O emprego de ferramentas de automação de projetos de circuitos integrados permitiu que projetos complexos atingissem time-to-market e custos de produção factíveis. Neste contexto, o processo de síntese lógica é uma etapa fundamental no fluxo de projeto. O passo independente de tecnologia (parte do processo de síntese lógica, que é realizada sem considerar características físicas) é tradicionalmente realizado sobre equações. O desenvolvimento de novos algoritmos de otimização multi-nível recentemente migrou para o emprego de And-Inverter Graphs (AIGs). O número de nodos e a altura de um grafo apresentam melhor correlação com os resultados em área e atraso de um circuito, se comparados com as características de outras formas de representação. Neste trabalho, um algoritmo de síntese lógica independente de tecnologia, que funciona sobre uma estrutura de AIGs, é proposto. Uma nova abordagem para a construção de AIGs, baseada no novo paradigma de síntese chamado de composição funcional, é apresentado. Esta abordagem consiste em construir o AIG final através da associação de AIGs mais simples, em uma abordagem bottom-up. Durante a construção do grafo, o método controla as características dos grafos intermediários e finais, a partir da aplicação de uma função de custo, como forma de avaliação da qualidade desses AIGs. O objetivo é a minimização do número de nodos e da altura do AIG final. Este algoritmo de síntese lógica multi-objetivo apresenta características interessantes e vantagens quando comparado com abordagens tradicionais. Além disso, este trabalho apresenta a síntese de funções com múltiplas saídas em AIGs, o que melhora a característica de compartilhamento de estruturas, melhorando o circuito resultante. Resultados mostraram a melhora em torno de 5% em número de nodos, quando comparados com os resultados obtidos com a ferramenta ABC. / The use of design automation tools has allowed complex projects to reach feasible time-to-market and cost parameters. In this context, logic synthesis is a critical procedure in the design flow. The technology independent step (part of the logic synthesis which is performed regardless any physical property) is traditionally performed over equations. The development of new multi-level optimization algorithms has recently shifted towards the use of And-Inverter-Graphs (AIGs). The number of nodes and the graphs depth in AIGs present better correlation with resulting circuit area and delay than any characteristic of other representations. In this work, a technology independent synthesis algorithm that works on top of an AIG data structure is proposed. A novel approach for AIG construction, based on a new synthesis paradigm called functional composition, is introduced. This approach consists in building the final AIG by associating simpler AIGs, in a bottom-up approach. The method controls, during the graphs construction, the characteristics of final and intermediate graphs by applying a cost function as a way to evaluate the quality of those AIGs. The goal is to minimize the number of nodes and the depth of the final AIG. This multi-objective synthesis algorithm has presented interesting features and advantages when compared to traditional approaches. Moreover, this work presents a method for AIGs construction for multiple output functions, which enhances structural sharing, improving the resulting circuit. Results have shown an improvement of around 5% in number of nodes when compared to ABC tool.

