Fuel cell hardware-in-loop

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Moore, R.M.; Randolf, G.; Virji, M. [University of Hawaii, Hawaii Natural Energy Institute (United States); Hauer, K.H. [Xcellvision (Germany)

2006-11-08

Hardware-in-loop (HiL) methodology is well established in the automotive industry. One typical application is the development and validation of control algorithms for drive systems by simulating the vehicle plus the vehicle environment in combination with specific control hardware as the HiL component. This paper introduces the use of a fuel cell HiL methodology for fuel cell and fuel cell system design and evaluation-where the fuel cell (or stack) is the unique HiL component that requires evaluation and development within the context of a fuel cell system designed for a specific application (e.g., a fuel cell vehicle) in a typical use pattern (e.g., a standard drive cycle). Initial experimental results are presented for the example of a fuel cell within a fuel cell vehicle simulation under a dynamic drive cycle. (author)

Growth in spaceflight hardware results in alterations to the transcriptome and proteome

Science.gov (United States)

Basu, Proma; Kruse, Colin P. S.; Luesse, Darron R.; Wyatt, Sarah E.

2017-11-01

The Biological Research in Canisters (BRIC) hardware has been used to house many biology experiments on both the Space Transport System (STS, commonly known as the space shuttle) and the International Space Station (ISS). However, microscopic examination of Arabidopsis seedlings by Johnson et al. (2015) indicated the hardware itself may affect cell morphology. The experiment herein was designed to assess the effects of the BRIC-Petri Dish Fixation Units (BRIC-PDFU) hardware on the transcriptome and proteome of Arabidopsis seedlings. To our knowledge, this is the first transcriptomic and proteomic comparison of Arabidopsis seedlings grown with and without hardware. Arabidopsis thaliana wild-type Columbia (Col-0) seeds were sterilized and bulk plated on forty-four 60 mm Petri plates, of which 22 were integrated into the BRIC-PDFU hardware and 22 were maintained in closed containers at Ohio University. Seedlings were grown for approximately 3 days, fixed with RNAlater® and stored at -80 °C prior to RNA and protein extraction, with proteins separated into membrane and soluble fractions prior to analysis. The RNAseq analysis identified 1651 differentially expressed genes; MS/MS analysis identified 598 soluble and 589 membrane proteins differentially abundant both at p < .05. Fold enrichment analysis of gene ontology terms related to differentially expressed transcripts and proteins highlighted a variety of stress responses. Some of these genes and proteins have been previously identified in spaceflight experiments, indicating that these genes and proteins may be perturbed by both conditions.

Introduction to Hardware Security

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yier Jin

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Hardware security has become a hot topic recently with more and more researchers from related research domains joining this area. However, the understanding of hardware security is often mixed with cybersecurity and cryptography, especially cryptographic hardware. For the same reason, the research scope of hardware security has never been clearly defined. To help researchers who have recently joined in this area better understand the challenges and tasks within the hardware security domain and to help both academia and industry investigate countermeasures and solutions to solve hardware security problems, we will introduce the key concepts of hardware security as well as its relations to related research topics in this survey paper. Emerging hardware security topics will also be clearly depicted through which the future trend will be elaborated, making this survey paper a good reference for the continuing research efforts in this area.

Modular Neural Tile Architecture for Compact Embedded Hardware Spiking Neural Network

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pande, Sandeep; Morgan, Fearghal; Cawley, Seamus; Bruintjes, Tom; Smit, Gerardus Johannes Maria; McGinley, Brian; Carrillo, Snaider; Harkin, Jim; McDaid, Liam

2013-01-01

Biologically-inspired packet switched network on chip (NoC) based hardware spiking neural network (SNN) architectures have been proposed as an embedded computing platform for classification, estimation and control applications. Storage of large synaptic connectivity (SNN topology) information in

FY1995 evolvable hardware chip; 1995 nendo shinkasuru hardware chip

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1997-03-01

This project aims at the development of 'Evolvable Hardware' (EHW) which can adapt its hardware structure to the environment to attain better hardware performance, under the control of genetic algorithms. EHW is a key technology to explore the new application area requiring real-time performance and on-line adaptation. 1. Development of EHW-LSI for function level hardware evolution, which includes 15 DSPs in one chip. 2. Application of the EHW to the practical industrial applications such as data compression, ATM control, digital mobile communication. 3. Two patents : (1) the architecture and the processing method for programmable EHW-LSI. (2) The method of data compression for loss-less data, using EHW. 4. The first international conference for evolvable hardware was held by authors: Intl. Conf. on Evolvable Systems (ICES96). It was determined at ICES96 that ICES will be held every two years between Japan and Europe. So the new society has been established by us. (NEDO)

FY1995 evolvable hardware chip; 1995 nendo shinkasuru hardware chip

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1997-03-01

This project aims at the development of 'Evolvable Hardware' (EHW) which can adapt its hardware structure to the environment to attain better hardware performance, under the control of genetic algorithms. EHW is a key technology to explore the new application area requiring real-time performance and on-line adaptation. 1. Development of EHW-LSI for function level hardware evolution, which includes 15 DSPs in one chip. 2. Application of the EHW to the practical industrial applications such as data compression, ATM control, digital mobile communication. 3. Two patents : (1) the architecture and the processing method for programmable EHW-LSI. (2) The method of data compression for loss-less data, using EHW. 4. The first international conference for evolvable hardware was held by authors: Intl. Conf. on Evolvable Systems (ICES96). It was determined at ICES96 that ICES will be held every two years between Japan and Europe. So the new society has been established by us. (NEDO)

Hardware Development Process for Human Research Facility Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Bauer, Liz

2000-01-01

The simple goal of the Human Research Facility (HRF) is to conduct human research experiments on the International Space Station (ISS) astronauts during long-duration missions. This is accomplished by providing integration and operation of the necessary hardware and software capabilities. A typical hardware development flow consists of five stages: functional inputs and requirements definition, market research, design life cycle through hardware delivery, crew training, and mission support. The purpose of this presentation is to guide the audience through the early hardware development process: requirement definition through selecting a development path. Specific HRF equipment is used to illustrate the hardware development paths. The source of hardware requirements is the science community and HRF program. The HRF Science Working Group, consisting of SCientists from various medical disciplines, defined a basic set of equipment with functional requirements. This established the performance requirements of the hardware. HRF program requirements focus on making the hardware safe and operational in a space environment. This includes structural, thermal, human factors, and material requirements. Science and HRF program requirements are defined in a hardware requirements document which includes verification methods. Once the hardware is fabricated, requirements are verified by inspection, test, analysis, or demonstration. All data is compiled and reviewed to certify the hardware for flight. Obviously, the basis for all hardware development activities is requirement definition. Full and complete requirement definition is ideal prior to initiating the hardware development. However, this is generally not the case, but the hardware team typically has functional inputs as a guide. The first step is for engineers to conduct market research based on the functional inputs provided by scientists. CommerCially available products are evaluated against the science requirements as

Compiling quantum circuits to realistic hardware architectures using temporal planners

Science.gov (United States)

Venturelli, Davide; Do, Minh; Rieffel, Eleanor; Frank, Jeremy

2018-04-01

To run quantum algorithms on emerging gate-model quantum hardware, quantum circuits must be compiled to take into account constraints on the hardware. For near-term hardware, with only limited means to mitigate decoherence, it is critical to minimize the duration of the circuit. We investigate the application of temporal planners to the problem of compiling quantum circuits to newly emerging quantum hardware. While our approach is general, we focus on compiling to superconducting hardware architectures with nearest neighbor constraints. Our initial experiments focus on compiling Quantum Alternating Operator Ansatz (QAOA) circuits whose high number of commuting gates allow great flexibility in the order in which the gates can be applied. That freedom makes it more challenging to find optimal compilations but also means there is a greater potential win from more optimized compilation than for less flexible circuits. We map this quantum circuit compilation problem to a temporal planning problem, and generated a test suite of compilation problems for QAOA circuits of various sizes to a realistic hardware architecture. We report compilation results from several state-of-the-art temporal planners on this test set. This early empirical evaluation demonstrates that temporal planning is a viable approach to quantum circuit compilation.

Brain inspired hardware architectures - Can they be used for particle physics ?

