C6: Exploring the Design Space of Nanoelectronics Systems Using a Model of Consumer/Resource Networks

Many problems exist which can be modeled as a network of consumers competing for shared resources with limited interconnections. In such problems, the crucial factors include not only the number and ratio of consumers and resources, but also the topology of the network and the policy for assigning resources to consumers. This is a particularly powerful model for nanoelectronics systems due to the common characteristics of proposed nanoelectronic devices: systems based on these devices are resource rich, constrained to localized interconnections, and are impacted by high occurrences of faults. Consequently, the complex design space, including cost, reliability, and performance of such systems must be modeled, analyzed and simulated with the support of a flexible toolset. Within the context of the consumer/resource model, a nanoelectronics-based system may be represented by a tuple of: 1) a network topology which defines the interconnection between consumers and resources, 2) the dynamics of demand for resources and fault occurrences affecting resource availability, and 3) a decentralized policy which determines the assignment of resources to consumers. With this motivation, it is essential that fundamental tools are available that may serve as a platform to examine the characteristics of these systems. With these considerations in mind, we introduce C⁶: a freely available, open-source toolset to aid in the examination of various system behaviors. The toolset provides for the generation and analysis of network topologies and the simulation of dynamic behaviors and assignment policies. In this paper, we explore the myriad aspects of the problem and examine the architecture and implementation of the toolset.