Dr. Adam Teman Develops Embedded Memories for Sophisticated Chips

Teman, 43, married+2, is primarily engaged in embedded memories. “There are different kinds of chips on which you assemble transistors and use them to create computing units for various uses: camera chips that receive light and turn it into images are built differently than chips for a program that calculates pi to the final digit. Every chip is manufactured differently, depending on its intended use, and nearly each and every one of these uses requires memory. There are of course chips dedicated to memory, like the ones in charge of our computers’ main memory – but there are also extremely fast memories that have to be located as close to the processing units as possible, and therefore cannot be on placed a separate chip. Embedded memories, my field of study, are embedded in the same chip as the processing unit. Over the past several years I’ve been developing efficient embedded memories, and studying how to make them smaller, faster, less energy-consuming, radiation-resistant, etc.”

Over the past two years, Teman has been conducting research as part of HiPer Consortium, a magnet project of the Innovation Authority, and successfully created the smallest embedded memory, demonstrated in 16-nanometer technology. “16-nanometer is a manufacturing process that utilizes FinFET technology. It’s a new type of transistor, smaller and updated, designed for advanced technologies,” explains Teman. “We built a very complex 16-nanometer chip at HiPer. Beyond developing that chip’s embedded memory, I was also a member of the overall chip management team. Developing it is considered one of the most complex projects in chip technology ever done in academia, anywhere in the world. It was done at EnICS Labs, a university impact center made possible through a close collaboration between five members of the Faculty of Engineering, me being one of them. The chip is an astounding success for HiPer and the Innovation Authority in general.”

Since late 2018, Teman has been also involved in another consortium called GenPro, seeking to create a white-and-blue processor and an infrastructure for chips based on it. “Again, EnIX labs are a major player in this project, and I’m in charge of the academic end of developing the processor, called Hamsa, and the platform, called PulpEnIX,” says Teman. “During the first stage of the consortium we developed the initial version of the processor and platform, and deployed them to the industry and academia in Israel. The processor is based on RISC-V architecture and includes several innovative technologies that provide improved performance. PulpEnIX’s infrastructure is compatible with RISC-V and can be attached to innovative accelerators and used to build advanced SoCs. My research team is developing a variety of technologies that would be implemented in this platform and uploaded onto the test chip, which is currently being realized.”

Overall, this seems to be a good period in Teman’s academic life. He was recently named Excelling Lecturer at Bar Ilan University for 2019. “This is my first time being nominated, because you are only eligible after three years of teaching, and only once every three years,” Teman elaborates, “a special university committee selects the winners every year, and I was picked for the innovation I bring to the classroom – recorded lectures, Kahoot! quizzes, incorporating technology news and more. I’ve been doing it for quite some time, even before we got into the routine of remote learning. This prize is given to about 1% of the lecturers at the university, so it’s truly an honor.”