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2016-01-01

After their inception in the 1940s and several decades of moderate success, artificial neural networks have recently demonstrated impressive achievements in analysing big data volumes. Wide and deep network architectures can now be trained using high performance computing systems, graphics card clusters in particular. Despite their successes these state-of-the-art approaches suffer from very long training times and huge energy consumption, in particular during the training phase. The biological brain can perform similar and superior classification tasks in the space and time domains, but at the same time exhibits very low power consumption, rapid unsupervised learning capabilities and fault tolerance. In the talk the differences between classical neural networks and neural circuits in the brain will be presented. Recent hardware implementations of neuromorphic computing systems and their applications will be shown. Finally, some initial ideas to use accelerated neural architectures as trigger processors i...

Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients after Initiation of a New Biologic Agent

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Courvoisier, D. S.; Alpizar-Rodriguez, D.; Gottenberg, Jacques-Eric

2016-01-01

BACKGROUND: Response to disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is often heterogeneous. We aimed to identify types of disease activity trajectories following the initiation of a new biologic DMARD (bDMARD). METHODS: Pooled analysis of nine national registries...

Hardware description languages

Science.gov (United States)

Tucker, Jerry H.

1994-01-01

Hardware description languages are special purpose programming languages. They are primarily used to specify the behavior of digital systems and are rapidly replacing traditional digital system design techniques. This is because they allow the designer to concentrate on how the system should operate rather than on implementation details. Hardware description languages allow a digital system to be described with a wide range of abstraction, and they support top down design techniques. A key feature of any hardware description language environment is its ability to simulate the modeled system. The two most important hardware description languages are Verilog and VHDL. Verilog has been the dominant language for the design of application specific integrated circuits (ASIC's). However, VHDL is rapidly gaining in popularity.

Efficient Architecture for Spike Sorting in Reconfigurable Hardware

Science.gov (United States)

Hwang, Wen-Jyi; Lee, Wei-Hao; Lin, Shiow-Jyu; Lai, Sheng-Ying

2013-01-01

This paper presents a novel hardware architecture for fast spike sorting. The architecture is able to perform both the feature extraction and clustering in hardware. The generalized Hebbian algorithm (GHA) and fuzzy C-means (FCM) algorithm are used for feature extraction and clustering, respectively. The employment of GHA allows efficient computation of principal components for subsequent clustering operations. The FCM is able to achieve near optimal clustering for spike sorting. Its performance is insensitive to the selection of initial cluster centers. The hardware implementations of GHA and FCM feature low area costs and high throughput. In the GHA architecture, the computation of different weight vectors share the same circuit for lowering the area costs. Moreover, in the FCM hardware implementation, the usual iterative operations for updating the membership matrix and cluster centroid are merged into one single updating process to evade the large storage requirement. To show the effectiveness of the circuit, the proposed architecture is physically implemented by field programmable gate array (FPGA). It is embedded in a System-on-Chip (SOC) platform for performance measurement. Experimental results show that the proposed architecture is an efficient spike sorting design for attaining high classification correct rate and high speed computation. PMID:24189331

Efficient Architecture for Spike Sorting in Reconfigurable Hardware

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sheng-Ying Lai

2013-11-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a novel hardware architecture for fast spike sorting. The architecture is able to perform both the feature extraction and clustering in hardware. The generalized Hebbian algorithm (GHA and fuzzy C-means (FCM algorithm are used for feature extraction and clustering, respectively. The employment of GHA allows efficient computation of principal components for subsequent clustering operations. The FCM is able to achieve near optimal clustering for spike sorting. Its performance is insensitive to the selection of initial cluster centers. The hardware implementations of GHA and FCM feature low area costs and high throughput. In the GHA architecture, the computation of different weight vectors share the same circuit for lowering the area costs. Moreover, in the FCM hardware implementation, the usual iterative operations for updating the membership matrix and cluster centroid are merged into one single updating process to evade the large storage requirement. To show the effectiveness of the circuit, the proposed architecture is physically implemented by field programmable gate array (FPGA. It is embedded in a System-on-Chip (SOC platform for performance measurement. Experimental results show that the proposed architecture is an efficient spike sorting design for attaining high classification correct rate and high speed computation.

The effect of initial density and parasitoid intergenerational survival rate on classical biological control

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xiao Yanni; Tang Sanyi

2008-01-01

Models of biological control have a long history of theoretical development that have focused on the interaction of a parasitoid and its host. The host-parasitoid systems have identified several important and general factors affecting the long-term dynamics of interacting populations. However, much less is known about how the initial densities of host-parasitoid populations affect the biological control as well as the stability of host-parasitoid systems. To do this, the classical Nicholson-Bailey model with host self-regulation and parasitoid intergenerational survival rate is used to uncover the effect of initial densities on the successful biological control. The results indicate that the simplest Nicholson-Bailey model has various coexistence with a wide range of parameters, including boundary attractors where the parasitoid population is absent and interior attractors where host-parasitoid coexists. The final stable states of host-parasitoid populations depend on their initial densities as well as their ratios, and those results are confirmed by basins of attraction of initial densities. The results also indicate that the parasitoid intergenerational survival rate increases the stability of the host-parasitoid systems. Therefore, the present research can help us to further understand the dynamical behavior of host-parasitoid interactions, to improve the classical biological control and to make management decisions

Neutron Imaging for Selective Laser Melting Inconel Hardware with Internal Passages

Science.gov (United States)

Tramel, Terri L.; Norwood, Joseph K.; Bilheux, Hassina

2014-01-01

Additive Manufacturing is showing great promise for the development of new innovative designs and large potential life cycle cost reduction for the Aerospace Industry. However, more development work is required to move this technology into space flight hardware production. With selective laser melting (SLM), hardware that once consisted of multiple, carefully machined and inspected pieces, joined together can be made in one part. However standard inspection techniques cannot be used to verify that the internal passages are within dimensional tolerances or surface finish requirements. NASA/MSFC traveled to Oak Ridge National Lab's (ORNL) Spallation Neutron Source to perform some non-destructive, proof of concept imaging measurements to assess the capabilities to understand internal dimensional tolerances and internal passages surface roughness. This presentation will describe 1) the goals of this proof of concept testing, 2) the lessons learned when designing and building these Inconel 718 test specimens to minimize beam time, 3) the neutron imaging test setup and test procedure to get the images, 4) the initial results in images, volume and a video, 4) the assessment of using this imaging technique to gather real data for designing internal flow passages in SLM manufacturing aerospace hardware, and lastly 5) how proper cleaning of the internal passages is critically important. In summary, the initial results are very promising and continued development of a technique to assist in SLM development for aerospace components is desired by both NASA and ORNL. A plan forward that benefits both ORNL and NASA will also be presented, based on the promising initial results. The initial images and volume reconstruction showed that clean, clear images of the internal passages geometry are obtainable. These clear images of the internal passages of simple geometries will be compared to the build model to determine any differences. One surprising result was that a new cleaning

Foundations of hardware IP protection

CERN Document Server

Torres, Lionel

2017-01-01

This book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date guide to the design of security-hardened, hardware intellectual property (IP). Readers will learn how IP can be threatened, as well as protected, by using means such as hardware obfuscation/camouflaging, watermarking, fingerprinting (PUF), functional locking, remote activation, hidden transmission of data, hardware Trojan detection, protection against hardware Trojan, use of secure element, ultra-lightweight cryptography, and digital rights management. This book serves as a single-source reference to design space exploration of hardware security and IP protection. · Provides readers with a comprehensive overview of hardware intellectual property (IP) security, describing threat models and presenting means of protection, from integrated circuit layout to digital rights management of IP; · Enables readers to transpose techniques fundamental to digital rights management (DRM) to the realm of hardware IP security; · Introduce designers to the concept of salutar...

Peculiarities of hardware implementation of generalized cellular tetra automaton

OpenAIRE

Аноприенко, Александр Яковлевич; Федоров, Евгений Евгениевич; Иваница, Сергей Васильевич; Альрабаба, Хамза

2015-01-01

Cellular automata are widely used in many fields of knowledge for the study of variety of complex real processes: computer engineering and computer science, cryptography, mathematics, physics, chemistry, ecology, biology, medicine, epidemiology, geology, architecture, sociology, theory of neural networks. Thus, cellular automata (CA) and tetra automata are gaining relevance taking into account the hardware and software solutions.Also it is marked a trend towards an increase in the number of p...

eDNA: A Bio-Inspired Reconfigurable Hardware Cell Architecture Supporting Self-organisation and Self-healing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Boesen, Michael Reibel; Madsen, Jan

2009-01-01

This paper presents the concept of a biological inspired reconfigurable hardware cell architecture which supports self-organisation and self-healing. Two fundamental processes in biology, namely fertilization-to-birth and cell self-healing have inspired the development of this cell architecture...... to simulate our self-organisation and self-healing algorithms and the results obtained from this looks promising....

