Integrated circuit design in the late CMOS era is challenged by the ever-increasing variability and reliability issues. The situation is further compounded by real-time uncertainties in workload and ambient conditions, which dynamically influence the degradation rate. To improve design predictability and guarantee system lifetime, accurate modeling, and simulation tools for reliability are essential to both digital and analog circuits. This paper presents cross-layer solutions for emerging reliability threats, including: 1) device-level modeling of reliability mechanisms, such as transistor aging and its statistical behavior; 2) circuit-level long-term aging models that capture unique operation patterns in digital and analog design, and directly predict the degradation; and 3) simulation methods for very-large-scale designs. Built on the long-term model, the new methods significantly enhance the accuracy and efficiency of reliability analysis. As validated by silicon data, these solutions close the gap between the underlying reliability physics and circuit/system design for resilience.

Military microsensors are networked distributed embedded systems composed of a processor, a radio, and sensors used for personnel or vehicle detection. They are most often found in minefield replacement and perimeter security applications where size, weight, power, and cost requirements are quite challenging. In this paper, we discuss the different system design approaches used in microsensor systems and introduce a modular, scalable, power-aware microsensor architecture intended span the entire dynamic range required of these systems. We describe a reference implementation of this concept and results from field experiments.

We introduce a power-aware microsensor architecture supporting a wide operational power range (from10 W). The platform consists of a family of modules that follow a common set of design principles. Each module includes a local power microcontroller, power switches, and isolation switches to enable independent power-down control of modules and module subsystems. Processing resources are scaled appropriately on each module for their role in the collective system. Hard real-time functions are migrated to the sensor and radio modules for improved power efficiency. The optional Linux-based processor module supports high duty cycling and advanced sleep modes. Our reference hardware implementation is described in detail in this paper. Seven different modules have been developed. We utilize an acoustic vehicle tracking application to demonstrate how the architecture operates and report on results from field tests on tracked and wheeled vehicles.

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Augmented reality systems with see-through headmounted displays have been used primarily for applications that are possible with today's computational capabilities. We explore possibilities for a particular application-in-place, real-time 3D ultrasound visualization-without concern for such limitations. The question is not "How well could we currently visualize the fetus in real time," but "How well could we see the fetus if we had sufficient compute power?" Our video sequence shows a 3D fetus within a pregnant woman's abdomen-the way this would look to a HMD user. Technical problems in making the sequence are discussed. This experience exposed limitations of current augmented reality systems; it may help define the capabilities of future systems needed for applications as demanding as real-time medical visualization.>

We describe initial results which show "live" ultrasound echography data visualized within a pregnant human subject.The visualization is achieved by using a small video camera mounted in front of a conventional head-mounted display worn by an observer.The camera's video images are composite with computer-generated ones that contain one or more 2D ultrasound images properly transformed to the observer's current viewing position.As the observer walks around the subject.the ultrasound images appear stationary in 3-space within the subject.This kind of enhancement of the observer's vision may have many other applications, e.g., image guided surgical procedures and on location 3D interactive architecture preview.