A dependability perspective on emerging technologies

ABSTRACT

Emerging technologies are set to provide further provisions for computing in times when the limits of current technology of microelectronics become an ever closer presence. A technology roadmap document lists biologically-inspired computing and quantum computing as two emerging technology vectors for novel computing architectures [43]. But the potential benefits that will come from entering the nanoelectronics era and from exploring novel nanotechnologies are foreseen to come at the cost of increased sensitivity to influences from the surrounding environment. This paper elaborates on a dependability perspective over these two emerging technology vectors from a designer's standpoint. Maintaining or increasing the dependability of unconventional computational processes is discussed in two different contexts: one of a bio-inspired computing architecture (the Embryonics project) and another of a quantum computational architecture (the QUERIST project).

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  B. Hardware
  B.8 Performance and Reliability
      B.8.1 Reliability, Testing, and Fault-Tolerance

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.4 PERFORMANCE OF SYSTEMS
      Subjects: Reliability, availability, and serviceability; Fault tolerance

General Terms:
Design, Reliability, Theory

Keywords:
bio-inspired computing, bio-inspired digital design, dependability, embryonics, emerging technologies, evolvable hardware, fault-tolerance assessment, quantum computing, reliability