Repeat LISS treatment for femoral shaft fractures due to hardware failure: a retrospective analysis of eleven cases.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Xu; Xu, Xian; Liu, Lin; Shao, Qin; Wu, Wei

2013-10-01

To evaluate the effectiveness of a replating technique having a less-invasive stabilization system (LISS) for femoral shaft fractures due to LISS failure in adults. There were 11 patients with hardware failure of LISS for femoral shaft fractures, on an average of 50 days after the primary operation. The failed implants were removed, and the fractures were replated with a LISS following the rationale of biological osteosynthesis. Radiological fracture union and incidence of postoperative complications were employed to evaluate the effectiveness of this replating technique for femoral shaft fractures. Operative duration including removing failed hardware and replating fractures averaged 81.5 min, with an average blood loss of 330 ml. Patients had an average follow-up of 25.7 months. Radiological evaluation indicated that fracture union occurred in an average of 4.4 months in all patients. The length and alignment of the affected limb were satisfactory, and hardware failure did not recur. The replating technique with LISS for femoral shaft fractures due to hardware failure of LISS can obtain satisfactory results when the appropriate rationale of biological osteosynthesis and functional exercise is followed.

Open Hardware Business Models

OpenAIRE

Edy Ferreira

2008-01-01

In the September issue of the Open Source Business Resource, Patrick McNamara, president of the Open Hardware Foundation, gave a comprehensive introduction to the concept of open hardware, including some insights about the potential benefits for both companies and users. In this article, we present the topic from a different perspective, providing a classification of market offers from companies that are making money with open hardware.

Open Hardware Business Models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Edy Ferreira

2008-04-01

Full Text Available In the September issue of the Open Source Business Resource, Patrick McNamara, president of the Open Hardware Foundation, gave a comprehensive introduction to the concept of open hardware, including some insights about the potential benefits for both companies and users. In this article, we present the topic from a different perspective, providing a classification of market offers from companies that are making money with open hardware.

Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regional Centres of Excellence Initiative

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bril, L.V.

2013-01-01

This series of slides presents the initiative launched in May 2010 by the European Union to develop at national and regional levels the necessary institutional capacity to fight against the CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear) risk. The origin of the risk can be: -) criminal (proliferation, theft, sabotage and illicit traffics), -) accidental (industrial catastrophes, transport accidents...) and -) natural (mainly pandemics). The initiative consists in the creation of Centres of Excellence for providing assistance and cooperation in the field of CBRN risk and the creation of experts networks for sharing best practices, reviewing laws and regulation, developing technical capacities in order to mitigate the CBRN risk. The initiative is complementary to the instrument for nuclear safety cooperation. Regional Centres of Excellence are being set up in 6 regions: South East Europe, South East Asia, North Africa, West Africa, Middle East, and Central Asia covering nearly 40 countries. A global budget of 100 million Euros will be dedicated to this initiative for the 2009-2013 period. (A.C.)

Open Hardware at CERN

CERN Multimedia

CERN Knowledge Transfer Group

2015-01-01

CERN is actively making its knowledge and technology available for the benefit of society and does so through a variety of different mechanisms. Open hardware has in recent years established itself as a very effective way for CERN to make electronics designs and in particular printed circuit board layouts, accessible to anyone, while also facilitating collaboration and design re-use. It is creating an impact on many levels, from companies producing and selling products based on hardware designed at CERN, to new projects being released under the CERN Open Hardware Licence. Today the open hardware community includes large research institutes, universities, individual enthusiasts and companies. Many of the companies are actively involved in the entire process from design to production, delivering services and consultancy and even making their own products available under open licences.

Hardware protection through obfuscation

CERN Document Server

Bhunia, Swarup; Tehranipoor, Mark

2017-01-01

This book introduces readers to various threats faced during design and fabrication by today’s integrated circuits (ICs) and systems. The authors discuss key issues, including illegal manufacturing of ICs or “IC Overproduction,” insertion of malicious circuits, referred as “Hardware Trojans”, which cause in-field chip/system malfunction, and reverse engineering and piracy of hardware intellectual property (IP). The authors provide a timely discussion of these threats, along with techniques for IC protection based on hardware obfuscation, which makes reverse-engineering an IC design infeasible for adversaries and untrusted parties with any reasonable amount of resources. This exhaustive study includes a review of the hardware obfuscation methods developed at each level of abstraction (RTL, gate, and layout) for conventional IC manufacturing, new forms of obfuscation for emerging integration strategies (split manufacturing, 2.5D ICs, and 3D ICs), and on-chip infrastructure needed for secure exchange o...

Expert System analysis of non-fuel assembly hardware and spent fuel disassembly hardware: Its generation and recommended disposal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Williamson, D.A.

1991-01-01

Almost all of the effort being expended on radioactive waste disposal in the United States is being focused on the disposal of spent Nuclear Fuel, with little consideration for other areas that will have to be disposed of in the same facilities. one area of radioactive waste that has not been addressed adequately because it is considered a secondary part of the waste issue is the disposal of the various Non-Fuel Bearing Components of the reactor core. These hardware components fall somewhat arbitrarily into two categories: Non-Fuel Assembly (NFA) hardware and Spent Fuel Disassembly (SFD) hardware. This work provides a detailed examination of the generation and disposal of NFA hardware and SFD hardware by the nuclear utilities of the United States as it relates to the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Program. All available sources of data on NFA and SFD hardware are analyzed with particular emphasis given to the Characteristics Data Base developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the characterization work performed by Pacific Northwest Laboratories and Rochester Gas ampersand Electric. An Expert System developed as a portion of this work is used to assist in the prediction of quantities of NFA hardware and SFD hardware that will be generated by the United States' utilities. Finally, the hardware waste management practices of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, and Japan are studied for possible application to the disposal of domestic hardware wastes. As a result of this work, a general classification scheme for NFA and SFD hardware was developed. Only NFA and SFD hardware constructed of zircaloy and experiencing a burnup of less than 70,000 MWD/MTIHM and PWR control rods constructed of stainless steel are considered Low-Level Waste. All other hardware is classified as Greater-ThanClass-C waste

Optimized hardware design for the divertor remote handling control system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Saarinen, Hannu [Tampere University of Technology, Korkeakoulunkatu 6, 33720 Tampere (Finland)], E-mail: hannu.saarinen@tut.fi; Tiitinen, Juha; Aha, Liisa; Muhammad, Ali; Mattila, Jouni; Siuko, Mikko; Vilenius, Matti [Tampere University of Technology, Korkeakoulunkatu 6, 33720 Tampere (Finland); Jaervenpaeae, Jorma [VTT Systems Engineering, Tekniikankatu 1, 33720 Tampere (Finland); Irving, Mike; Damiani, Carlo; Semeraro, Luigi [Fusion for Energy, Josep Pla 2, Torres Diagonal Litoral B3, 08019 Barcelona (Spain)

2009-06-15

A key ITER maintenance activity is the exchange of the divertor cassettes. One of the major focuses of the EU Remote Handling (RH) programme has been the study and development of the remote handling equipment necessary for divertor exchange. The current major step in this programme involves the construction of a full scale physical test facility, namely DTP2 (Divertor Test Platform 2), in which to demonstrate and refine the RH equipment designs for ITER using prototypes. The major objective of the DTP2 project is the proof of concept studies of various RH devices, but is also important to define principles for standardizing control hardware and methods around the ITER maintenance equipment. This paper focuses on describing the control system hardware design optimization that is taking place at DTP2. Here there will be two RH movers, namely the Cassette Multifuctional Mover (CMM), Cassette Toroidal Mover (CTM) and assisting water hydraulic force feedback manipulators (WHMAN) located aboard each Mover. The idea here is to use common Real Time Operating Systems (RTOS), measurement and control IO-cards etc. for all maintenance devices and to standardize sensors and control components as much as possible. In this paper, new optimized DTP2 control system hardware design and some initial experimentation with the new DTP2 RH control system platform are presented. The proposed new approach is able to fulfil the functional requirements for both Mover and Manipulator control systems. Since the new control system hardware design has reduced architecture there are a number of benefits compared to the old approach. The simplified hardware solution enables the use of a single software development environment and a single communication protocol. This will result in easier maintainability of the software and hardware, less dependence on trained personnel, easier training of operators and hence reduced the development costs of ITER RH.

