Session I Discussion Abstract

Vinod Menezes
Texas Instruments Incorporated

We are about to experience the next turn of the Industrial revolution unfold in the coming decade. Information and communication technology is now transforming into the Industrial Internet. This is driving both innovation in the field of smart sensors and the network and compute capability to augment physical systems with digital intelligence.

This step change in industrial automation, be it applied to autonomous vehicle's, factory automation, power delivery, is a game changer. It makes the system context aware, and provides a flexible framework that rapidly reacts to changes both within and outside the system. This will have a dramatic impact in overall efficiency, capability and cost.

The Compute-Energy problem is here to stay. Very often one is faced by seemingly conflicting requirements. Are low energy and high performance opposite ends of the same coin ? Smart sensors is going to drive ultra small form factors, that can communicate with Low power RF & analog sensors, compute in the low to high 10’s of MHz range, are always ALIVE, and consume NO power,  are NON-volatile.

At the other end of the spectrum  are  the Industrial servers. They have a Power-throughput problem.  We should not lose sight of Technology independent approaches such as algorithmic memories and multi-bit bitcells have the ability to boost performance or pack more information into existing physical structures.  Devices  and techniques that lend them self's to both compute and storage and beat the age old saying ‘There ain't no such thing as a free lunch (TANSTAAFL).’ We need to search for such paradigms.