???aural:Bildanfang???Computers in space satellites can do their own repairs with the aid of fault recorders. © Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)???aural:Bildende???

To stay in working order, complex electronic systems such as aircraft on-board computers or space satellite computers have to respond autonomously to disturbances and changes in the environment. Now successfully completed, the research project “Autonomous Integrated Systems” (AIS) has demonstrated how an operating system can independently spot errors in data transmission and find better transmission paths. Applications can be transferred to reliable modules with AIS should one module fail. These results suggest that autonomous electronic systems could become reality in just a few years’ time. Researchers from six universities in Brunswick, Erlangen-Nuremberg, Kaiserslautern, Munich, Paderborn and Tübingen were involved in the three-year project.

They combined different processes to develop sensors that can recognise design or manufacturing errors in a chip and document them in fault recorders. Other processes in the chip access these recorders and independently initiate repair measures. Together with a consortium of industrial firms, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the EDA (Electronic Design Automation) Cluster research ventures, one of which is the AIS. Federal Research Minister Prof. Dr. Annette Schavan said: “This is an example of successful links being forged between science and industry to strengthen Germany’s role as an innovator. Besides enabling practically relevant training in higher education together with clearly focused support for young engineers and scientists, close cooperation with industry ensures the rapid transfer
of results to new products.”

Contact: Federal Ministry of Education and Research presse@bmbf.bund.de

More information: www.edacentrum.de/clusterforschung