Energy impacts all aspects of society. Much of the U.S. electrical energy consumption occurs unnoticed due to the ubiquitous nature of electronics that improves and enhances our standard of living. For example, according to the US EPA Report to Congress, the electricity costs of data centers used by our cell phones and computers amounted to $4.5 billion dollars in 2006 -- the equivalent of 15 power plants. This proposal develops a transformative technology that reduces the power consumption of electronics by a factor of three. The core of the technology is based on a theory applied to the timing of logic and communication elements on an integrated circuit, where signals can travel up to the speed-of-light in the given medium. The primary result of this funding will be to develop circuit, software (computer-aided design), and design technology that will enable this low power technology to be moved from scientific laboratories into commercial products. The relative timing theory will be mapped onto the current commercial design and validation flow, using formal proofs of correctness for the translation. This is what will enable fast commercialization of the technology. A new ultra low power circuit family will be developed based on exhaustive behavioral investigations. This family can likewise be technology mapped to current fabrication libraries used by the foundries. Finally, a factor of three reduction in power as well as the ability to rapidly build commercial products will be demonstrated through the design and fabrication of a complex system-on-chip.
The primary impact of the work is the reduction of energy used by our ubiquitous electronics. The impact of energy usage has worldwide ramifications. Electronics have had an exponential growth in energy consumption over the last decade. The energy consumed by integrated circuits already pose a considerable impact on the economy and environment in terms of CO_2 emissions. The research performed by this grant will continue to improve U.S. technology leadership and competitiveness. The technology transfer to industry will also create hundreds of jobs and provide taxable revenue. This research has significant collaboration and support from industry, including direct interactions with Texas Instruments, Intel, Mentor Graphics, and ON Semiconductor. This work builds on the strong research foundation of the University of Utah. The University has a strong record of outreach to increase the engineering student population.
