Showcasing leading performance research on real-world devices.
The Processing Systems Lab at the University of Washington is investigating how to improve efficiencies in everything from ultra-low power sensing to high-performance microprocessors. Key to its research is building and demonstrating a solution in a hardware prototype that allows for meaningful evaluation. Access to Arm IP helped the team realize that vision—pushing the boundaries of energy-efficient compute and enabling them to showcase their work in real-world platforms.
Invaluable IP from Arm
The team in the Processing Systems Lab, under Visvesh Sathe, works in power management for chips and in baseband processing for communication systems. Rather than relying on simulation results alone to understand the solution to a problem, the team prefers to build out and demonstrate the solution in a hardware prototype that allows for meaningful evaluation.
To support these efforts, Arm provides the team with vital IP for a real-world implementation. For instance, when the lab was working on a new way to do neural stimulation, it needed memory for the devices to be able to withstand a significant amount of voltage applied to the brain.
We were two-and-a-half months from tape-out, when we would be submitting the design for fabrication, and we had nothing. So I sent out a frantic email to Arm Research, asking them to give us everything they had in terms of memory and logic IP. We got it within a week, and within two we had started running our own synthesis flows."
In another instance, work on self-optimizing systems by the team involved a mix of power management, run-time control, and optimization, techniques that are usually demonstrated on a synthetic load device. Thanks to Arm, the lab was able to demonstrate its work on a low-power Arm Cortex-M0 processor.
Being able to showcase our research on credible platforms has been an immense gift. It means we are able to be published in the best places – and that helps us secure that much-needed funding.”
Interactions with Arm experts have also helped influence the lab’s research direction. They have informed assumptions around real-world challenges that may not show up in publications or news articles yet offer insights into potential research projects.
Using Arm IP also enables the team to build SoCs quickly and easily, so that students can focus on the more novel aspects of their research, building real-world solutions, honing their skills, and getting their ideas out there.
With Arm’s help, our students can spend 80% of their time on the research problem and only 20% of their time on building the prototype that demonstrates the tech.
Beyond simply supplying the lab with IP, Arm also joined the Center for Neurotechnology, a joint enterprise in which the University of Washington is the lead institution. The goal of the CNT is to create devices that help restore the body’s capabilities for sensation and movement, highlighting the role of neurotechnology in healing the brain and spinal cord.
"By becoming a contributing member, Arm has shown that it truly takes a long view on how technology as a whole can be transformative.”
