Computer scientists author book on Reducing Uncertainty in Logic Circuit Design

CSE alumna Dr. Smita Krishnaswamy, Professor Igor Markov, and Claude E. Shannon Professor of Engineering Science John Hayes have authored a new book entitled “Design, Analysis and Test of Logic Circuits under Uncertainty,” which has been published by Springer.

The book presents a comprehensive overview of logic circuits and provides a multi-discipline approach to the timely topic of uncertainty. It states that integrated circuits (ICs) increasingly exhibit uncertain characteristics due to soft errors, inherently probabilistic devices, and manufacturing variability. As device technologies scale, these effects can be detrimental to the reliability of logic circuits.  To improve future semiconductor designs, this book describes methods for analyzing, designing, and testing circuits subject to probabilistic effects. The authors first develop techniques to model inherently probabilistic methods in logic circuits and to test circuits for determining their reliability after they are manufactured. Then, they study error-masking mechanisms intrinsic to digital circuits and show how to leverage them to design more reliable circuits.

Smita Krishnaswamy received her PhD in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2008, where her dissertation advisors were Profs. Hayes and Markov. Dr. Krishnaswamy received the 2008 Outstanding Dissertation Award in the area of “New directions in logic and system design” from the European Design and Automation Association (EDAA) for her dissertation, “Design, Analysis and Test of Logic Circuits under Uncertainty.” She is a post-doctoral research scientist at Columbia University and a consultant to IBM Research, where she worked as a research staff member after leaving U-M. Her research has been in the areas of logic synthesis, testing, verification, fault-tolerance, and quantum computing.

Igor Markov received his PhD in Computer Science from UCLA in 2001 and joined the faculty at Michigan in 2000. His research interests include computers that make computers (software and hardware), secure hardware design, combinatorial optimization with applications to the design, verification and debugging of integrated circuits, as well as in quantum logic circuits. New algorithmic techniques developed by Prof. Markov have been implemented in open-source projects and industry tools, leading to order-of-magnitude improvements in practice. He is a senior member of IEEE and an ACM Distinguished Scientist.

John Hayes received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1970 and joined the faculty at Michigan in 1982, where he has held the endowed Claude E. Shannon Chair of Engineering Science since 2002. He teaches and conducts research in the general area of computer science and engineering, with specific interests in computer hardware design, computer-aided design and testing, VLSI circuits, reliable computer architecture, and quantum computing. He was the founding director of Michigan’s Advanced Computer Architecture Laboratory. Prof. Hayes is a Fellow of both IEEE and ACM.