I-Corps: Trimbit Technologies Customer Discovery

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project stems from the potential of our technology to enable untapped energy efficiency, cost, size, and security benefits in the IoT space. In the low-power embedded systems that drive IoT applications, energy efficiency is the primary factor that determines critical system characteristics such as size, weight, cost, reliability, and lifetime. Likewise, security is critical for IoT systems, which are entrusted with nearly all our data ? personal, financial, health-critical, and otherwise. Because of their extreme energy constraints and ubiquitous scale of deployment, these systems have traditionally favored low cost and low power over security, exposing a huge attack surface for information security attacks. Several large-scale exploits have already been reported. By providing automated and low-overhead solutions for security and energy efficiency, our technology has the potential to make a disruptive impact on the IoT space, which is predicted to have a market size of $457 billion by 2020. Additionally, the solutions we provide have the potential to improve information security for the population at large and allow broader deployment of IoT systems that promise to improve quality of life and understanding of the world.This I-Corps project is built around technologies that enable aggressive optimization of microprocessors for energy savings, cost reduction, and security. The technologies are based on novel, automated system analysis approaches that identify unused parts of a design and leverage the information to improve system efficiency. The technologies have demonstrated reductions of over an order of magnitude in energy efficiency and area for ultra-low-power microprocessors through a host of application-aware optimization and design techniques. The technologies also allow software programmers to evaluate information flow security for their software on the processor(s) where it will be deployed, enabling software to be certified with security guarantees. Results from our research and initial customer discovery indicate potential to impact the semiconductor industry. Through our technology, design and operating costs for application-specific processors can be significantly reduced, accelerating production of such processors, allowing them to be more widely deployed, and providing traction for new markets such as DIY printed processors. Also, reducing energy for low-power processors that drive the internet of things (IoT) can significantly impact lifetime, reliability, size, and cost of these devices that continue to grow in dominance of the semiconductor market as the IoT revolution continues.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.