Hardware Support for Embedded Java

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schoeberl, Martin

2012-01-01

The general Java runtime environment is resource hungry and unfriendly for real-time systems. To reduce the resource consumption of Java in embedded systems, direct hardware support of the language is a valuable option. Furthermore, an implementation of the Java virtual machine in hardware enables...... worst-case execution time analysis of Java programs. This chapter gives an overview of current approaches to hardware support for embedded and real-time Java....

HARDWARE TROJAN IDENTIFICATION AND DETECTION

OpenAIRE

Samer Moein; Fayez Gebali; T. Aaron Gulliver; Abdulrahman Alkandari

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT The majority of techniques developed to detect hardware trojans are based on specific attributes. Further, the ad hoc approaches employed to design methods for trojan detection are largely ineffective. Hardware trojans have a number of attributes which can be used to systematically develop detection techniques. Based on this concept, a detailed examination of current trojan detection techniques and the characteristics of existing hardware trojans is presented. This is used to dev...

Hunting for hardware changes in data centres

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Coelho dos Santos, M; Steers, I; Szebenyi, I; Xafi, A; Barring, O; Bonfillou, E

2012-01-01

With many servers and server parts the environment of warehouse sized data centres is increasingly complex. Server life-cycle management and hardware failures are responsible for frequent changes that need to be managed. To manage these changes better a project codenamed “hardware hound” focusing on hardware failure trending and hardware inventory has been started at CERN. By creating and using a hardware oriented data set - the inventory - with detailed information on servers and their parts as well as tracking changes to this inventory, the project aims at, for example, being able to discover trends in hardware failure rates.

Design and Control of Compliant Tensegrity Robots Through Simulation and Hardware Validation

Science.gov (United States)

Caluwaerts, Ken; Despraz, Jeremie; Iscen, Atil; Sabelhaus, Andrew P.; Bruce, Jonathan; Schrauwen, Benjamin; Sunspiral, Vytas

2014-01-01

To better understand the role of tensegrity structures in biological systems and their application to robotics, the Dynamic Tensegrity Robotics Lab at NASA Ames Research Center has developed and validated two different software environments for the analysis, simulation, and design of tensegrity robots. These tools, along with new control methodologies and the modular hardware components developed to validate them, are presented as a system for the design of actuated tensegrity structures. As evidenced from their appearance in many biological systems, tensegrity ("tensile-integrity") structures have unique physical properties which make them ideal for interaction with uncertain environments. Yet these characteristics, such as variable structural compliance, and global multi-path load distribution through the tension network, make design and control of bio-inspired tensegrity robots extremely challenging. This work presents the progress in using these two tools in tackling the design and control challenges. The results of this analysis includes multiple novel control approaches for mobility and terrain interaction of spherical tensegrity structures. The current hardware prototype of a six-bar tensegrity, code-named ReCTeR, is presented in the context of this validation.

Open-source hardware for medical devices.

Science.gov (United States)

Niezen, Gerrit; Eslambolchilar, Parisa; Thimbleby, Harold

2016-04-01

Open-source hardware is hardware whose design is made publicly available so anyone can study, modify, distribute, make and sell the design or the hardware based on that design. Some open-source hardware projects can potentially be used as active medical devices. The open-source approach offers a unique combination of advantages, including reducing costs and faster innovation. This article compares 10 of open-source healthcare projects in terms of how easy it is to obtain the required components and build the device.

Rupture hardware minimization in pressurized water reactor piping

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mukherjee, S.K.; Ski, J.J.; Chexal, V.; Norris, D.M.; Goldstein, N.A.; Beaudoin, B.F.; Quinones, D.F.; Server, W.L.

1989-01-01

For much of the high-energy piping in light reactor systems, fracture mechanics calculations can be used to assure pipe failure resistance, thus allowing the elimination of excessive rupture restraint hardware both inside and outside containment. These calculations use the concept of leak-before-break (LBB) and include part-through-wall flaw fatigue crack propagation, through-wall flaw detectable leakage, and through-wall flaw stability analyses. Performing these analyses not only reduces initial construction, future maintenance, and radiation exposure costs, but also improves the overall safety and integrity of the plant since much more is known about the piping and its capabilities than would be the case had the analyses not been performed. This paper presents the LBB methodology applied a Beaver Valley Power Station- Unit 2 (BVPS-2); the application for two specific lines, one inside containment (stainless steel) and the other outside containment (ferrutic steel), is shown in a generic sense using a simple parametric matrix. The overall results for BVPS-2 indicate that pipe rupture hardware is not necessary for stainless steel lines inside containment greater than or equal to 6-in. (152-mm) nominal pipe size that have passed a screening criteria designed to eliminate potential problem systems (such as the feedwater system). Similarly, some ferritic steel line as small as 3-in. (76-mm) diameter (outside containment) can qualify for pipe rupture hardware elemination

An evaluation of Skylab habitability hardware

Science.gov (United States)

Stokes, J.

1974-01-01

For effective mission performance, participants in space missions lasting 30-60 days or longer must be provided with hardware to accommodate their personal needs. Such habitability hardware was provided on Skylab. Equipment defined as habitability hardware was that equipment composing the food system, water system, sleep system, waste management system, personal hygiene system, trash management system, and entertainment equipment. Equipment not specifically defined as habitability hardware but which served that function were the Wardroom window, the exercise equipment, and the intercom system, which was occasionally used for private communications. All Skylab habitability hardware generally functioned as intended for the three missions, and most items could be considered as adequate concepts for future flights of similar duration. Specific components were criticized for their shortcomings.

Is Hardware Removal Recommended after Ankle Fracture Repair?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hong-Geun Jung

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The indications and clinical necessity for routine hardware removal after treating ankle or distal tibia fracture with open reduction and internal fixation are disputed even when hardware-related pain is insignificant. Thus, we determined the clinical effects of routine hardware removal irrespective of the degree of hardware-related pain, especially in the perspective of patients’ daily activities. This study was conducted on 80 consecutive cases (78 patients treated by surgery and hardware removal after bony union. There were 56 ankle and 24 distal tibia fractures. The hardware-related pain, ankle joint stiffness, discomfort on ambulation, and patient satisfaction were evaluated before and at least 6 months after hardware removal. Pain score before hardware removal was 3.4 (range 0 to 6 and decreased to 1.3 (range 0 to 6 after removal. 58 (72.5% patients experienced improved ankle stiffness and 65 (81.3% less discomfort while walking on uneven ground and 63 (80.8% patients were satisfied with hardware removal. These results suggest that routine hardware removal after ankle or distal tibia fracture could ameliorate hardware-related pain and improves daily activities and patient satisfaction even when the hardware-related pain is minimal.

Door Hardware and Installations; Carpentry: 901894.

Science.gov (United States)

Dade County Public Schools, Miami, FL.

The curriculum guide outlines a course designed to provide instruction in the selection, preparation, and installation of hardware for door assemblies. The course is divided into five blocks of instruction (introduction to doors and hardware, door hardware, exterior doors and jambs, interior doors and jambs, and a quinmester post-test) totaling…

Factors Associated With Initiation of Biologics in Patients With Axial Spondyloarthritis in an Urban Asian City: A PRESPOND Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Png, Wan Yu; Kwan, Yu Heng; Lee, Yi Xuan; Lim, Ka Keat; Chew, Eng Hui; Lui, Nai Lee; Tan, Chuen Seng; Thumboo, Julian; Østbye, Truls; Fong, Warren

2018-04-05

The aim of this study was to examine if patients' sociodemographic, clinical characteristics, and patient-reported outcomes were associated with biologics initiation in patients with axial spondyloarthritis in Singapore. Data from a dedicated registry from a tertiary referral center in Singapore from January 2011 to July 2016 were used. Initiation of first biologics was the main outcome of interest. Logistic regression analyses were used to explore the association of various factors on biologics initiation. Of 189 eligible patients (aged 37.7 ± 13.3 years; 76.2% were males), 30 (15.9 %) were started on biologics during follow-up. In the multivariable analysis model, age (odds ratio [OR]; 0.93; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.89-0.98; P < 0.01), mental component summary score of Short-Form 36 Health Survey (OR, 0.18; 95% CI, 0.03-0.89; P = 0.04), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (OR, 1.02; 95% CI, 1.00-1.04; P = 0.02), presence of peptic ulcer disease (OR, 10.4; 95% CI, 2.21-48.8; P < 0.01), and lack of good response to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (OR, 4.44; 95% CI, 1.63-12.1; P < 0.01) were found to be associated with biologics initiation. Age, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, mental component summary score, comorbidities of peptic ulcer disease, and responsiveness to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs were associated with biologics initiation. It is essential that clinicians recognize these factors in order to optimize therapy.

