Final Report Summary - LORELEI (Low-energy and Reliable reconfigurable processing systems)
The LoReLei project dealt with electronic embedded systems, i.e. with electronic systems which have been designed to perform a dedicated task.
These systems must match specific constraints demanded by the targeted application, such as cost, performance, real-time capabilities, volume, weight, and power. The last parameter emerged as a crucial one in the last decade, not only because of the increasing popularity of portable devices, but also because of the growing concerns about energy and about the impact of power dissipation issues on circuit integrity. At the same time, the reliability issue is becoming increasingly important, due to the widespread adoption of embedded systems in applications where failures may cause relevant damages, either to persons, or to the environment (e.g. in the biomedical, or automotive domains). In some areas reliability is crucial from a mere economical point of view, as it happens in the new domain of Internet of Things (IoT), where low cost devices must still ensure quality of service. Finally, new semiconductor technologies will be increasingly less reliable, which means that the chance of manufacturing fault-free components will be very low, thus reducing significantly the yield of the electronic products production process: this is raising the issue of producing reliable systems with unreliable components, possibly resorting to redundancy and using components where faults have been located and can be managed.
The project partners have a recognized and complementary expertise in the above domain, and the project supported their integrated effort to further advance the state-of-the-art in the area, as well as the transfer of skill and tools within and outside the consortium.
A major project goal was to create a network of research groups with international excellence in this area, and at combining their complementary knowledge with three main goals:
• Developing new techniques able to provide effective solutions when embedded systems are required for which the traditional constraints have to be complemented with specific constraints in terms of power/energy consumption and reliability
• Training new researchers in this area, while educating them to cooperate at the international level
• Supporting the exchange of ideas and techniques inside and outside the project consortium, involving not only the academia, but also the interested companies.
Some mobilities also involved administrative staff members, who played an important role in promoting the best practices related to project preparation and management among the partners.
The success of the project is demonstrated (among the others) by the large number of publications (48) made by the researchers of the partner institutions during the project period. Other publications will appear in the next months. Many of them are jointly coauthored by researchers of the different partner institutions.
These systems must match specific constraints demanded by the targeted application, such as cost, performance, real-time capabilities, volume, weight, and power. The last parameter emerged as a crucial one in the last decade, not only because of the increasing popularity of portable devices, but also because of the growing concerns about energy and about the impact of power dissipation issues on circuit integrity. At the same time, the reliability issue is becoming increasingly important, due to the widespread adoption of embedded systems in applications where failures may cause relevant damages, either to persons, or to the environment (e.g. in the biomedical, or automotive domains). In some areas reliability is crucial from a mere economical point of view, as it happens in the new domain of Internet of Things (IoT), where low cost devices must still ensure quality of service. Finally, new semiconductor technologies will be increasingly less reliable, which means that the chance of manufacturing fault-free components will be very low, thus reducing significantly the yield of the electronic products production process: this is raising the issue of producing reliable systems with unreliable components, possibly resorting to redundancy and using components where faults have been located and can be managed.
The project partners have a recognized and complementary expertise in the above domain, and the project supported their integrated effort to further advance the state-of-the-art in the area, as well as the transfer of skill and tools within and outside the consortium.
A major project goal was to create a network of research groups with international excellence in this area, and at combining their complementary knowledge with three main goals:
• Developing new techniques able to provide effective solutions when embedded systems are required for which the traditional constraints have to be complemented with specific constraints in terms of power/energy consumption and reliability
• Training new researchers in this area, while educating them to cooperate at the international level
• Supporting the exchange of ideas and techniques inside and outside the project consortium, involving not only the academia, but also the interested companies.
Some mobilities also involved administrative staff members, who played an important role in promoting the best practices related to project preparation and management among the partners.
The success of the project is demonstrated (among the others) by the large number of publications (48) made by the researchers of the partner institutions during the project period. Other publications will appear in the next months. Many of them are jointly coauthored by researchers of the different partner institutions.