Robust and resilient designs from the bottom-up: Technology, CAD, circuit, and system issues

The semiconductor industry is facing a critical research challenge: design future high performance and energy efficient systems while satisfying historical standards for reliability and lower costs. The primary cause of this challenge is device and circuit parameter variability, which results from the manufacturing process and system operation. As technology scales, the adverse impact of these variations on system-level metrics increases. In this paper, we describe an interdisciplinary effort toward robust and resilient designs that mitigate the effects of device and circuit parameter variations in order to enhance system performance, energy efficiency, and reliability. Collaboration between the technology, CAD, circuit, and system levels of the compute hierarchy can foster the development of cost-effective and efficient solutions.