Performance and power optimization in VLSI physical design

As VLSI technology enters the nanoscale regime, a great amount of efforts have been made to reduce interconnect delay. Among them, buffer insertion stands out as an effective technique for timing optimization. A dramatic rise in on-chip buffer density has been witnessed. For example, in two recent IBM ASIC designs, 25% gates are buffers. In this thesis, three buffer insertion algorithms are presented for the procedure of performance and power optimization. The second chapter focuses on improving circuit performance under inductance effect. The new algorithm works under the dynamic programming framework and runs in provably linear time for multiple buffer types due to two novel techniques: restrictive cost bucketing and efficient delay update. The experimental results demonstrate that our linear time algorithm consistently outperforms all known RLC buffering algorithms in terms of both solution quality and runtime. That is, the new algorithm uses fewer buffers, runs in shorter time and the buffered tree has better timing. The third chapter presents a method to guarantee a high fidelity signal transmission in global bus. It proposes a new redundant via insertion technique to reduce via variation and signal distortion in twisted differential line. In addition, a new buffer insertion technique is proposed to synchronize the transmitted signals, thus further improving the effectiveness of the twisted differential line. Experimental results demonstrate a 6GHz signal can be transmitted with high fidelity using the new approaches. In contrast, only a 100MHz signal can be reliably transmitted using a single-end bus with power/ground shielding. Compared to conventional twisted differential line structure, our new techniques can reduce the magnitude of noise by 45% as witnessed in our simulation. The fourth chapter proposes a buffer insertion and gate sizing algorithm for million plus gates. The algorithm takes a combinational circuit as input instead of individual nets and greatly reduces the buffer and gate cost of the entire circuit. The algorithm has two main features: 1) A circuit partition technique based on the criticality of the primary inputs, which provides the scalability for the algorithm, and 2) A linear programming formulation of non-linear delay versus cost tradeoff, which formulates the simultaneous buffer insertion and gate sizing into linear programming problem. Experimental results on ISCAS85 circuits show that even without the circuit partition technique, the new algorithm achieves 17X speedup compared with path based algorithm. In the meantime, the new algorithm saves 16.0% buffer cost, 4.9% gate cost, 5.8% total cost and results in less circuit delay

Performance and power optimization in VLSI physical design

As VLSI technology enters the nanoscale regime, a great amount of efforts have been made to reduce interconnect delay. Among them, buffer insertion stands out as an effective technique for timing optimization. A dramatic rise in on-chip buffer density has been witnessed. For example, in two recent IBM ASIC designs, 25% gates are buffers. In this thesis, three buffer insertion algorithms are presented for the procedure of performance and power optimization. The second chapter focuses on improving circuit performance under inductance effect. The new algorithm works under the dynamic programming framework and runs in provably linear time for multiple buffer types due to two novel techniques: restrictive cost bucketing and efficient delay update. The experimental results demonstrate that our linear time algorithm consistently outperforms all known RLC buffering algorithms in terms of both solution quality and runtime. That is, the new algorithm uses fewer buffers, runs in shorter time and the buffered tree has better timing. The third chapter presents a method to guarantee a high fidelity signal transmission in global bus. It proposes a new redundant via insertion technique to reduce via variation and signal distortion in twisted differential line. In addition, a new buffer insertion technique is proposed to synchronize the transmitted signals, thus further improving the effectiveness of the twisted differential line. Experimental results demonstrate a 6GHz signal can be transmitted with high fidelity using the new approaches. In contrast, only a 100MHz signal can be reliably transmitted using a single-end bus with power/ground shielding. Compared to conventional twisted differential line structure, our new techniques can reduce the magnitude of noise by 45% as witnessed in our simulation. The fourth chapter proposes a buffer insertion and gate sizing algorithm for million plus gates. The algorithm takes a combinational circuit as input instead of individual nets and greatly reduces the buffer and gate cost of the entire circuit. The algorithm has two main features: 1) A circuit partition technique based on the criticality of the primary inputs, which provides the scalability for the algorithm, and 2) A linear programming formulation of non-linear delay versus cost tradeoff, which formulates the simultaneous buffer insertion and gate sizing into linear programming problem. Experimental results on ISCAS85 circuits show that even without the circuit partition technique, the new algorithm achieves 17X speedup compared with path based algorithm. In the meantime, the new algorithm saves 16.0% buffer cost, 4.9% gate cost, 5.8% total cost and results in less circuit delay

