Embedded systems are application-specific computers within other devices such as consumer electronics, automobiles, medical devices, or networks of sensors used to monitor the safety of buildings and the health of wildlife. Many embedded systems are now implemented almost entirely on a multiprocessor system-on-chip (MPSoC), a single integrated circuit chip containing a complex network of microprocessors. In high-performance applications, the critical limiter on computation speed is temperature. Designing MPSoCs is a difficult task because the each application imposes different requirements.
In this project, the PIs plan to develop methods of accurately predicting the impacts of MPSoC design decisions on temperature, functionality, price, and power consumption. We will also develop methods of automatically designing MPSoCs that are well suited to particular applications. The planned work will focus on ideas that can be widely re-used in many different MPSoC applications. An estimate is that system-on-chip market is projected to reach $170 billion by 2007. The project will hopefully work to encourage industry to adopt the most promising new design and automated design techniques developed in this project by collaborating with our industrial affiliates on design projects and by teaching new design techniques to students who will later join industry.
