“Umer Rashid” <umer_rashid@yahoo.com>
Last Date: 29 Feb 2008
PhD (2) Synthesis and Implementation of Energy-Aware Circuits and System
Technische Universiteit Eindhoven Department of Electrical Engineering
Eindhoven, (Noord-Brabant) , 40 hours per week
Job description
The Project
The failure of sub-micrometer technologies to continue with constant
process tolerances gives origin to significant challenges for design
technologies subjected to the impact of process and operational
variability such as Vth spread, Leff spread, power supply noise,
crosstalk, etc. As the variation of fundamental process parameters
goes well beyond acceptable limits, new circuit topologies, logic, and
layout optimizations are needed. This research is, therefore,
motivated by the needs of advanced process generations where
technology limitations on device count, scaling, operating frequency,
and power hinder the applicability of conventional circuit design
methodologies.
The objective of this research activity is to develop key circuit
design technologies for future (ultra) low-power intellectual- property
(IP) platforms, and to enable new uses of the key technology with a
focus on energy awareness and manufacturability of Systems on a Chip.
The research aims at developing and enabling an IC design technology
capable of providing the prescribed IP’s energy consumption and
electrical performance within manufacturability constraints. Results
of this work will provide insight into 1) synthesis of energy-aware
systems, 2) new circuit family integration into IPs 3) corresponding
IP optimization implementations for high performance, low-energy,
low-energy-delay product, and manufacturability, 4) micro architecture
solutions that attain a prescribed high performance and yield of the IP.
This research activity puts forward a new design strategy hereby
coined as Concurrent Pre-Silicon and Post Silicon Design (CPPD). Our
approach consists of merging design methodologies with on-chip
power/performance monitoring to ensure the IP’s electrical operating
conditions. What makes our project different is that our tuning occurs
at both design-time and, on-chip in real-time. Another key
differentiator of our research is that CPPD is attained through
energy-specific design synthesis and on-chip adaptive techniques that
monitor the expected behavior of the IC in real-time. Such adaptive
behavior is not on a global basis but it is achieved with locality.
The system is partitioned into autonomous and electrically isolated
islands (e.g. IPs in an SoC). In our approach, each island is
autonomous in the sense that its working conditions are modified on
the basis of its state only, which is dynamically determined through
proper parameter monitoring. Communication among islands takes place
by means of data-synchronized “globally asynchronous locally
synchronous” (GALS) techniques. In fact, the adoption of GALS allows
us to achieve complete autonomy in the control of each island and it
reduces the sensibility of the entire system to process intra-die
variability by means of proper control loops.
This research activity is in close cooperation with NXP Semiconductors.
The project has two main tracks; namely, circuits and systems. From
the systems perspective one Ph.D. student will investigate first
various architectures, e.g. parallelism, pipelining, etc. that are
suitable for our purposes given the process constraints. He/She will
investigate how to properly partition these micro-architectures into
islands so that in phase two of the track we may continue
Requirements
Required education/skills: University Graduate
Candidates for this challenging project should have a Masters degree
in Electrical or Computer Engineering.
Job type: Research / Advising
Workfield(s) :
- Research trainees, non-tenured lecturers, researchers
Organization
Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
Department of Electrical Engineering
The Department of Electrical Engineering concerns the research and
education of the Electrical Engineering discipline. Electrical
Engineering covers the application of electrical phenomena with
respect to energy transfer, telecommunication, and calculation and
processing of information and the technology involved. Both hardware,
in the form of electronic circuits and accessories, and software, in
the form of system software for electro-technical application, are the
subject of study. Existing and new electrical components and systems
are analyzed, designed and realized. In addition, the maintenance of
these systems is the subject of research, as is the relevance for
society of electrical engineering and informatics.
Conditions of employment
Estimated maximum salary per month: eur 2000 – 2500
Employment basis: Temporary for specified period
Duration of the contract: 4 years
Maximum hours per week: 40
Additional Information
Additional information about the vacancy can be obtained from:
Prof. Dr. Jose Pineda de Gyvez
Telephone number: 31-40- 2729793
E-mail address: j.pineda.de. gyvez@tue. nl
Or additional information can be obtained through one of the following
links:
* About the organization (http://www.tue. nl)
Application
You can apply for this job before 29-02-2008 (dd-mm-yyyy) by sending
your application to:
Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
PT 9.34
Prof. Dr. Jose Pineda de Gyvez
Postbus 513
5600 MB Eindhoven
Nederland
E-mail: j.pineda.de. gyvez@tue. nl
When applying for this job always mention the vacancynumber V36.332.