O emprego de ferramentas de automação de projetos de circuitos integrados permitiu que projetos complexos atingissem time-to-market e custos de produção factíveis. Neste contexto, o processo de síntese lógica é uma etapa fundamental no fluxo de projeto. O passo independente de tecnologia (parte do processo de síntese lógica, que é realizada sem considerar características físicas) é tradicionalmente realizado sobre equações. O desenvolvimento de novos algoritmos de otimização multi-nível recentemente migrou para o emprego de And-Inverter Graphs (AIGs). O número de nodos e a altura de um grafo apresentam melhor correlação com os resultados em área e atraso de um circuito, se comparados com as características de outras formas de representação. Neste trabalho, um algoritmo de síntese lógica independente de tecnologia, que funciona sobre uma estrutura de AIGs, é proposto. Uma nova abordagem para a construção de AIGs, baseada no novo paradigma de síntese chamado de composição funcional, é apresentado. Esta abordagem consiste em construir o AIG final através da associação de AIGs mais simples, em uma abordagem bottom-up. Durante a construção do grafo, o método controla as características dos grafos intermediários e finais, a partir da aplicação de uma função de custo, como forma de avaliação da qualidade desses AIGs. O objetivo é a minimização do número de nodos e da altura do AIG final. Este algoritmo de síntese lógica multi-objetivo apresenta características interessantes e vantagens quando comparado com abordagens tradicionais. Além disso, este trabalho apresenta a síntese de funções com múltiplas saídas em AIGs, o que melhora a característica de compartilhamento de estruturas, melhorando o circuito resultante. Resultados mostraram a melhora em torno de 5% em número de nodos, quando comparados com os resultados obtidos com a ferramenta ABC. / The use of design automation tools has allowed complex projects to reach feasible time-to-market and cost parameters. In this context, logic synthesis is a critical procedure in the design flow. The technology independent step (part of the logic synthesis which is performed regardless any physical property) is traditionally performed over equations. The development of new multi-level optimization algorithms has recently shifted towards the use of And-Inverter-Graphs (AIGs). The number of nodes and the graphs depth in AIGs present better correlation with resulting circuit area and delay than any characteristic of other representations. In this work, a technology independent synthesis algorithm that works on top of an AIG data structure is proposed. A novel approach for AIG construction, based on a new synthesis paradigm called functional composition, is introduced. This approach consists in building the final AIG by associating simpler AIGs, in a bottom-up approach. The method controls, during the graphs construction, the characteristics of final and intermediate graphs by applying a cost function as a way to evaluate the quality of those AIGs. The goal is to minimize the number of nodes and the depth of the final AIG. This multi-objective synthesis algorithm has presented interesting features and advantages when compared to traditional approaches. Moreover, this work presents a method for AIGs construction for multiple output functions, which enhances structural sharing, improving the resulting circuit. Results have shown an improvement of around 5% in number of nodes when compared to ABC tool.

O emprego de ferramentas de automação de projetos de circuitos integrados permitiu que projetos complexos atingissem time-to-market e custos de produção factíveis. Neste contexto, o processo de síntese lógica é uma etapa fundamental no fluxo de projeto. O passo independente de tecnologia (parte do processo de síntese lógica, que é realizada sem considerar características físicas) é tradicionalmente realizado sobre equações. O desenvolvimento de novos algoritmos de otimização multi-nível recentemente migrou para o emprego de And-Inverter Graphs (AIGs). O número de nodos e a altura de um grafo apresentam melhor correlação com os resultados em área e atraso de um circuito, se comparados com as características de outras formas de representação. Neste trabalho, um algoritmo de síntese lógica independente de tecnologia, que funciona sobre uma estrutura de AIGs, é proposto. Uma nova abordagem para a construção de AIGs, baseada no novo paradigma de síntese chamado de composição funcional, é apresentado. Esta abordagem consiste em construir o AIG final através da associação de AIGs mais simples, em uma abordagem bottom-up. Durante a construção do grafo, o método controla as características dos grafos intermediários e finais, a partir da aplicação de uma função de custo, como forma de avaliação da qualidade desses AIGs. O objetivo é a minimização do número de nodos e da altura do AIG final. Este algoritmo de síntese lógica multi-objetivo apresenta características interessantes e vantagens quando comparado com abordagens tradicionais. Além disso, este trabalho apresenta a síntese de funções com múltiplas saídas em AIGs, o que melhora a característica de compartilhamento de estruturas, melhorando o circuito resultante. Resultados mostraram a melhora em torno de 5% em número de nodos, quando comparados com os resultados obtidos com a ferramenta ABC. / The use of design automation tools has allowed complex projects to reach feasible time-to-market and cost parameters. In this context, logic synthesis is a critical procedure in the design flow. The technology independent step (part of the logic synthesis which is performed regardless any physical property) is traditionally performed over equations. The development of new multi-level optimization algorithms has recently shifted towards the use of And-Inverter-Graphs (AIGs). The number of nodes and the graphs depth in AIGs present better correlation with resulting circuit area and delay than any characteristic of other representations. In this work, a technology independent synthesis algorithm that works on top of an AIG data structure is proposed. A novel approach for AIG construction, based on a new synthesis paradigm called functional composition, is introduced. This approach consists in building the final AIG by associating simpler AIGs, in a bottom-up approach. The method controls, during the graphs construction, the characteristics of final and intermediate graphs by applying a cost function as a way to evaluate the quality of those AIGs. The goal is to minimize the number of nodes and the depth of the final AIG. This multi-objective synthesis algorithm has presented interesting features and advantages when compared to traditional approaches. Moreover, this work presents a method for AIGs construction for multiple output functions, which enhances structural sharing, improving the resulting circuit. Results have shown an improvement of around 5% in number of nodes when compared to ABC tool.

