David Carroll Challener

Autonomic personal computing

Autonomic personal computing is personal computing on autonomic computing platforms. Its goals combine those of personal computing with those of autonomic computing. The challenge of personal autonomic computing is to simplify and enhance the end-user experience, delighting the user by anticipating his or her needs in the face of a complex, dynamic, and uncertain environment. In this paper we identify the key technologies that enable autonomic behavior as distinguished from fault-tolerant behavior. We give some examples of current autonomic behavior and some general considerations for an architecture that supports autonomic personal computing. We identify its challenges to standards and technology developers and conclude with some guidance for future work.

Kinetic study of electromigration failure in Cr/Al-Cu thin film conductors covered with polyimide and the problem of the stress dependent activation energy

The electromigration lifetime of Cr/Al-Cu conductors covered with polyimide passivation was studied as a function of temperature and current density. The activation energy for failure was found to be substantially higher than that found in studies of similar metals without polyimide. A current exponent of 2 was determined in the absence of temperature gradient failure. An improved method for calculating the activation energy for temperature gradient failure is described. The problem of the apparent stress-dependent activation energies is discussed. >