Pore Formation and Mobility Investigation (PFMI): Concept, Hardware Development, and Initial Analysis of Experiments Conducted Aboard the International Space Station

Science.gov (United States)

Grugel, Richard N.

2003-01-01

Porosity in the form of "bubbles and pipes" can occur during controlled directional solidification processing of metal alloys. This is a consequence that 1) precludes obtaining any meaningful scientific results and 2) is detrimental to desired material properties. Unfortunately, several Microgravity experiments have been compromised by porosity. The intent of the PFMl investigation is to conduct a systematic effort directed towards understanding porosity formation and mobility during controlled directional solidification (DS) in a microgravity environment. PFMl uses a pure transparent material, succinonitrile (SCN), as well as SCN "alloyed" with water, in conjunction with a translating temperature gradient stage so that direct observation and recording of pore generation and mobility can be made. PFMl is investigating the role of thermocapillary forces and temperature gradients in affecting bubble dynamics as well as other solidification processes in a microgravity environment. This presentation will cover the concept, hardware development, operations, and the initial results from experiments conducted aboard the International Space Station.

Reconfigurable Hardware for Compressing Hyperspectral Image Data

Science.gov (United States)

Aranki, Nazeeh; Namkung, Jeffrey; Villapando, Carlos; Kiely, Aaron; Klimesh, Matthew; Xie, Hua

2010-01-01

High-speed, low-power, reconfigurable electronic hardware has been developed to implement ICER-3D, an algorithm for compressing hyperspectral-image data. The algorithm and parts thereof have been the topics of several NASA Tech Briefs articles, including Context Modeler for Wavelet Compression of Hyperspectral Images (NPO-43239) and ICER-3D Hyperspectral Image Compression Software (NPO-43238), which appear elsewhere in this issue of NASA Tech Briefs. As described in more detail in those articles, the algorithm includes three main subalgorithms: one for computing wavelet transforms, one for context modeling, and one for entropy encoding. For the purpose of designing the hardware, these subalgorithms are treated as modules to be implemented efficiently in field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). The design takes advantage of industry- standard, commercially available FPGAs. The implementation targets the Xilinx Virtex II pro architecture, which has embedded PowerPC processor cores with flexible on-chip bus architecture. It incorporates an efficient parallel and pipelined architecture to compress the three-dimensional image data. The design provides for internal buffering to minimize intensive input/output operations while making efficient use of offchip memory. The design is scalable in that the subalgorithms are implemented as independent hardware modules that can be combined in parallel to increase throughput. The on-chip processor manages the overall operation of the compression system, including execution of the top-level control functions as well as scheduling, initiating, and monitoring processes. The design prototype has been demonstrated to be capable of compressing hyperspectral data at a rate of 4.5 megasamples per second at a conservative clock frequency of 50 MHz, with a potential for substantially greater throughput at a higher clock frequency. The power consumption of the prototype is less than 6.5 W. The reconfigurability (by means of reprogramming) of

[Hardware Implementation of Numerical Simulation Function of Hodgkin-Huxley Model Neurons Action Potential Based on Field Programmable Gate Array].

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jinlong; Lu, Mai; Hu, Yanwen; Chen, Xiaoqiang; Pan, Qiangqiang

2015-12-01

Neuron is the basic unit of the biological neural system. The Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) model is one of the most realistic neuron models on the electrophysiological characteristic description of neuron. Hardware implementation of neuron could provide new research ideas to clinical treatment of spinal cord injury, bionics and artificial intelligence. Based on the HH model neuron and the DSP Builder technology, in the present study, a single HH model neuron hardware implementation was completed in Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The neuron implemented in FPGA was stimulated by different types of current, the action potential response characteristics were analyzed, and the correlation coefficient between numerical simulation result and hardware implementation result were calculated. The results showed that neuronal action potential response of FPGA was highly consistent with numerical simulation result. This work lays the foundation for hardware implementation of neural network.

ZEUS hardware control system

Science.gov (United States)

Loveless, R.; Erhard, P.; Ficenec, J.; Gather, K.; Heath, G.; Iacovacci, M.; Kehres, J.; Mobayyen, M.; Notz, D.; Orr, R.; Orr, R.; Sephton, A.; Stroili, R.; Tokushuku, K.; Vogel, W.; Whitmore, J.; Wiggers, L.

1989-12-01

The ZEUS collaboration is building a system to monitor, control and document the hardware of the ZEUS detector. This system is based on a network of VAX computers and microprocessors connected via ethernet. The database for the hardware values will be ADAMO tables; the ethernet connection will be DECNET, TCP/IP, or RPC. Most of the documentation will also be kept in ADAMO tables for easy access by users.

ZEUS hardware control system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Loveless, R.; Erhard, P.; Ficenec, J.; Gather, K.; Heath, G.; Iacovacci, M.; Kehres, J.; Mobayyen, M.; Notz, D.; Orr, R.; Sephton, A.; Stroili, R.; Tokushuku, K.; Vogel, W.; Whitmore, J.; Wiggers, L.

1989-01-01

The ZEUS collaboration is building a system to monitor, control and document the hardware of the ZEUS detector. This system is based on a network of VAX computers and microprocessors connected via ethernet. The database for the hardware values will be ADAMO tables; the ethernet connection will be DECNET, TCP/IP, or RPC. Most of the documentation will also be kept in ADAMO tables for easy access by users. (orig.)

Hardware implementation of stochastic spiking neural networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosselló, Josep L; Canals, Vincent; Morro, Antoni; Oliver, Antoni

2012-08-01

Spiking Neural Networks, the last generation of Artificial Neural Networks, are characterized by its bio-inspired nature and by a higher computational capacity with respect to other neural models. In real biological neurons, stochastic processes represent an important mechanism of neural behavior and are responsible of its special arithmetic capabilities. In this work we present a simple hardware implementation of spiking neurons that considers this probabilistic nature. The advantage of the proposed implementation is that it is fully digital and therefore can be massively implemented in Field Programmable Gate Arrays. The high computational capabilities of the proposed model are demonstrated by the study of both feed-forward and recurrent networks that are able to implement high-speed signal filtering and to solve complex systems of linear equations.

NDAS Hardware Translation Layer Development

Science.gov (United States)

Nazaretian, Ryan N.; Holladay, Wendy T.

2011-01-01

The NASA Data Acquisition System (NDAS) project is aimed to replace all DAS software for NASA s Rocket Testing Facilities. There must be a software-hardware translation layer so the software can properly talk to the hardware. Since the hardware from each test stand varies, drivers for each stand have to be made. These drivers will act more like plugins for the software. If the software is being used in E3, then the software should point to the E3 driver package. If the software is being used at B2, then the software should point to the B2 driver package. The driver packages should also be filled with hardware drivers that are universal to the DAS system. For example, since A1, A2, and B2 all use the Preston 8300AU signal conditioners, then the driver for those three stands should be the same and updated collectively.

Hardware standardization for embedded systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sharma, M.K.; Kalra, Mohit; Patil, M.B.; Mohanty, Ashutos; Ganesh, G.; Biswas, B.B.

2010-01-01

Reactor Control Division (RCnD) has been one of the main designers of safety and safety related systems for power reactors. These systems have been built using in-house developed hardware. Since the present set of hardware was designed long ago, a need was felt to design a new family of hardware boards. A Working Group on Electronics Hardware Standardization (WG-EHS) was formed with an objective to develop a family of boards, which is general purpose enough to meet the requirements of the system designers/end users. RCnD undertook the responsibility of design, fabrication and testing of boards for embedded systems. VME and a proprietary I/O bus were selected as the two system buses. The boards have been designed based on present day technology and components. The intelligence of these boards has been implemented on FPGA/CPLD using VHDL. This paper outlines the various boards that have been developed with a brief description. (author)

Hardware for dynamic quantum computing.

