Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	EP/D036895/1
Title:	Communication Centric Microelectronic Design
Principal Investigator:	Moore, Professor S
Other Investigators:	Mullins, Dr RD
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:	Altera Group MIT Group
Department:	Computer Science and Technology
Organisation:	University of Cambridge
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	01 January 2006	Ends:	31 March 2009	Value (£):	474,054
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	System on Chip VLSI Design
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Electronics
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
We wish to undertake research into communication centricmicroelectronic design methods which are in contrast to today'scomputation centric (or gate-level) techniques. We believe thatthis research is timely since electronics is at the cusp of change.For the last 60 years, digital gates have been costly to produce andhave limited performance. We are now entering an era where the wires,which were once almost free, becoming the cost and performancelimiter. This trend is well documented in the InternationalTechnology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) roadmap which clearlyidentifies the step change needed in circuits and associated designtechniques. They also identify spiralling design complexity,escalating power densities and associated thermal problems.We believe that networks-on-chip resolve many of the design challengesfor future nano CMOS implementation technologies. Our backgroundresearch in this area has already resulted in a low latencynetwork-on-chip architecture which we have fabricated on 180nm CMOS.This initial work focused on interconnect between a tiled processorarchitecture which we have been developing with MIT. However, forthis project we wish to go much further, looking at communication atmany levels and for a range of technologies, from ASIC design on CMOSchips through to new field programmable gate array (FPGA)architectures. FPGA architecture is a departure from our usual lineof research, so we have been particularly grantified to receivea fully funded PhD studentship from Altera UK (one of the two biginternational FPGA companies) who will collaborate with us on thisproject.
Key Findings
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Potential use in non-academic contexts
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Further Information:
Organisation Website:	http://www.cam.ac.uk