Prof. Guthaus will be presenting his group's latest work at the International Conference on Supercomputing (ICS) during the Workshop on RISC-V and OpenPOWER in HPC on June 14, 2021.
Research
The VLSI Design and Automation group investigates low-power computer chips, circuits and CAD tools to aid circuit design. Please see the Google Scholar site for our most recent publications.
OpenRAM
The OpenRAM project aims to provide a free, open-source memory compiler development framework for Random-Access Memories (RAMs). It is a joint development project between University of California Santa Cruz and Oklahoma State University to enable memory and computer system research by creating an open-source compiler infrastructure.
(Left: 16kbyte SRAM in AMI 0.5um, Right: 16kbyte SRAM in 45nm Process)
Related papers:
S. Ataei, J. Stine, M. Guthaus, “A 64 kb differential single-port 12T SRAM design with a bit-interleaving scheme for low-voltage operation in 32 nm SOI CMOS,” International Conference on Computer Design (ICCD), 2016, pp. 499-506.
E. Ebrahimi, M. Guthaus, J. Renau, “Timing Speculative SRAM”, IEEE In- ternational Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS), 2017
Current-Mode Clocking
In a high-performance computer system design, the clock network consumes a significant amount of power and causes the most switching noise. High power consumption requires larger batteries while switching noise degrades the accuracy of sensitive sensor measurements in modern Systems-on-Chips. Prof. Matthew Guthaus, faculty in Computer Engineering, and his graduate student Riadul Islam, now a faculty at University of Michigan Dearborn, have developed the concept of a current-mode clock distribution to address these problems. Current-mode clocking senses current flow rather than a traditional voltage swing in clock wires and thereby eliminates most of the noise and power problems in traditional clock distribution schemes. Current-mode clocking simultaneously increases the potential maximum speeds of computer chips for performance improvements. Related papers:
R. Islam, H. Fahmy, P. Lin, M. R. Guthaus, "DCMCS: Highly Robust Low-Power Differential Current-Mode Clocking and Synthesis", IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems, 2018.
R. Islam, M. R. Guthaus, “Current-Mode Clock Distribution,” IEEE Inter- national Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS), 2014, pp. 1203-1206.
Resonant and Charge-Recovery Clocking
Electromagnetic Interference
X. Hu, M.R. Guthaus, "Clock tree optimization for electromagnetic compatibility (EMC)", Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference, 2011.
News
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The OpenRAM team was invited to publish a paper at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) onEnabling Design Technology Co-Optimization of SRAMs through Open-Source Software. Prof. Guthaus will be presenting at the December meeting virtually.
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Google has provided a generous gift to support the OpenRAM memory compiler. This gift will be used for improved coordination with other open-source projects, improved process support, and other general improvements.
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Hunter Nichols presented his open-source PUF analysis tool -- Puffery. Prof. Guthaus was on the panel discussing gaps in EDA technology.