Science.gov (United States)

Ryan, Colm A; Johnson, Blake R; Ristè, Diego; Donovan, Brian; Ohki, Thomas A

2017-10-01

We describe the hardware, gateware, and software developed at Raytheon BBN Technologies for dynamic quantum information processing experiments on superconducting qubits. In dynamic experiments, real-time qubit state information is fed back or fed forward within a fraction of the qubits' coherence time to dynamically change the implemented sequence. The hardware presented here covers both control and readout of superconducting qubits. For readout, we created a custom signal processing gateware and software stack on commercial hardware to convert pulses in a heterodyne receiver into qubit state assignments with minimal latency, alongside data taking capability. For control, we developed custom hardware with gateware and software for pulse sequencing and steering information distribution that is capable of arbitrary control flow in a fraction of superconducting qubit coherence times. Both readout and control platforms make extensive use of field programmable gate arrays to enable tailored qubit control systems in a reconfigurable fabric suitable for iterative development.

Hardware device binding and mutual authentication

Science.gov (United States)

Hamlet, Jason R; Pierson, Lyndon G

2014-03-04

Detection and deterrence of device tampering and subversion by substitution may be achieved by including a cryptographic unit within a computing device for binding multiple hardware devices and mutually authenticating the devices. The cryptographic unit includes a physically unclonable function ("PUF") circuit disposed in or on the hardware device, which generates a binding PUF value. The cryptographic unit uses the binding PUF value during an enrollment phase and subsequent authentication phases. During a subsequent authentication phase, the cryptographic unit uses the binding PUF values of the multiple hardware devices to generate a challenge to send to the other device, and to verify a challenge received from the other device to mutually authenticate the hardware devices.

Pipe rupture hardware minimization in pressurized water reactor system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mukherjee, S.K.; Szyslowski, J.J.; Chexal, V.; Norris, D.M.; Goldstein, N.A.; Beaudoin, B.; Quinones, D.; Server, W.

1987-01-01

For much of the high energy piping in light water reactor systems, fracture mechanics calculations can be used to assure pipe failure resistance, thus allowing the elimination of excessive rupture restraint hardware both inside and outside containment. These calculations use the concept of leak-before-break (LBB) and include part-through-wall flaw fatigue crack propagation, through-wall flaw detectable leakage, and through-wall flaw stability analyses. Performing these analyses not only reduces initial construction, future maintenance, and radiation exposure costs, but the overall safety and integrity of the plant are improved since much more is known about the piping and its capabilities than would be the case had the analyses not been performed. This paper presents the LBB methodology applied at Beaver Valley Power Station - Unit 2 (BVPS-2); the application for two specific lines, one inside containment (stainless steel) and the other outside containment (ferritic steel), is shown in a generic sense using a simple parametric matrix. The overall results for BVPS-2 indicate that pipe rupture hardware is not necessary for stainless steel lines inside containment greater than or equal to 6-in (152 mm) nominal pipe size that have passed a screening criteria designed to eliminate potential problem systems (such as the feedwater system). Similarly, some ferritic steel lines as small as 3-in (76 mm) diameter (outside containment) can qualify for pipe rupture hardware elimination

The Impact of Flight Hardware Scavenging on Space Logistics

Science.gov (United States)

Oeftering, Richard C.

2011-01-01

For a given fixed launch vehicle capacity the logistics payload delivered to the moon may be only roughly 20 percent of the payload delivered to the International Space Station (ISS). This is compounded by the much lower flight frequency to the moon and thus low availability of spares for maintenance. This implies that lunar hardware is much more scarce and more costly per kilogram than ISS and thus there is much more incentive to preserve hardware. The Constellation Lunar Surface System (LSS) program is considering ways of utilizing hardware scavenged from vehicles including the Altair lunar lander. In general, the hardware will have only had a matter of hours of operation yet there may be years of operational life remaining. By scavenging this hardware the program, in effect, is treating vehicle hardware as part of the payload. Flight hardware may provide logistics spares for system maintenance and reduce the overall logistics footprint. This hardware has a wide array of potential applications including expanding the power infrastructure, and exploiting in-situ resources. Scavenging can also be seen as a way of recovering the value of, literally, billions of dollars worth of hardware that would normally be discarded. Scavenging flight hardware adds operational complexity and steps must be taken to augment the crew s capability with robotics, capabilities embedded in flight hardware itself, and external processes. New embedded technologies are needed to make hardware more serviceable and scavengable. Process technologies are needed to extract hardware, evaluate hardware, reconfigure or repair hardware, and reintegrate it into new applications. This paper also illustrates how scavenging can be used to drive down the cost of the overall program by exploiting the intrinsic value of otherwise discarded flight hardware.

Evaluation of Various Cleaning Methods to Remove Bacillus Spores from Spacecraft Hardware Materials

Science.gov (United States)

Venkateswaran, Kasthuri; Chung, Shirley; Allton, Judith; Kern, Roger

2004-09-01

A detailed study was made of the biological cleaning effectiveness, defined in terms of the ability to remove bacterial spores, of a number of methods used to clean hardware surfaces. Aluminum (Al 6061) and titanium (Ti 6Al-4V) were chosen for the study as they were deemed the two materials most likely to be used in spacecraft extraterrestrial sampler construction. Metal coupons (1 cm × 2.5 cm) were precleaned and inoculated with 5.8 × 103 cultivable Bacillus subtilis spores, which are commonly found on spacecraft surfaces and in the assembly environments. The inoculated coupons were subsequently cleaned using: (1) 70% isopropyl alcohol wipe; (2) water wipe; (3) multiple-solvent flight-hardware cleaning procedures used at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL); (4) Johnson Space Center-developed ultrapure water rinse; and (5) a commercial, semi-aqueous, multiple-solvent (SAMS) cleaning process. The biological cleaning effectiveness was measured by agar plate assay, sterility test (growing in liquid media), and epifluorescent microscopy. None of the cleaning protocols tested completely removed viable spores from the surface of the aluminum. In contrast, titanium was capable of being cleaned to sterility by two methods, the JPL standard and the commercial SAMS cleaning process. Further investigation showed that the passivation step employed in the JPL standard method is an effective surface sterilant on both metals but not compatible with aluminum. It is recommended that titanium (Ti 6Al-4V) be considered superior to aluminum (Al 6061) for use in spacecraft sampling hardware, both for its potential to be cleaned to sterilization and for its ability to withstand the most effective cleaning protocols.

Biological quarantine on international waters: an initiative for onboard protocols

Science.gov (United States)

Takano, Yoshinori; Yano, Hajime; Funase, Ryu; Sekine, Yasuhito; Takai, Ken

2012-07-01

The research vessel Chikyu is expanding new frontiers in science, technology, and international collaboration through deep-sea expedition. The Chikyu (length: 210 m, gross tonnage: 56752 tons) has advanced and comprehensive scientific research facilities. One of the scientific purposes of the vessel is to investigate into unexplored biosphere (i.e., undescribed extremophiles) on the Earth. Therefore, "the onboard laboratory" provides us systematic microbiological protocols with a physical containment situation. In parallel, the onboard equipments provide sufficient space for fifty scientists and technical support staff. The helicopter deck also supports various logistics through transporting by a large scale helicopter (See, http://www.jamstec.go.jp/chikyu/eng/). Since the establishment of Panel on Planetary Protection (PPP) in Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), we have an international consensus about the development and promulgation of planetary protection knowledge, policy, and plans to prevent the harmful effects of biological contamination on the Earth (e.g., Rummel, 2002). However, the matter to select a candidate location of initial quarantine at BSL4 level is often problematic. To answer the key issue, we suggest that international waters can be a meaningful option with several advantages to conduct initial onboard-biological quarantine investigation. Hence, the research vessel Chikyu is promising for further PPP requirements (e.g., Enceladus sample return project: Tsou et al., 2012). Rummel, J., Seeking an international consensus in planetary protection: COSPAR's planetary protection panel. Advances in Space Research, 30, 1573-1575 (2002). Tsou, P. et al. LIFE: Life Investigation For Enceladus - A Sample Return Mission Concept in Search for Evidence of Life. Astrobiology, in press.

