General information
Organisation
The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) is a key player in research, development and innovation in four main areas :
• defence and security,
• nuclear energy (fission and fusion),
• technological research for industry,
• fundamental research in the physical sciences and life sciences.
Drawing on its widely acknowledged expertise, and thanks to its 16000 technicians, engineers, researchers and staff, the CEA actively participates in collaborative projects with a large number of academic and industrial partners.
The CEA is established in ten centers spread throughout France
Reference
SL-DRT-25-0611
Direction
DRT
Thesis topic details
Category
Technological challenges
Thesis topics
Scalable NoC-based Programmable Cluster Architecture for future AI applications
Contract
Thèse
Job description
Context
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a major field impacting various sectors, including healthcare, automotive, robotics, and more. Hardware architectures must now meet increasingly demanding requirements in terms of computational power, low latency, and flexibility. Network-on-Chip (NoC) technology is a key enabler in addressing these challenges, providing efficient and scalable interconnections within multiprocessor systems. However, despite its benefits, designing NoCs poses significant challenges, particularly in optimizing latency, energy consumption, and scalability.
Programmable cluster architectures hold great promise for AI as they enable resource adaptation to meet the specific needs of deep learning algorithms and other compute-intensive AI applications. By combining the modularity of clusters with the advantages of NoCs, it becomes possible to design systems capable of handling ever-increasing AI workloads while ensuring maximum energy efficiency and flexibility.
Summary of the Thesis Topic
This PhD project aims to design a scalable, programmable cluster architecture based on a Network-on-Chip tailored for future AI applications. The primary objective will be to design and optimize a NoC architecture capable of meeting the high demands of AI applications in terms of intensive computing and efficient data transfer between processing clusters.
The research will focus on the following key areas:
1. NoC Architecture Design: Developing a scalable and programmable NoC to effectively connect various AI processing clusters.
2. Performance and Energy Efficiency Optimization: Defining mechanisms to optimize system latency and energy consumption based on the nature of AI workloads.
3. Cluster Flexibility and Programmability: Proposing a modular and programmable architecture that dynamically allocates resources based on the specific needs of each AI application.
4. Experimental Evaluation: Implementing and testing prototypes of the proposed architecture to validate its performance on real-world use cases, such as image classification, object detection, and real-time data processing.
The outcomes of this research may contribute to the development of cutting-edge embedded systems and AI solutions optimized for the next generation of AI applications and algorithms.
The work performed during this thesis will be presented at international conferences and scientific journals. Certain results may be patented.
University / doctoral school
Mathématiques et Sciences et Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication
Bretagne-Sud
Thesis topic location
Site
Saclay
Requester
Position start date
01/10/2025
Person to be contacted by the applicant
KRICHENE Hana
hana.krichene@cea.fr
CEA
DRT/DSCIN/DSCIN/LECA
CEA-Saclay
DRT/LIST/DSCIN/LECA/
+33 1 69 08 36 37
Tutor / Responsible thesis director
COUSSY Philippe
philippe.coussy@univ-ubs.fr
Universite de Bretagne sud
Lab-Sticc
Université de Bretagne-Sud
Centre de recherche, BP 92116
56321 Lorient cedex, France
0297874565
En savoir plus
http://www-list.cea.fr/index.php/