Descripción del proyecto
El diseño de circuitería permite dar una respuesta adaptativa a las caídas rápidas de tensión
Las caídas de tensión son descensos imprevistos en la tensión de alimentación de los chips informáticos, que suelen producirse como consecuencia de ráfagas cercanas de alta intensidad en la actividad del circuito. El proyecto FastVolt, financiado con fondos europeos, se dedica a estudiar las caídas rápidas de tensión, en que la tensión disminuye en pocos ciclos de reloj. Los investigadores se proponen desarrollar un circuito compacto y sencillo que compense las caídas de tensión sin provocar retrasos en el sincronizador. Esto debería ofrecer un método práctico para lograr una respuesta adaptativa a las caídas rápidas que podría incrementar la eficiencia computacional. Las estimaciones conservadoras sugieren un incremento en el rendimiento de, al menos, un 5 %. Los socios del proyecto tomarán las medidas necesarias para comercializar la nueva solución.
Objetivo
"Voltage droops are unpredicted drops in the supply voltage of computer chips, which often occur as a result of nearby bursts of high intensity circuit activity. This proposal is concerned with fast voltage droops, where voltage drops within a few clock cycles. This means that any dynamic response must take place within one or at most two clock cycles. A promising direction for combining the advantages of a stable reference clock with a small response time are mixed-signal control loops, in which voltage measurements are digitized and control decisions are taken by digital logic. However, digitally measuring a dynamically changing voltage may cause metastability of the sampling circuit. Conventional approaches employ synchronizers to make the probability of metastable upsets negligible, which costs 2-3 clock cycles of additional delay.
Based on results of the ERC starting grant project ""A Theory of Reliable Hardware,'' we provide a simple, compact circuit that guarantees the desired behavior without incurring synchronizer delay. This yields a practical method for adaptive response to fast droops, which bears the promise of increasing computational efficiency. Conservative estimates suggest performance improvements of at least 5%, which would be of substantial economical interest.
The main obstacle to commercialization is a gap between theory and practice: Without an existing implementation, it takes a long time to develop a product and the associated risks are high. In this project, we will overcome this hurdle by developing, producing, and evaluating an Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) demonstrator for our approach. We complement this primary goal by tasks aiming at maximizing impact: publication of results in high-profile scientific venues, patent protection to facilitate commercialization, and outreach to potential industry partners for developing products."
Ámbito científico
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectrical engineeringelectric energy
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectrical engineeringpower engineeringelectric power distribution
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringcomputer hardware
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-POC - Proof of Concept GrantInstitución de acogida
66123 Saarbrucken
Alemania