Constructing Hardware in a Scale Embedded Language

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

2014-08-21

Chisel is a new open-source hardware construction language developed at UC Berkeley that supports advanced hardware design using highly parameterized generators and layered domain-specific hardware languages. Chisel is embedded in the Scala programming language, which raises the level of hardware design abstraction by providing concepts including object orientation, functional programming, parameterized types, and type inference. From the same source, Chisel can generate a high-speed C++-based cycle-accurate software simulator, or low-level Verilog designed to pass on to standard ASIC or FPGA tools for synthesis and place and route.

Hardware Objects for Java

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schoeberl, Martin; Thalinger, Christian; Korsholm, Stephan

2008-01-01

Java, as a safe and platform independent language, avoids access to low-level I/O devices or direct memory access. In standard Java, low-level I/O it not a concern; it is handled by the operating system. However, in the embedded domain resources are scarce and a Java virtual machine (JVM) without...... an underlying middleware is an attractive architecture. When running the JVM on bare metal, we need access to I/O devices from Java; therefore we investigate a safe and efficient mechanism to represent I/O devices as first class Java objects, where device registers are represented by object fields. Access...... to those registers is safe as Java’s type system regulates it. The access is also fast as it is directly performed by the bytecodes getfield and putfield. Hardware objects thus provide an object-oriented abstraction of low-level hardware devices. As a proof of concept, we have implemented hardware objects...

A geometric initial guess for localized electronic orbitals in modular biological systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Beckman, P. G. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States); Fattebert, J. L. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Lau, E. Y. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Osei-Kuffuor, D. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

2017-09-11

Recent first-principles molecular dynamics algorithms using localized electronic orbitals have achieved O(N) complexity and controlled accuracy in simulating systems with finite band gaps. However, accurately deter- mining the centers of these localized orbitals during simulation setup may require O(N³) operations, which is computationally infeasible for many biological systems. We present an O(N) approach for approximating orbital centers in proteins, DNA, and RNA which uses non-localized solutions for a set of fixed-size subproblems to create a set of geometric maps applicable to larger systems. This scalable approach, used as an initial guess in the O(N) first-principles molecular dynamics code MGmol, facilitates first-principles simulations in biological systems of sizes which were previously impossible.

Implementation of Hardware Accelerators on Zynq

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Toft, Jakob Kenn

of the ARM Cortex-9 processor featured on the Zynq SoC, with regard to execution time, power dissipation and energy consumption. The implementation of the hardware accelerators were successful. Use of the Monte Carlo processor resulted in a significant increase in performance. The Telco hardware accelerator......In the recent years it has become obvious that the performance of general purpose processors are having trouble meeting the requirements of high performance computing applications of today. This is partly due to the relatively high power consumption, compared to the performance, of general purpose...... processors, which has made hardware accelerators an essential part of several datacentres and the worlds fastest super-computers. In this work, two different hardware accelerators were implemented on a Xilinx Zynq SoC platform mounted on the ZedBoard platform. The two accelerators are based on two different...

Computer hardware fault administration

Science.gov (United States)

Archer, Charles J.; Megerian, Mark G.; Ratterman, Joseph D.; Smith, Brian E.

2010-09-14

Computer hardware fault administration carried out in a parallel computer, where the parallel computer includes a plurality of compute nodes. The compute nodes are coupled for data communications by at least two independent data communications networks, where each data communications network includes data communications links connected to the compute nodes. Typical embodiments carry out hardware fault administration by identifying a location of a defective link in the first data communications network of the parallel computer and routing communications data around the defective link through the second data communications network of the parallel computer.

A Practical Introduction to HardwareSoftware Codesign

CERN Document Server

Schaumont, Patrick R

2013-01-01

This textbook provides an introduction to embedded systems design, with emphasis on integration of custom hardware components with software. The key problem addressed in the book is the following: how can an embedded systems designer strike a balance between flexibility and efficiency? The book describes how combining hardware design with software design leads to a solution to this important computer engineering problem. The book covers four topics in hardware/software codesign: fundamentals, the design space of custom architectures, the hardware/software interface and application examples. The book comes with an associated design environment that helps the reader to perform experiments in hardware/software codesign. Each chapter also includes exercises and further reading suggestions. Improvements in this second edition include labs and examples using modern FPGA environments from Xilinx and Altera, which make the material applicable to a greater number of courses where these tools are already in use.  Mo...

Comparative Modal Analysis of Sieve Hardware Designs

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, Nathaniel

2012-01-01

The CMTB Thwacker hardware operates as a testbed analogue for the Flight Thwacker and Sieve components of CHIMRA, a device on the Curiosity Rover. The sieve separates particles with a diameter smaller than 150 microns for delivery to onboard science instruments. The sieving behavior of the testbed hardware should be similar to the Flight hardware for the results to be meaningful. The elastodynamic behavior of both sieves was studied analytically using the Rayleigh Ritz method in conjunction with classical plate theory. Finite element models were used to determine the mode shapes of both designs, and comparisons between the natural frequencies and mode shapes were made. The analysis predicts that the performance of the CMTB Thwacker will closely resemble the performance of the Flight Thwacker within the expected steady state operating regime. Excitations of the testbed hardware that will mimic the flight hardware were recommended, as were those that will improve the efficiency of the sieving process.

Remote hardware-reconfigurable robotic camera

Science.gov (United States)

Arias-Estrada, Miguel; Torres-Huitzil, Cesar; Maya-Rueda, Selene E.

2001-10-01

In this work, a camera with integrated image processing capabilities is discussed. The camera is based on an imager coupled to an FPGA device (Field Programmable Gate Array) which contains an architecture for real-time computer vision low-level processing. The architecture can be reprogrammed remotely for application specific purposes. The system is intended for rapid modification and adaptation for inspection and recognition applications, with the flexibility of hardware and software reprogrammability. FPGA reconfiguration allows the same ease of upgrade in hardware as a software upgrade process. The camera is composed of a digital imager coupled to an FPGA device, two memory banks, and a microcontroller. The microcontroller is used for communication tasks and FPGA programming. The system implements a software architecture to handle multiple FPGA architectures in the device, and the possibility to download a software/hardware object from the host computer into its internal context memory. System advantages are: small size, low power consumption, and a library of hardware/software functionalities that can be exchanged during run time. The system has been validated with an edge detection and a motion processing architecture, which will be presented in the paper. Applications targeted are in robotics, mobile robotics, and vision based quality control.

{sup 18}F-FDG PET/CT evaluation of children and young adults with suspected spinal fusion hardware infection

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bagrosky, Brian M. [University of Colorado School of Medicine, Department of Pediatric Radiology, Children' s Hospital Colorado, 12123 E. 16th Ave., Box 125, Aurora, CO (United States); University of Colorado School of Medicine, Department of Radiology, Division of Nuclear Medicine, Aurora, CO (United States); Hayes, Kari L.; Fenton, Laura Z. [University of Colorado School of Medicine, Department of Pediatric Radiology, Children' s Hospital Colorado, 12123 E. 16th Ave., Box 125, Aurora, CO (United States); Koo, Phillip J. [University of Colorado School of Medicine, Department of Radiology, Division of Nuclear Medicine, Aurora, CO (United States)

2013-08-15

patients with suspected spinal hardware infection. Because pneumonia was diagnosed as often as spinal hardware infection, initial chest radiography should also be performed. (orig.)

Transmission delays in hardware clock synchronization

Science.gov (United States)

Shin, Kang G.; Ramanathan, P.

1988-01-01

Various methods, both with software and hardware, have been proposed to synchronize a set of physical clocks in a system. Software methods are very flexible and economical but suffer an excessive time overhead, whereas hardware methods require no time overhead but are unable to handle transmission delays in clock signals. The effects of nonzero transmission delays in synchronization have been studied extensively in the communication area in the absence of malicious or Byzantine faults. The authors show that it is easy to incorporate the ideas from the communication area into the existing hardware clock synchronization algorithms to take into account the presence of both malicious faults and nonzero transmission delays.

Computer hardware description languages - A tutorial

Science.gov (United States)

Shiva, S. G.

1979-01-01

The paper introduces hardware description languages (HDL) as useful tools for hardware design and documentation. The capabilities and limitations of HDLs are discussed along with the guidelines needed in selecting an appropriate HDL. The directions for future work are provided and attention is given to the implementation of HDLs in microcomputers.

