TAMTAMS: A flexible and open tool for UDSM process-to-system design space exploration

Vacca, Marco; Graziano, Mariagrazia; Demarchi, Danilo; Piccinini, Gianluca

doi:10.1109/ulis.2012.6193377

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…What we believe it is necessary to successfully teach micro and nanoelectronics, is an instrument to analyze electronics devices, from device level to system level also considering emerging technologies, in an well structured and systematic way. For this purpose we started the development of TAMTAMS (Torino Assessment of Mos Technology and Advanced perforMance of System calculator) to reach exactly this goal [19]. TAMTAMS was originally developed as a small tool written and developed in OCTAVE, a free Software similar to Matlab.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding CMOS Technology Through TAMTAMS Web

Riente

Hussain

Roch

et al. 2016

IEEE Trans. Emerg. Topics Comput.

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In the last decades CMOS technology has undergone an extraordinary evolution. Thanks to the continuous scaling process, CMOS transistors are now so small that millions can be easily fitted in a single chip. Shrinking transistor sizes has complex consequences on the performance of both the transistor itself and the system that is based upon it. Understanding and teaching the CMOS scaling process and its consequences on circuits is an increasingly difficult task. Furthermore the scaling process is reaching an end, due to the continuously growing fabrication costs and the unavoidable physical limits on the smallest size achievable. As a consequence many emerging technologies, like carbon nanotubes and nanowires, are being studied as possible CMOS substitutes. Describing and teaching these new technologies, alongside the scaled transistor itself, adopting a complete and well organized approach is a process that presents further difficulties.To solve these problems we have started in the past years the development of TAMTAMS, a tool conceived to analyze CMOS circuits, from device to system level. The tool is based on models derived from the literature or, in some cases, internally developed and verified. It allows to analyze the main characteristics of a CMOS transistor, like currents, threshold voltage or mobility, considering different technology nodes and parameters, and to understand how they influence circuits performance. The tool structure is open and modular, allowing therefore easy integration of further CMOS technologies and to compare them. In this paper we present a total overview of the original tool, TAMTAMS Web. While the general concept behind the tool is still the same, the tool was completely rewritten around a web interface. TAMTAMS Web is freely accessible to students and to any one interested in CMOS technology. As a future development several post-CMOS technologies will be added to TAMTAMs Web, allowing therefore a comparison with state of the art CMOS. TAMTAMS Web is actively used in the Integrated System Technologies (IST) held at Politecnico di Torino. It defines a new way of learning, because students learn and understand modern electronic technology both using TAMTAMS Web as an instrument, and being part of the development process, as part of the IST course.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding CMOS Technology Through TAMTAMS Web

Riente

Hussain

Roch

et al. 2016

IEEE Trans. Emerg. Topics Comput.

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“…In this case, the not-open nature of the available tools represents a big issue. For this reason we have developed our own tool, called TAMTAMS (Torino Assessment of Mos Technology and Advanced perforMance of Systems calculator) which preliminary version has been presented in [6]. This tool allows circuits analysis at low level (currents, capacitances, resistances, ... ) and performance estimations at high level (power, area, frequency, ... ) based on physical level data.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

TAMTAMS: An open tool to understand nanoelectronics

Vacca

Turvani

Riente

et al. 2012

2012 12th IEEE International Conference on Nanotechnology (IEEE-NANO)

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Ahstract-In order to assure the best learning experience, the teaching activity in Electronic Engineering is expected to closely follow the rapid evolution of CMOS technology. As a consequence the necessity of new teaching tools arises. These instruments must be flexible enough not only to follow technol ogy evolution, but also to improve the learning experience by assuring interactivity and adaptability.In this work we present a tool "made by students for other students" which analyzes and compares different technologies from nanoscale CMOS transistors to emerging technologies, based for example on Carbon Nanotubes and Silicon Nanowires.The aim of this tool is to grant the students, but also the designers, with a useful instrument to understand the impact of scaling and of emerging technologies on nanoelectronics circuits. It allows the evaluation of different circuit parameters, from device level (currents, capacitances, ... ) to system level (power, speed, area, ... ). Since the best way to learn is "learning by doing", the tool, based on the open source software GNU Octave, has a modular structure. In this way students not only can use it, but they can develop new modules starting from the literature, from teacher's experiences or from interesting case studies, contributing themselves to improve the learning experience of other students.

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