 1 trillion (1T) wireless sensing devices for this emerging IoT, with Cisco estimating 14.4 trillion dollars at stake at a recent keynote speech at CES. Surprisingly few commenters identify a glaring obstacle to this vision: the power problem. Specifically, IoT applications require these embedded sensors to be miniaturized, but the desired functionality consumes milliwatts of power using conventional electronics solutions. This means that nodes will need to be significantly increased in size or that they will have prohibitively short battery lifetimes. The scale of the envisioned IoT compounds this problem significantly. Even if each of the 1 trillion IoT devices had a battery lifetime of ten years, 274 million batteries would need changing every day. This applies to rechargeable batteries as well, which lose usefulness over time and need replacing. There is a clear need for a batteryless platform that reliably meets functionality needs using harvested energy. This project leverages innovation in low power circuits and systems to perform fundamental research on a computer systems platform for embedded wireless sensors powered from harvested energy. The envisioned platform provides a foundation for achieving the predicted scale of the IoT. This project addresses the problem of providing a complete wireless sensing solution within a power budget of 50 microwatts by researching a flexible, energy harvesting, power aware platform for the IoT. The platform comprises a system on chip that is sufficiently low power to operate exclusively from its built in harvesting electronics, capable of interfacing with a variety of harvesters. The only way that a flexible platform can achieve such ultra low power (ULP) operation is to build in power conservation, power awareness, and power management hooks from the basement to the roof. Every block, every interface between blocks, every operating mode, every communication strategy, and every software option must work together to manage and to save energy. This research pursues the best interfaces, architecture, knobs, and features to match the flexibility and power needs of the platform with attention to scalability, reliability, and ease of use across 1T nodes. The project leverages several diverse fields of fundamental research within computer systems including computer architecture and system planning, power management and regulation, ULP circuit design for RF, analog, mixed-signal, and digital circuits, wireless communication principles, advanced DSP algorithms and hardware/software partitioning. These fields converge to support platform research, which is demonstrated by simulation based study across applications and by a hardware demonstration of a complete, wireless acoustic monitor for IoT applications.