Two professors and two students from The University of Texas at Dallas’ (UTD) Electrical Engineering Department won a “Best Paper” award at the 22nd International Conference on Computer Design (ICCD), held recently in San Jose, California. The paper outlines the design of a cheaper version of a very fast and, until now, very expensive, computer memory chip.
Authors of the paper include Mohammad J. Akhbarizadeh, a Ph.D. degree candidate; Mehrdad Nourani, associate professor; Deepak S. Vijayasarathi, a master’s degree student; and Poras T. Balsara, professor.
The paper, which won top honors in the “Logic and Circuits” category, introduced an innovative design for a “Ternary Content-Addressable Memory” (TCAM), a speedy circuit used in a variety of computer applications, including Internet search engines and other data-processing devices. The UTD TCAM design uses at least 20 percent fewer transistors, resulting in significant cost-savings over existing memory chips, while maintaining equal functionality. Work on the UTD design was carried out at the Center for Integrated Circuits and Systems, a research center in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science.
Sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, ICCD is the premiere conference focusing on the research, design and implementation of computer systems and their components.
Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, Princeton University, Purdue University and Intel Labs in Barcelona, Spain, received Best Paper awards in other categories at the conference.