Technology workflow

The interplay and integration of several different technologies is key to the realization of the overall objectives. Since the technical span from nano-scale devices to tera-scale integration is wide, it is important to relate technologies with their expected progress and mutual influence.

Figure2: Schematic of interaction and interaction of the various enabling technologies
within the Nano-Tera.CH program

The essential features of the flow diagram are to show how nano-technologies influence micro-nano architectures, systems and eventually services. For example, the choice of nanometer silicon-based (or carbon-based) technologies versus molecular electronics has a direct bearing on the circuit structures (e.g., array logic, crossbars) that are used for computation, the degree and granularity of hardware parallelism, the on-chip and intra-chip communication mechanisms (e.g., on-chip networks).  Hardware architectural choices (such the degree of redundancy) have direct consequences on dependability and security, which are key quality factors since nano-technologies have inherently higher defect and failure rates while tera-scale services (e.g., ambient and health monitoring) require high levels of dependability in all its aspects.

At the same time, nano-technologies are the supporting fabric to realize circuits, as well as sensors and integrated mechanics (MEMS/NEMS), optics and fluidics. Any useful means of such powerful and versatile technology requires abstraction and modeling, to support computer-aided design (CAD) tools and methodologies as well as hardware abstraction layers that expose the intricacy of the technology to the software and computational layers. With this in mind, tera-scale hardware and software systems can be designed that support distributed and parallel computation, that seamlessly communicate and that autonomously evolve, organize and repair.

Thus, the nano-tera program can be seen as evolving the various technologies described in the boxes of Figure 2, while providing enablers for other technologies. The expertise of the various Nano-Tera.CH partners provides us with a means of decomposing the overall problem in technology subproblems and tasks, and to create a concerted effort to overcome the overall problem complexity. Indeed, we reiterate that the scientific mission of this proposal is to bring networked computing to a higher level of complexity, service and performance that deliver unprecedented solutions to problems in health, security and environment.

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