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As the CMOS semiconductor technology enters nanometer regime, interconnect processes must be compatible with device roadmaps and meet manufacturing targets at the specified wafer size. The resulting ubiquitous process variations cause errors in data delivering through interconnects. This paper proposes an Information Theory based design method to accommodate process variations. Different from the traditional delay based design metric, the current approach uses achievable rate to relate interconnect designs directly to communication applications. More specifically, the data communication over a typical interconnect, a bus, subject to process variations (uncertain bus), is defined as a communication problem under uncertainty. A data rate, called the achievable rate, is computed for such a bus, which represents the lower bound on the maximal data rate attainable over the bus. When a data rate applied over the bus is smaller than the achievable data rate, a reliable communication can be guaranteed regardless of process variations, i.e., a bit error rate arbitrarily close to zero is achievable. A single communication strategy to combat the process variations is proposed whose code rate is equal to the computed achievable rate. The simulations show that the variations in the interconnect resistivity could have the most harmful effect regarding the achievable rate reduction. Also, the simulations illustrate the importance of taking into account bus parasitic parameters correlations when measuring the influence of the process variations on the achievable rates. © 2006 IEEE. 19 3 397 410

Uncertainty is an intrinsic phenomenon in control of gene regulatory networks (GRNs). The presence of uncertainty is related to impreciseness of GRN models due to: (1) Errors caused by imperfection of measurement devices and (2) Models' inability to fully capture a complex structure of the GRN. Consequently, there is a discrepancy between actual behaviour of the GRN and what is predicted by its mathematical model. This can result in false control signals, which can drive a cell to an undesirable state. To address the problem of control under uncertainties, a risk-sensitive control paradigm is proposed. Robustness is accomplished by minimisation of the mean exponential cost as opposed to, for instance, minimisation of the mean square cost by risk-neutral controllers. The authors derive an optimal risk-sensitive controller when a GRN is modelled by a context-sensitive probabilistic Boolean network (CSPBN). By using a relation between the relative entropy and free-energy, a relative stability of the cost achieved by the risk-sensitive controller is demonstrated when the distribution of the CSPBN attractors is perturbed, as opposed to the cost of the risk-neutral controller that exhibits increase. The use of the relation between the relative entropy and free-energy to analyse the influence of a particular attractor on the robustness of the controller is studied. The efficiency of the risk-sensitive controller is tested for the CSPBN obtained from the study of malignant melanoma. © The Institution of Engineering and Technology. 3 4 279 295