PAnDA

The PAnDA project is a new four-year EPSRC (EP/I005838/1) funded project, starting in October 2010, involving the Intelligent Systems Research Group at the University of York and the Device Modelling Group at the University of Glasgow, and it is also part of a special interest group including Imperial College London and the University of Southampton. Industrial partners include Xilinx and Gold Standard Simulations Ltd.

The PAnDA project focuses upon one of the greatest challenges in nano-scale electronic design: taking the physical effects of intrinsic variability into account when the shrinking of device sizes approaches atomistic levels, in order to achieve functional circuit designs. Both process and substrate variations impose major challenges on the reliable fabrication of such small devices. These variations fall into two categories; deterministic variability, which can be accurately modelled and accounted for using specific design techniques, and stochastic variability, which can only be modelled statistically and is harder to overcome.

The proposed research aims to develop understanding of how stochastic variability will affect circuit design in deep sub-micron processes and to propose novel design methodologies to overcome these intrinsic variations. The project will involve the design and fabrication of a novel reconfigurable variability tolerant architecture, which allows variability aware design and rapid prototyping by exploiting the configuration options of the architecture. These are vital steps towards the next generation of FPGA architectures.