Physical Unclonable function (PUF) [31] is a security scheme that uses
variations in a chip as its secrete key. Delay based PUFs use delay variations
in the ICs to construct a function in the chips such that the output of the
function depends on the variations. Thus, for the same input, the output of
the function varies across the different chips. This unique and unclonable
function in each IC can be used as the secrete key.
5. Identifying hot spots: Various sections of an IC dispatch different power
levels. Hot spot are the sections that dispatch more power and become
hot sooner than other sections of the IC. Process variation also affects the
hot spots on the IC. Using proposed variations estimation method, one can
determine hot spots of a specific IC in presence of variations. Thus, these
hot spots can be specifically controlled or cooled down to avoid possible
damages.
6. Workload scheduling: Maximum frequency of the various parts of the IC is
a function of the design and variations. Knowing variation in an IC helps
us to find the true power consumption and speed of the different parts of
the IC. Thus, one can develop softwares that consider process variations
and uses all the resources of the IC optimally.
An example of such a software is proposed for workload management of
cache memories by Meng and Joseph [53]. They show that inter-die and
intra-die variations can dramatically affect leakage current of the ways in
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