Title: Low power 8051-MISA-based remote execution unit architecture for IoT and RFID applications

Authors: Vyasa Sai; Marlin H. Mickle

Addresses: RFID Center of Excellence, Swanson School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15261, USA ' RFID Center of Excellence, Swanson School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15261, USA

Abstract: Using the existing microcontrollers in radio frequency identification (RFID)-based passive nodes requires too much power. There is a need to explore specific instruction sets of such microcontrollers based on target applications for low power. In this context, this paper describes a low-power wireless distributed single instruction multiple data (SIMD) architecture concept. This concept involves having the data and program instructions stored on a powered interrogator providing wireless supervisory control for the passive node that has a basic processing core called the remote execution unit (REU). This paper also proposes a novel REU architecture using a minimal instruction set architecture (MISA) based on 8051 µC with the goal of reducing power consumption of a wireless passive node. Post-layout simulation results indicate significant reduction in power consumption and the area occupied by REU when compared to an existing 8051 core design. This low-power programmable REU architecture targets internet of things (IoT) and passive RFID applications.

Keywords: low power SIMD; wireless SIMD; single instruction multiple data; architecture design; passive nodes; remote execution unit; REU; RFID; radio frequency identification; 8051; internet of things; IoT; microcontrollers; supervisory control; minimal instruction set architecture; MISA; power consumption; energy consumption; simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAD.2013.057459

International Journal of Circuits and Architecture Design, 2013 Vol.1 No.1, pp.4 - 19

Received: 24 Jan 2013
Accepted: 09 Jul 2013
Published online: 05 Jul 2014 *