Orientador: Rodolfo Jardim de Azevedo / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-11T08:21:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pimenta_ValdineyAlves_M.pdf: 5178774 bytes, checksum: 75a2335b2db0969f79ae380d7479bff2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Resumo: Contrariando as projeções para crescimento da economia mundial, o mercado de semicondutores cresce de forma acelerada, a uma taxa superior a 10% ao ano, movimentando anualmente mais de 270 bilhões de dólares. Acompanhando este crescimento, a importação de componentes eletrônicos pelo Brasil é um dos ítens que mais contribuem negativamente em sua balança comercial, deixando claro que o país não tem atuado de forma econômicamente interessante neste mercado. Um consórcio formado por 8 das principais universidades brasileiras, chamado BrazilIP, foi criado tendo como principal intuito inserir o Brasil no seleto grupo de países produtores de artefatos em semicondutores, em especial, na produção de componentes na forma de propriedade intelectual (IPs). Este grupo tem alcançado considerável sucesso ao longo dos últimos anos e é o foco da presente dissertação. O autor, que participou dos três primeiros anos de vida deste consór.cio, buscou registrar, na forma de método, as propostas, cursos, documentos e experiências ocorridas durante seu envolvimento. São também apresentados casos reais de aplicação da metodologia no desenvolvimento de um decoder de áudio MP3 e um codificador RSA. Uma das intenções deste trabalho é evitar que todo o conhecimento, adquirido e gerado pelo consórcio, se volatilize, além de permitir, através deste registro e exemplos de seu uso, que o método seja facilmente reaplicado em outras instituições de pesquisa. Somando-se a estas contribuições, didáticas e documentais, a dissertação ainda analisa vários pontos, positivos e negativos, sobre sua utilização e pioneirismo, propondo complementações e aprimoramentos / Abstract: Contrary to the projections ofthe worldwide economy's growth rate, the semiconductor market, estimated in 270 billions of dollars, grows over 10% each year. The electronic components market in Brazil has been growing at the same rate and poses a huge payout for the country in this area, leading to efforts in semiconductor training. The Brazil-IP consortium, formed by 8 of the major universities in Brazil, was created to try to insert the .country into the select group of countries that design semiconductors, focusing on intellectual property (IP) market. This group has achieved a considerable success over the past years and the systematization of its methodology is the focus of this dissertation. The contributions of this work are divided into three groups: (1) It registers the methodology in a reproducible way since the proposals, courses, documents and experiences that took place during the fist years were not put together. Since the author participated in the first three years, he is one of the recommended persons to do that. (2) It also exemplifies the methodology with real case studies, MP3 decoder and RSA, which is small enough to be used as first case exercise for new designers to be trained. (3) Finally it comments, makes suggestions and analyses the positive and negative points of the methodology as applied in the Institute of Computing, proposing enhancements and complementation / Mestrado / Sistemas de Computação / Mestre em Ciência da Computação

