Partners

3. Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen (GE)

RWTH Aachen University, established in 1870, is divided into 9 faculties. Special fields of research, 20 graduate colleges, among them 9 founded by the German Research Foundation, 16 affiliated institutes with strong industrial alignment illustrate the university’s considerable research potential. RWTH Aachen will participate in the project with the Institute “Werkstoffe der Elektrotechnik 2” (IWE 2) of the faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (www.emrl.de). The fields of activities are focused on the process technology and the basic physical-chemical understanding (including simulation) of functional oxide thin films with respect to future integrated nanoelectronic devices, especially redox-based resistive switching memories. In this area the group has published more than 70 papers (with > 3000 citations) and is one of the world leading groups on this topic. 

4. Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (FR)

Established in 1967, INRIA is the only French public research body fully dedicated to computational sciences. It is a national operator in research in digital sciences and is a primary contact point for the French Government on digital matters. Under its founding decree as a public science and technology institution, jointly supervised by the French ministries for research and industry, INRIA's missions are to produce outstanding research in the computing and mathematical fields of digital sciences and to ensure the impact of this research on the economy and society in particular. The INRIA PARKAS group will participate in this collaboration. It is a joint team of INRIA and École Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Paris. It has has experience in parallel programming languages  and compiler intermediate representations, automatic parallelisation, data-flow and synchronous languages, optimizing compilation, and applications to the design of high-performance and embedded computing  systems. Researchers in the PARKAS group have been leading research and industry transfer in the area of programming languages and polyhedral compilation for hardware accelerators.

5. IBM Research GmbH (CH)

IBM Research - Zurich is one IBM’s 12 research centres around the globe. The Zurich laboratory was established in 1956. Cutting-edge research and outstanding scientific achievements - most notably two Nobel Prizes - are associated with this lab. The spectrum of research activities range from exploratory research in nanoscience and - technology for future computing, to cloud and computing infrastructure, security and privacy, computational sciences, data analytics and cognitive computing. The Binnig and Rohrer Nanotechnology Center (BRNC) and its state-of-the-art exploratory cleanroom fabrication facility is located in IBM premises. Experienced technical staff provide support for work performed in cleanrooms, for the use of large equipment, and for the fabrication processes. A highly qualified and experienced electronics services team and a model shop are also available. There is also an extensive range of metrology and analytical tools such as atomic force microscopes, SEM, TEM, XPS.

6. Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (CH)

The Federal Institute of Technology Switzerland (ETH Zurich) is a science and technology university with an outstanding research record. ETH Zurich is the study, research and work place of 18,000 people from 80 nations. The Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (D-ITET) includes a dozen of research laboratories (institutes) with activities in the broad area of electrical engineering, ranging from integrated circuits to computer networks, from wireless communications to signal processing, and from control theory to power electronics. The faculty of D-ITET consists of about 30 professors that supervise over 300 PhD students.  The Integrated Systems Lab (IIS) in D-ITET focuses on integrated circuits covering a wide range of topics from device physics to embedded systems.  The IIS brings to the project in-depth knowledge of computing platforms, digital design and tools for architectural analysis and exploration, as well as significant experience in chip design, manufacturing and testing (more than 30 ICs manufactured and tested only in the last 3 years. 

7. ARM Limited (GBR)

ARM Ltd is a world-renowned semiconductor Intellectual Property (IP) company with around 3000 employees. It is a European company headquartered in Cambridge (UK), so the majority of engineering R&D is located in Europe. The most visible ARM product is the 32-bit RISC processor family, which is the architecture of choice for more than 80% high-performance embedded products and more than 90% mobile phones. It has around 25 years of experience in designing processor, system and software IP. ARM has pioneered the concept of openly licensable IP for the development of microprocessor-based SoCs in the early 1990s, changing the dynamics of the semiconductor industry forever. By licensing, rather than manufacturing and selling its chip technology, ARM established a new business model. Namely, ARM licenses its IP (e.g. single and multi-core CPUs, AMBA coherent buses, cache, DMA and memory controllers) to a set of partners that use them to create and manufacture microprocessors, peripherals and SoC solutions. Today, there are more than 1000 partners in the ARM eco-system which play a pivotal role in the widespread adoption of the ARM architecture.

8. University of Leeds (GBR)

The University of Leeds is acclaimed world-wide for the quality of its teaching and research, and continues to be ranked within the top 100 universities in the QS world rankings.  Leeds is one of the largest universities in the UK. The University of Leeds has a strong communication research group within the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering. The field of communication networks and systems is one of the strategic research areas. The research in this field has driven a number of advances in communication networks and systems and has attracted major funds (over £10m) from EPSRC, EU and industry. Within this collaboration, the University of Leeds will contribute to the design of the communication infrastructure of the memristor arrays as well the CMOS logic crossbar. In particular the wealth of expertise available at Leeds University in the field of communication networks and systems will help in the understanding of the MEMCOMP communication infrastructure requirements. The research focus will be on the design of practical and scalable interconnect topologies for efficient memristor operations. Other research forcus will be on routing, resource allocation and flow control protocols to ensure reliable and optimal communication.

9. Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (IL)

The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) is a public research university that offers degrees in science and engineering. The Technion is the lead technology institute in Israel, where more than 40% of the managers in the Israeli hi-tech industry are Technion graduate.

The research will be done in the Technion Computer Engineering Center (TCE), which is a joint research and education center of the departments of computer science and electrical engineering. The departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science have notable researchers in various relevant fields, including device physics, integrated circuits, VLSI, computer architecture, machine learning, and computer systems. The TCE has collaborations with industry and offers different joint programs for industry-academia joint research. Many of the graduate students of the center also work in industry or have industry experience in the relevant fields of research.

10. Leiden University (NL)

Leiden University is the oldest university in the Netherlands. The university was founded in 1575 by Prince William of Orange. Leiden University has six faculties, over 50 departments and enjoys an outstanding international reputation. In 2013 Leiden was the highest ranked university in the Netherlands in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, where it was rated as the 64th best university worldwide and 61st for international reputation. The Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL), participating in this project, is an internationally oriented institute for research and education in biology. It constitutes a part of the Faculty of Science at Leiden University. The aim of the institute is to perform top quality innovative fundamental and strategic research that will lead to scientific progress, contribute to solutions for societal challenges, and generate industrial opportunities.

11. IMEC (BE)

IMEC performs world-leading research in nano-electronics and nano-technology in global partnerships in ICT, healthcare and energy in order to deliver industry relevant solutions. With its staff of more than 2000 people including industrial residents and guest researchers, IMEC focuses on those domains where it sees a growth potential and where it can differentiate itself from other research institutes.  A cornerstone of IMEC‟s strategy is to create innovative leverages between its research domains, optimally using its extensive infrastructure and expertise. IMEC works on the following research domains: Technology for future chips and systems, Energy, Electronics for healthcare and life sciences, Sustainable wireless communication, Imaging and future 3D visualization, Sensor systems for industrial applications.  A selection of competences of IMEC's research groups are gathered and steered by a number of strategic programs, fuelling a wider range of technology programs. The leading one among those is CMOS  technology for future chips and systems. It covers Lithography, Logic Devices, Memory Devices, Interconnect, Optical I/O, 3D System Integration.  At its campus in Leuven (Belgium), IMEC has world-class research facilities. IMEC’s 200mm and 300mm cleanrooms run a semi-industrial operation, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year round. In the 300mm cleanroom, IMEC performs research and development on process technology for memory and logic ICs – focusing on sub-10 nm technologies nodes. This cleanroom has a 450mm-extension in which the first 450mm tools have been installed in 2012.