Introduction
The electronic design labs of the three universities have joined their forces in the NIRICT Design Labs, with the aim to open up their facilities for each other, to coordinate the development of new methods and techniques, and to jointly participate in EU projects.
Problem formulation
The design of modern ICT systems are characterized by the need to implement higher functionality and much better performance than was the case with traditional systems and components such as processors, radios, memories or programs. For example, in an ‘ambient intelligent surrounding’ it is necessary to combine the utilization of special materials, a computer processor, a radio link, several sensors and actuators and an energy supply. Research groups and engineers are more often than not specialized in one specific area, they are specialized in one type of hardware or software and one discipline. If the system asks for the combination of more functions – e.g. sensing and communication, they are often at loss of how the combination can be realized, let alone to dispose of a prototype design for the parts of the system for which they do not have adequate experience.
In this way, not only valuable results of research and development get lost, but new systems are not proficiently designed and great opportunities for new systems are lost. We want to remedy this system by providing a repository of information, past designs and tools that should allow each designer to have easy access to all the knowledge and practical experience he/she needs to design systems that combine many more aspects than the own discipline can provide.
Approach
The main carrier for cooperation will be a joint “design platform” that combines design tools (programmes), libraries of components, design methodologies, testing strategies, support for design flows and design cases both in the area of hardware and software design (including embedded software). This platform will be open to the NIRICT partners and students from the three educational programmes, but it will guarantee the “intellectual property” of the individual groups on innovative and new designs. It is also the ambition of the Lab to extent its activities to outside parties, in particular companies. At the moment there are already such cooperations active, also in the EU context where an action in the same direction is taking place. The NIRICT Design Labs will serve as the Dutch participant in these larger programs and may even provide the basic framework for the platform, based on its experience in setting up such a platform for low power integrated system design.
The platform that is envisaged should support heterogeneous design strategies. Many modern designs require the combination of different technologies, e.g. the combination of a sensor with intelligent signal processing capabilities and a ‘low power radio’. Large companies in general have enough qualified people to cover these different aspects but young inexperienced researchers and small companies do not always have the expertise and it is difficult to gather the necessary expertise to realize heterogeneous designs. The NIRICT groups have a large resource of strategic knowledge and it is the aim of the Design Labs to make this knowledge available such that it is easier for other partners to make innovative designs. Besides original designs and design tools, also a great assembly of international contributions and tools will be provided, all organized in a user friendly and accessible way, using modern data repository techniques including the usage of semantic web methods, work flow and version control, search engines and research information. An international board of editors will evaluate and judge the inputs and quality indications of the various components will be given.
The platform will provide a basic design substrate for the other components of the NIRICT program, ranging from hardware to software, with special emphasis on integration and system design. In particular, the NIRICT SRA’s aiming at Ambient Intelligent, Broadband Telecommunication systems and Software Engineering should profit from the existence of the platform and contribute to its content.
Current situation
The design platform is being defined and the individual partners now contribute to its contents. This effort will also be made part of the Dutch contribution to the EU design platform ERICA, part of the ‘Ecosystem Design’ of ENIAC Scientific Community Council (ENIAC is the European Technology Platform voor Nano Elektronica en Embedded Systems). Also companies and other interested users will be invited to contribute to and use the platform. It is our ambition to set up a system that will find wide usage in the overall international community, much as is the case for major libraries of functions such as LAPACK, Some of the same techniques shall be used to create a community of supplier and users, taking into account that also the quality of the supplies must be guaranteed, and that the whole setup must be effective.
Scientific Director:
Prof. dr. ir. E. Charbon (TUD)
Contact information:
Rene van Leuken
t.g.r.m.vanleuken@tudelft.nl
TUD