With the importance of data security at its peak today, many reconfigurable systems are used to provide security. This protection is often provided by FPGA-based encrypt/decrypt cores secured with secret keys. Physical unclonable functions (PUFs) use random manufacturing variations to generate outputs that can be used in keys. These outputs are specific to a chip and can be used to create device-tied secret keys. Due to reliability issues with PUFs, key generation with PUFs typically requires error correction techniques. This can result in substantial hardware costs. Thus, the total cost of a $n$-bit key far exceeds just the cost of producing $n$ bits of PUF output. To tackle this problem, we propose the use of variation aware intra-FPGA PUF placement to reduce the area cost of PUF-based keys on FPGAs. We show that placing PUF instances according to the random variations of each chip instance reduces the bit error rate of the PUFs and the overall resources required to generate the key. Our approach has been demonstrated on a Xilinx Zynq-7000 programmable SoC using FPGA specific PUFs with code-offset error correction based on BCH codes. The approach is applicable to any PUF-based system implemented in reconfigurable logic. To evaluate our approach, we first analyze the key metrics of a PUF - reliability and uniqueness. Reliability is related to bit error rate, an important parameter with respect to error correction. In order to generate reliable results from the PUFs, a total of four ZedBoards containing FPGAs are used in our approach. We quantify the effectiveness of our approach by implementing the same key generation scheme using variation-aware and default placement, and show the resources saved by our approach.

This work deals with testability analysis of digital circuits and fault coverage. It contains a desription of digital systems, their diagnosis, a description of tools for generating and applying tests and sets of benchmark circuits. It describes the testing of circuits and experimentation in tool TASTE for testability analysis and commercial tool for generating and applying tests. The experiments are focused on increase the testability of circuits.

Einstein's relativity theory tells us that the notion of simultaneity can only be approximated for events distributed over space. As a result, the use of asynchronous techniques is unavoidable in systems larger than a certain physical size. Traditional design techniques that use global clocks face this barrier of scale already within the space of a modern microprocessor chip. The most common response by the chip industry for overcoming this barrier is to use Globally Asynchronous Locally Synchronous (GALS) design techniques. The circuits investigated in this thesis can be viewed as examples of GALS design. To make such designs trustworthy it is necessary to model formally the relative signal delays and timing requirements that make these designs work correctly. With trustworthy asynchrony one can build reliable, large, and scalable systems, and exploit the lower power and higher speed features of asynchrony. This research presents ARCtimer, a framework for modeling, generating, verifying, and enforcing timing constraints for individual self-timed handshake components that use bounded-bundled-data handshake protocols. The constraints guarantee that the component's gate-level circuit implementation obeys the component's handshake protocol specification. Because the handshake protocols are delay insensitive, self-timed systems built using ARCtimer-verified components can be made delay insensitive. Any delay sensitivity inside a component is detected and repaired by ARCtimer. In short: by carefully considering time locally, we can ignore time globally. ARCtimer applies early in the design process as part of building a library of verified components for later system use. The library also stores static timing analysis (STA) code to validate and enforce the component's constraints in any self-timed system built using the library. The library descriptions of a handshake component's circuit, protocol, timing constraints, and STA code are robust to circuit modifications applied later in the design process by technology mapping or layout tools. New contributions of ARCtimer include: 1. Upfront modeling on a component by component basis to reduce the validation effort required to (a) reimplement components in different technologies, (b) assemble components into systems, and (c) guarantee system-level timing closure. 2. Modeling of bounded-bundled-data timing constraints that permit the control signals to lead or lag behind data signals to optimize system timing.

Passive components like resistors, capacitors and inductors are used in every electronic system. These are the very basic components which affect the system performance at higher frequencies and it is necessary to understand and model the behavior of these components in a very accurate manner. This work focuses on utilizing Printed Circuit Board (PCB) test boards, or fixtures, made of FR4 for characterizing Surface Mount Device (SMD) components. Agilent's Advanced Design System (ADS) microwave circuit simulation software was used for designing the microstrip transmission lines as well as for generating the layout for manufacturing of the PCB. SMD resistors, capacitors and inductors were soldered into the fixture and then measured using the Vector Network Analyzer (VNA). The calibration kit was developed in ADS. The measured data were calibrated using the TRL (Thru-Reflect-Line) calibration algorithm. A calibration kit consisting of through, three transmission lines of various lengths, open and short was designed and manufactured. Calibration procedures were performed using Cascade Microtech's WinCal XE software. Based on our experience, TRL calibration did not perform to its full potential due to errors in the value of the characteristic impedance of microstrip transmission line. This impedance is ideally assumed to be 50 Ohm, but our lines had characteristic impedance of around 49 Ohm. Simple models for the resistors and capacitors were developed by our collaborators at the University of Zagreb and we developed the model for the inductors. We used ADS for simulations and comparison with the measured data. Extensive optimization of these models was done so as to fit the measured and modeled data. As the frequency goes above 4 GHz models and measurements don't match due to the limitations of the PCB material, the increasing effects of the parasitics and calibration artifacts. This work shows how and when we can use inexpensive FR4 PCB for the characterization of the passive SMD components in the low GHz frequency range. It also examines the range of operating frequency of SMD components, verifies the parameters extracted from the simple model and tests the TRL calibration algorithm.

