Semiconductor Research Corporation
(SRC), the world's leading university research consortium for semiconductors
and related technologies, today announced that a new center has been added to
its Focus Center Research Program (FCRP) bringing together leading national
universities to advance semiconductor and systems industry research.
This new center is the sixth member of the FCRP's national, multi-university
network and links 10 universities collaborating on multi-scale systems research.
Specifically, the new center, based at University of California, Berkeley, under
Endowed Chair and Professor, Jan Rabaey, will create a comprehensive and systematic
solution to the distributed multi-scale system design challenge. Its grand challenge
is the development of “energy-smart” distributed systems—systems
that are deeply aware of the balance between energy availability and demand,
and adjust their behavior in response through dynamic and adaptive optimization
through all scales of design hierarchy.
The Multi-Scale Systems Research Center joins five existing FCRP centers involving
35 leading U.S. universities in 17 states engaged in research focused on high
level challenges for the industry. Following an open re-competition of the FCRP,
the five centers have refined their high-level research agendas on topics that
include platform systems design, circuit and module design, inter-connectivity
solutions, novel structures and devices and nanoelectronic materials and processes.
The FCRP features more than 200 university faculty and 550 graduate research
students.
The FCRP is a cooperative initiative among members of the U.S. semiconductor
industry and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) designed
to expand long-range, pre-competitive, microelectronics and systems research
within U.S. universities.
“The FCRP is aimed at creating breakthrough technology solutions critical
to U.S. economic competitiveness and security,” said Betsy Weitzman, SRC
executive vice president and FCRP executive director. “The FCRP is unique
because of its multi-university, multi-disciplinary approach to complex research
problems, and the Multi-Scale Systems Research Center will follow in this tradition
as it works to create structured and formal design methodologies to manage the
complexity of multi-scale systems design.”
A Successful Track Record
Formed in 1997, the FCRP has traditionally focused on topics where evolutionary
research and development were not sufficient. With an emphasis on discovery
and a long-range time horizon, the estimated $40 million program has collaboratively
joined the technology industry and government agencies to support advanced research,
with the additional benefit of providing access to relevantly trained graduate
students to fill critical jobs. The Multi-Scale Systems Research Center is the
first center added to the FCRP since 2003.
This basic research program is unique in that industry participants co-fund
the centers with DARPA. The FCRP is guided at a policy and strategic level by
the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and industry leaders through a Governing
Council and at a technical level through a Science Advisory Board.
“Without the commitment and leadership of DARPA, this program would not
have excelled as it has and we would not be in a position to launch this new
center focused on multi-scale systems research,” said Rabaey. “The
FCRP works so effectively because of the shared and equal dedication of government,
industry and the academic community. That common sense of direction is what
has led to a broad range of truly innovative solutions to hard problems over
the past decade, and I am convinced it will continue to do so in the next.”
“The FCRP is a marquee program in the DARPA university center portfolio,”
said Jeff Rogers, DARPA program manager for the FCRP. “It's a partnership
between industry and the U.S. Department of Defense that has produced well-trained
students and maintained a vibrant academic community at the forefront of microelectronics.”
Posted November 3rd, 2009
