Limits on Fundamental Limits to Computation

An indispensable part of our lives, computing has also become essential to industries and governments. Steady improvements in computer hardware have been supported by periodic doubling of transistor densities in integrated circuits over the last fifty years. Such Moore scaling now requires increasingly heroic efforts, stimulating research in alternative hardware and stirring controversy. To help evaluate emerging technologies and enrich our understanding of integrated-circuit scaling, we review fundamental limits to computation: in manufacturing, energy, physical space, design and verification effort, and algorithms. To outline what is achievable in principle and in practice, we recall how some limits were circumvented, compare loose and tight limits. We also point out that engineering difficulties encountered by emerging technologies may indicate yet-unknown limits.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Why aren't they locked in waiting games? Unlocking rules and the ecology of concepts in the semiconductor industry.

International audienceIn a multi-level perspective, regimes can be clearly described as long as they remain stable. To understand how regimes and niches interact during transition, the article contrasts two models of regimes in transition(s). The classical model of evolutionary niches suggests misalignments between rules and competition between niches. Transition management, technological innovation systems and works on transition pathways suggest a second model based on "unlocking rules", which support collective work on a structured set of emerging technologies. The latter model is illustrated with a case study on the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS)

Inherited Redundancy and Configurability Utilization for Repairing Nanowire Crossbars with Clustered Defects

With the recent development of nanoscale materials and assembly techniques, it is envisioned to build high-density reconfigurable systems which have never been achieved by the photolithography. Various reconfigurable architectures have been proposed based on nanowire crossbar structure as the primitive building block. Unfortunately, high-density systems consisting of nanometer-scale elements are likely to have many imperfections and variations; thus, defect-tolerance is considered as one of the most exigent challenges. In this paper, we evaluate three different logic mapping algorithms with defect avoidance to circumvent clustered defective crosspoints in nanowire reconfigurable crossbar architectures. The effectiveness of inherited redundancy and configurability utilization is demonstrated through extensive parametric simulations

Cyber-Physical Manufacturing Metrology Model (CPM3) - Big Data Analytics Issue

Internet of Things (IoT) is changing the world, and therefore the application of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in manufacturing. As a paradigm based on the Internet, IoT utilizes the benefits of interrelated technologies/smart devices such as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and WSAN (Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks) for the retrieval and exchange of information thus opening up new possibilities for integration of manufacturing system and its cyber representation through Cyber-Physical Manufacturing (CPM) model. On the other hand, CPM and digital manufacturing represent the key elements for implementation of Industry 4.0 and backbone for "smart factory" generation. Interconnected smart devices generate huge databases (big data), so that Cloud computing becomes indispensable tool to support the CPM. In addition, CPM has an extremely expressed requirement for better control, monitoring and data management. Limitations still exist in storages, networks and computers, as well as in the tools for complex data analysis, detection of its structure and retrieval of useful information. Products, resources, and processes within smart factory are realized and controlled through CPM model. In this context, our recent research efforts in the field of quality control and manufacturing metrology are directed to the development of framework for Cyber-Physical Manufacturing Metrology Model (CPM3). CPM3 framework will be based on: 1) integration of digital product metrology information obtained from big data using BDA (big data analytics) through metrology features recognition, and 2) generation of global/local inspection plan for CMM (Coordinate Measuring Machine) from extracted information. This paper will present recent results of our research on CPM3 - big data analytics issue