Design for dependability in emerging technologies

ABSTRACT

As current microelectronics will reach their physical limits within the foreseeable future, emerging technologies may offer a solution for maintaining the trends to increase computing performance. Biologically-inspired and quantum computing represent two emerging technology vectors for novel computing architectures within nanoelectronics. However, potential benefits will come at the cost of increased device sensitivity to the surrounding environment. This article provides a dependability perspective over these technologies from a designer's standpoint. Maintaining or increasing the dependability of unconventional computational processes is discussed in two different contexts, a bio-inspired computing architecture (the Embryonics project) and a quantum computational architecture (the QUERIST project).

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  B. Hardware
  B.8 Performance and Reliability
      B.8.1 Reliability, Testing, and Fault-Tolerance

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.4 PERFORMANCE OF SYSTEMS

General Terms:
Design, Reliability, Theory

Keywords:
Dependability, Embryonics, bio-inspired computing, bio-inspired digital design, emerging technologies, evolvable hardware, fault-tolerance assessment, quantum computing, reliability