No description available.

While magnesium diboride (MgB2) was first synthesized in the 1950s, MgB2’s superconductive properties were not discovered until 2001. It has the highest superconducting transition temperature of all the metallic superconductors at ~39 K at atmospheric pressure. MgB2 is also unique in that it has a two superconductive gaps, a pi gap at 2 meV and a sigma gap at 7.1 meV. There are a theoretical models discussing the inter- and intra- gap scattering of the superconductivity of MgB2 and the Josephson transport of MgB2 Josephson Junctions. The focus of this work is to further the study of all-MgB2 Josephson junctions and quantum interference device technology. This work discusses the transport in all-MgB2 Josephson junctions and designing, fabricating, and measuring multi-junction devices. The junctions studied include all-MgB2 sandwich-type Josephson junctions (one with TiB2 normal conducting barrier and another with an MgO insulating barrier). The junction MgB2 films were deposited by hyprid physical-vapor deposition and the junction barrier were deposited by sputtering. The junctions were patterned and etched with UV photolithography and argon ion milling. With the TiB2 barrier we studied Josephson transport by the proximity effect. With these junctions, we also observed complete suppression of the critical current by an applied magnetic field showing for the first time a leakage free barrier in an all-MgB2 Josephson junction with a single ultrathin barrier. We also studied junctions utilizing MgO barrier deposited by reactive sputtering which gave a larger characteristic voltage of 1-3 mV compared to TiB2 barriers. By connecting several SQUIDs with varying loop areas we developed of two types of superconducting quantum interference filters (SQIFs). The first SQIF designed with 21 SQUIDs connected in parallel and the SQUID loops are sensitive to magnetic fields applied parallel to the substrate. The SQUID loop areas were designed to vary in such a way that the voltage modulation gave a unique peak corresponding to the absolute value of the applied magnetic field. The SQIF shows an antipeak height of 0.25 mV with a transfer function of 16 V/T at 3 K. The lowest noise measured for this SQIF is 110 pT/Hz1/2. The second SQIF is designed with 17 SQUIDs in parallel and the SQUID loops are sensitive to magnetic field perpendicular to the substrate. This SQIF has shown improved voltage modulation with a peak height of 1 mV and a transfer function of 7800 V/T. The noise sensitivity was measured at 70 pT/Hz1/2. The sensitivity of the SQIF shows MgB2 potential superconductor to improve performance of current superconductive electronics. Utilizing known all-MgB2 junctions and SQUID parameters two rapid single flux quantum (RSFQ) circuits were designed and tested. A toggle flip flop (TFF) operating as a frequency divider was developed. The TFF design consisted of a Josephson transmission line, a splitter, and an interferometer (a DC SQUID). The TFF utilized an improved designed, compared to previous all-MgB2 TFFs, and showed operation up to 335 GHz at 7 K and operation up to 30 K. A low frequency set-reset flip flop (SRFF) was also developed to demonstrate RSFQ digital logic. The SRFF design includes a DC-SFQ converter, a Josephson transmission line, and an inductively coupled readout SQUID. The SRFF demonstrates proper digital logic by toggling between a high and low voltage state with a sequential set and reset input. While these developed devices are not close to the potential that MgB2 allows, they do show the promise MgB2 based devices have in making more sensitive and faster superconductive logic devices. / Physics