Four Universities Partner For £5.6m PRiME Chip Research Project

The universities of Southampton, Manchester, Newcastle and the Imperial College London have partnered to develop more efficient computer architectures in a £5.6 million PRiME (Power-efficient Reliable Many-core Embedded systems) project.

The five-year venture aims to keep the UK ahead of the curve in microprocessor development. It will be funded by a grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Prime example

The UK currently leads the world in the embedded multi-core systems field, thanks to the achievements of ARM and Imagination, whose products power the ongoing mobile revolution. Both companies will be involved with PRiME, along with software partners including Altera, Microsoft Research and Freescale.

The project will attempt to design and implement energy-efficient and dependable computer systems that involve thousands of processors. PRiME counts on the industry to participate in its work, and as an additional benefit, hopes to prepare the next generation of researchers and IT professionals.

The results of the collaboration will be published in academic press and presented around the world.

“Embedded systems, many of which will be low-power mobile devices, will be one of the most powerful tools in tackling global societal challenges,” explained Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi from the University of Southampton, director of PRiME. “However, while many-core processing is viewed as a way to improve the performance of computing systems, the energy consumption and reliability of these systems with hundreds or thousands of cores has yet to be fully understood.

“Our vision is to enable the sustainability of many-core systems by preventing the uncontrolled increase in energy consumption and unreliability through a step-change in design methods and cross–layer system optimisation.”

According to Al-Hashimi, in the years to come, embedded systems and skilled engineers who know how to use them will become invaluable tools in stabilising the economy and creating wealth. And collaborations such as PRiME lay serious foundations for continued innovation in the UK.

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