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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/M71466/01
Title: LOW-POWER TECHNIQUES FOR CONTACTLESS SMARTCARD APPLICATIONS
Principal Investigator: Garside, Dr JD
Other Investigators:
Furber, Professor S B Lloyd, Dr D
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Advanced Risc Machines (Arm)
Department: Computer Science
Organisation: Victoria University of Manchester, The
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 01 July 1999 Ends: 31 March 2003 Value (£): 217,051
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Electronic Devices & Subsys. Power Electronics
System on Chip
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Electronics
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
Contactless smartcards are powered by extracting energy from a radio field transmitted from a nearby base station. They receive information from the base station via the same radio field, and transmit by shorting out their internal antenna, thereby modulating the impedance seen by the base station. They therefore present a unique challenge for low-power design as the available power varies and there is a limited time in which to perform the necessary processing work.Asynchronous logic dynamically adjusts its throughput to match a varying supply voltage and is therefore well-suited to contactless smartcard application. However, at low power levels it is necessary to reduce the throughput even further to prevent the supply voltage from falling too low for correct circuit operation.The proposed research is aimed at finding ways to adjust the operation of an asynchronous processing system dynamically to match it to the available power. In particular, speculative activity which is introduced to maximise performance when power availability is low. This work will start from a review of the AMULET3 asynchronous subsystem, identifying speculative functions which can be disabled, and leading to a redesign of this subsystem better suited to smartcard applications.
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