(DARPA Microsystems Technology Office)
U-M engineering researchers have received more than $16.7 million from a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency initiative to push microelectronics beyond Moore’s Law—the transistor scaling that has allowed for 50 years of rapid progress in electronics. DARPA’s Electronics Resurgence Initiative is a $75 million effort to jumpstart innovation in the field. The funded projects at U-M include:
- An open-source hardware design tool: A $6.5 million project that could revolutionize and democratize designing hardware devices by creating an open-source hardware compiler
- A reconfigurable computer: A $9.5 million project to develop a computing system that allows software to adapt the hardware at runtime, making changes in processor interconnect speeds and connectivity
- A new hybrid chip that can change its own wiring: A $5.2 million sub-project to develop a new type of system-on-chip that combines the adaptability of general purpose processors with the efficiency of specialized processors
- Testing next-generation hardware design tools: $1.6 million to participate in a national program that aims to build free, open-source electronic design automation tools