Sensing Mutual Information with Random Signals in Gaussian Channels

Sensing performance is typically evaluated by classical metrics, such as Cramer-Rao bound and signal-to-clutter-plus-noise ratio. The recent development of the integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) framework motivated the efforts to unify the metric for sensing and communication, where researchers have proposed to utilize mutual information (MI) to measure the sensing performance with deterministic signals. However, the need to communicate in ISAC systems necessitates the use of random signals for sensing applications and the closed-form evaluation for the sensing mutual information (SMI) with random signals is not yet available in the literature. This paper investigates the achievable performance and precoder design for sensing applications with random signals. For that purpose, we first derive the closed-form expression for the SMI with random signals by utilizing random matrix theory. The result reveals some interesting physical insights regarding the relation between the SMI with deterministic and random signals. The derived SMI is then utilized to optimize the precoder by leveraging a manifold-based optimization approach. The effectiveness of the proposed methods is validated by simulation results

Terminal Distributed Cooperative Guidance Law for Multiple UAVs Based on Consistency Theory

In order to realize a saturation attack of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on the same target, the problem is transformed into one of multiple UAVs hitting the same target simultaneously, and a terminal distributed cooperative guidance law for multiple UAVs based on consistency theory is proposed. First, a new time-to-go estimation method is proposed, which is more accurate than the existing methods when the leading angle is large. Second, a non-singular sliding mode guidance law (NSMG) of impact time control with equivalent control term and switching control term is designed, which still appears to have excellent performance even if the initial leading angle is zero. Then, based on the predicted crack point strategy, the NSMG law is extended to attack maneuvering targets. Finally, adopting hierarchical cooperative guidance architecture, a terminal distributed cooperative guidance law based on consistency theory is designed. Numerical simulation results verify that the terminal distributed cooperative guidance law is not only applicable to different forms of communication topology, but also effective in the case of communication topology switching

Terminal Impact Time Control Cooperative Guidance Law for UAVs under Time-Varying Velocity

Aiming at the problem that multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) attack the stationary target cooperatively under time-varying velocity, the cooperative guidance law with finite time convergence on two-dimensional plan and the three-dimensional cooperative guidance laws with impact time constraint are designed separately in this paper. Firstly, based on the relative motion equation between UAV and target on two-dimensional plane, the time cooperative guidance model of multiple UAVs is established. Then based on the consistency theory and graph theory, a distributed time cooperative guidance law is designed, which can ensure that the impact time of all UAVs can be quickly consistent in a limited time. Next, the cooperative guidance problem is expanded from two-dimensional plane to three-dimensional space, the motion model between UAV and target in three-dimensional space is established and the expression of time-to-go estimation under time-varying velocity is derived. Finally, according to whether there is the communication among UAVs under the condition of time-varying velocity, a multiple UAVs three-dimensional cooperative guidance law based on desired impact time and a multiple UAVs three-dimensional cooperative guidance law based on coordination variables are designed, respectively. The simulation results show that the cooperative guidance law with finite time convergence on two-dimensional plan and the three-dimensional cooperative guidance law with impact time constraint proposed in this paper are effective, which can both realize the saturation attack under the time-varying velocity

Impact Time Control Cooperative Guidance Law Design Based on Modified Proportional Navigation

The paper proposes a two-dimensional impact time control cooperative guidance law under constant velocity and a three-dimensional impact time control cooperative guidance law under time-varying velocity, which can both improve the penetration ability and combat effectiveness of multi-missile systems and adapt to the complex and variable future warfare. First, a more accurate time-to-go estimation method is proposed, and based on which a modified proportional navigational guidance (MPNG) law with impact time constraint is designed in this paper, which is also effective when the initial leading angle is zero. Second, adopting cooperative guidance architecture with centralized coordination, using the MPNG law as the local guidance, and the desired impact time as the coordination variables, a two-dimensional impact time control cooperative guidance law under constant velocity is designed. Finally, a method of solving the expression of velocity is derived, and the analytic function of velocity with respect to time is given, a three-dimensional impact time control cooperative guidance law under time-varying velocity based on desired impact time is designed. Numerical simulation results verify the feasibility and applicability of the methods