The

In this paper, a new reconfigurable polymorphic chip (REPOMO32) is introduced. This chip has been developed in order to investigate the electrical properties of polymorphic circuits and demonstrate the applications of polymorphic electronics. REPOMO32 contains an array of 32 configurable logic elements; each of them can perform the AND, OR, XOR and polymorphic NAND/NOR function which is controlled by the level of the power supply voltage. REPOMO32 parameters are reported together with the analysis of polymorphic circuits implemented and evolved in REPOMO32. Potential applications of the chip are also discussed.

Abstract

This paper proposes utilisation of polymorphic electronics to design digital circuit controllers that gracefully degrades when some inconvenient situation arise, e.g. when battery goes low or a chip temperature cross some safe level. In proposed approach, the next state logic of the controller is designed using polymorphic gates. Polymorphic gates exhibit two or more logic functions in according to a specific condition (e.g. Vdd level or special signals). This allows to make a smart reconfiguration of the circuit. An algorithm for designing gracefully degrading circuit controllers using polymorphic gates is proposed in the paper. Purpose of the algorithm is demonstrated on an example of a controller. This controller was physically realised and its functionality (especially in transient state) was verified.

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