On-Chip Embedded Instruments Data Fusion and Life-Time Prognostics of Dependable VLSI-SoCs using Machine-learning

Nowadays, a rapid introduction of very complex nanometer Many-Processor Systems-on-Chip in safety-critical applications is taking place. Unfortunately, it pairs with an unacceptable decrease in dependability of these complex nanosystems if no additional countermeasures are taken. To address this challenge, a promising approach is presented in this paper that uses a set of IJTAG compatible embedded instruments (EIs), in and around a processor cores to monitor their present health status. Data from these EIs is collected and fused for lifetime prognostics and hence dependability. For the EIs data fusion, use is made of principal component analysis (PCA) technique. For lifetime prediction based on different EIs, power-law degradation model was used

IJTAG Compatible Delay-line based Voltage Embedded Instrument with One Clock-cycle Conversion Time

The monitoring of critical-paths in Systems-on-Chip to ensure dependable operation during the lifetime is becoming essential for safety-critical applications. Based on the timing information, different procedures like remaining lifetime prediction, voltage, and frequency scaling can be carried out to retain the desired functionality. To perform these operations, it is important to measure the run-time changing parameters like operating voltage and temperature, at the same moment of measuring slack-delay timing in critical paths. This will provide a better correlation, as compared to measuring the slack-delay timing alone, for instance, to determine the remaining lifetime. This paper presents a novel delay-line based voltage embedded instrument with a conversion time of just one clock cycle along with its integration to the IJTAG network. The proposed embedded instrument (EI) has been designed using the TSMC 40nm standard cell library. Simulation results of the proposed EI show a resolution of 10mV with a detection range from 0.95V to 1.20V, which is sufficient for most dependability applications

Políticas de Copyright de Publicações Científicas em Repositórios Institucionais: O Caso do INESC TEC

A progressiva transformação das práticas científicas, impulsionada pelo desenvolvimento das novas Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TIC), têm possibilitado aumentar o acesso à informação, caminhando gradualmente para uma abertura do ciclo de pesquisa. Isto permitirá resolver a longo prazo uma adversidade que se tem colocado aos investigadores, que passa pela existência de barreiras que limitam as condições de acesso, sejam estas geográficas ou financeiras. Apesar da produção científica ser dominada, maioritariamente, por grandes editoras comerciais, estando sujeita às regras por estas impostas, o Movimento do Acesso Aberto cuja primeira declaração pública, a Declaração de Budapeste (BOAI), é de 2002, vem propor alterações significativas que beneficiam os autores e os leitores. Este Movimento vem a ganhar importância em Portugal desde 2003, com a constituição do primeiro repositório institucional a nível nacional. Os repositórios institucionais surgiram como uma ferramenta de divulgação da produção científica de uma instituição, com o intuito de permitir abrir aos resultados da investigação, quer antes da publicação e do próprio processo de arbitragem (preprint), quer depois (postprint), e, consequentemente, aumentar a visibilidade do trabalho desenvolvido por um investigador e a respetiva instituição. O estudo apresentado, que passou por uma análise das políticas de copyright das publicações científicas mais relevantes do INESC TEC, permitiu não só perceber que as editoras adotam cada vez mais políticas que possibilitam o auto-arquivo das publicações em repositórios institucionais, como também que existe todo um trabalho de sensibilização a percorrer, não só para os investigadores, como para a instituição e toda a sociedade. A produção de um conjunto de recomendações, que passam pela implementação de uma política institucional que incentive o auto-arquivo das publicações desenvolvidas no âmbito institucional no repositório, serve como mote para uma maior valorização da produção científica do INESC TEC.The progressive transformation of scientific practices, driven by the development of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), which made it possible to increase access to information, gradually moving towards an opening of the research cycle. This opening makes it possible to resolve, in the long term, the adversity that has been placed on researchers, which involves the existence of barriers that limit access conditions, whether geographical or financial. Although large commercial publishers predominantly dominate scientific production and subject it to the rules imposed by them, the Open Access movement whose first public declaration, the Budapest Declaration (BOAI), was in 2002, proposes significant changes that benefit the authors and the readers. This Movement has gained importance in Portugal since 2003, with the constitution of the first institutional repository at the national level. Institutional repositories have emerged as a tool for disseminating the scientific production of an institution to open the results of the research, both before publication and the preprint process and postprint, increase the visibility of work done by an investigator and his or her institution. The present study, which underwent an analysis of the copyright policies of INESC TEC most relevant scientific publications, allowed not only to realize that publishers are increasingly adopting policies that make it possible to self-archive publications in institutional repositories, all the work of raising awareness, not only for researchers but also for the institution and the whole society. The production of a set of recommendations, which go through the implementation of an institutional policy that encourages the self-archiving of the publications developed in the institutional scope in the repository, serves as a motto for a greater appreciation of the scientific production of INESC TEC