Support for NUMA hardware in HelenOS

OpenAIRE

Horký, Vojtěch

2011-01-01

The goal of this master thesis is to extend HelenOS operating system with the support for ccNUMA hardware. The text of the thesis contains a brief introduction to ccNUMA hardware, an overview of NUMA features and relevant features of HelenOS (memory management, scheduling, etc.). The thesis analyses various design decisions of the implementation of NUMA support -- introducing the hardware topology into the kernel data structures, propagating this information to user space, thread affinity to ...

Sterilization of space hardware.

Science.gov (United States)

Pflug, I. J.

1971-01-01

Discussion of various techniques of sterilization of space flight hardware using either destructive heating or the action of chemicals. Factors considered in the dry-heat destruction of microorganisms include the effects of microbial water content, temperature, the physicochemical properties of the microorganism and adjacent support, and nature of the surrounding gas atmosphere. Dry-heat destruction rates of microorganisms on the surface, between mated surface areas, or buried in the solid material of space vehicle hardware are reviewed, along with alternative dry-heat sterilization cycles, thermodynamic considerations, and considerations of final sterilization-process design. Discussed sterilization chemicals include ethylene oxide, formaldehyde, methyl bromide, dimethyl sulfoxide, peracetic acid, and beta-propiolactone.

Targeting multiple heterogeneous hardware platforms with OpenCL

Science.gov (United States)

Fox, Paul A.; Kozacik, Stephen T.; Humphrey, John R.; Paolini, Aaron; Kuller, Aryeh; Kelmelis, Eric J.

2014-06-01

The OpenCL API allows for the abstract expression of parallel, heterogeneous computing, but hardware implementations have substantial implementation differences. The abstractions provided by the OpenCL API are often insufficiently high-level to conceal differences in hardware architecture. Additionally, implementations often do not take advantage of potential performance gains from certain features due to hardware limitations and other factors. These factors make it challenging to produce code that is portable in practice, resulting in much OpenCL code being duplicated for each hardware platform being targeted. This duplication of effort offsets the principal advantage of OpenCL: portability. The use of certain coding practices can mitigate this problem, allowing a common code base to be adapted to perform well across a wide range of hardware platforms. To this end, we explore some general practices for producing performant code that are effective across platforms. Additionally, we explore some ways of modularizing code to enable optional optimizations that take advantage of hardware-specific characteristics. The minimum requirement for portability implies avoiding the use of OpenCL features that are optional, not widely implemented, poorly implemented, or missing in major implementations. Exposing multiple levels of parallelism allows hardware to take advantage of the types of parallelism it supports, from the task level down to explicit vector operations. Static optimizations and branch elimination in device code help the platform compiler to effectively optimize programs. Modularization of some code is important to allow operations to be chosen for performance on target hardware. Optional subroutines exploiting explicit memory locality allow for different memory hierarchies to be exploited for maximum performance. The C preprocessor and JIT compilation using the OpenCL runtime can be used to enable some of these techniques, as well as to factor in hardware

Communication Estimation for Hardware/Software Codesign

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knudsen, Peter Voigt; Madsen, Jan

1998-01-01

This paper presents a general high level estimation model of communication throughput for the implementation of a given communication protocol. The model, which is part of a larger model that includes component price, software driver object code size and hardware driver area, is intended...... to be general enough to be able to capture the characteristics of a wide range of communication protocols and yet to be sufficiently detailed as to allow the designer or design tool to efficiently explore tradeoffs between throughput, bus widths, burst/non-burst transfers and data packing strategies. Thus...... it provides a basis for decision making with respect to communication protocols/components and communication driver design in the initial design space exploration phase of a co-synthesis process where a large number of possibilities must be examined and where fast estimators are therefore necessary. The fill...

Hardware and software constructs for a vibration analysis network

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cook, S.A.; Crowe, R.D.; Toffer, H.

1985-01-01

Vibration level monitoring and analysis has been initiated at N Reactor, the dual purpose reactor operated at Hanford, Washington by UNC Nuclear Industries (UNC) for the Department of Energy (DOE). The machinery to be monitored was located in several buildings scattered over the plant site, necessitating an approach using satellite stations to collect, monitor and temporarily store data. The satellite stations are, in turn, linked to a centralized processing computer for further analysis. The advantages of a networked data analysis system are discussed in this paper along with the hardware and software required to implement such a system

Improvement of hardware basic testing : Identification and development of a scripted automation tool that will support hardware basic testing

OpenAIRE

Rask, Ulf; Mannestig, Pontus

2002-01-01

In the ever-increasing development pace, circuits and hardware are no exception. Hardware designs grow and circuits gets more complex at the same time as the market pressure lowers the expected time-to-market. In this rush, verification methods often lag behind. Hardware manufacturers must be aware of the importance of total verification if they want to avoid quality flaws and broken deadlines which in the long run will lead to delayed time-to-market, bad publicity and a decreasing market sha...

Fracture of fusion mass after hardware removal in patients with high sagittal imbalance.

Science.gov (United States)

Sedney, Cara L; Daffner, Scott D; Stefanko, Jared J; Abdelfattah, Hesham; Emery, Sanford E; France, John C

2016-04-01

As spinal fusions become more common and more complex, so do the sequelae of these procedures, some of which remain poorly understood. The authors report on a series of patients who underwent removal of hardware after CT-proven solid fusion, confirmed by intraoperative findings. These patients later developed a spontaneous fracture of the fusion mass that was not associated with trauma. A series of such patients has not previously been described in the literature. An unfunded, retrospective review of the surgical logs of 3 fellowship-trained spine surgeons yielded 7 patients who suffered a fracture of a fusion mass after hardware removal. Adult patients from the West Virginia University Department of Orthopaedics who underwent hardware removal in the setting of adjacent-segment disease (ASD), and subsequently experienced fracture of the fusion mass through the uninstrumented segment, were studied. The medical records and radiological studies of these patients were examined for patient demographics and comorbidities, initial indication for surgery, total number of surgeries, timeline of fracture occurrence, risk factors for fracture, as well as sagittal imbalance. All 7 patients underwent hardware removal in conjunction with an extension of fusion for ASD. All had CT-proven solid fusion of their previously fused segments, which was confirmed intraoperatively. All patients had previously undergone multiple operations for a variety of indications, 4 patients were smokers, and 3 patients had osteoporosis. Spontaneous fracture of the fusion mass occurred in all patients and was not due to trauma. These fractures occurred 4 months to 4 years after hardware removal. All patients had significant sagittal imbalance of 13-15 cm. The fracture level was L-5 in 6 of the 7 patients, which was the first uninstrumented level caudal to the newly placed hardware in all 6 of these patients. Six patients underwent surgery due to this fracture. The authors present a case series of 7

Static Scheduling of Periodic Hardware Tasks with Precedence and Deadline Constraints on Reconfigurable Hardware Devices

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ikbel Belaid

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Task graph scheduling for reconfigurable hardware devices can be defined as finding a schedule for a set of periodic tasks with precedence, dependence, and deadline constraints as well as their optimal allocations on the available heterogeneous hardware resources. This paper proposes a new methodology comprising three main stages. Using these three main stages, dynamic partial reconfiguration and mixed integer programming, pipelined scheduling and efficient placement are achieved and enable parallel computing of the task graph on the reconfigurable devices by optimizing placement/scheduling quality. Experiments on an application of heterogeneous hardware tasks demonstrate an improvement of resource utilization of 12.45% of the available reconfigurable resources corresponding to a resource gain of 17.3% compared to a static design. The configuration overhead is reduced to 2% of the total running time. Due to pipelined scheduling, the task graph spanning is minimized by 4% compared to sequential execution of the graph.

Hardware Design of Tuber Electrical Resistance Tomography System Based on the Soil Impedance Test and Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liu Shuyi

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The hardware design of tuber electrical resistance tomography (TERT system is one of the key research problems of TERT data acquisition system. The TERT system can be applied to the tuber growth process monitoring in agriculture, i.e., the TERT data acquisition system can realize the real imaging of tuber plants in soil. In TERT system, the imaging tuber and soil multiphase medium is quite complexity. So, the impedance test and analysis of soil multiphase medium is very important to the design of sensitive array sensor subsystem and signals processing circuits. In the paper, the soil impedance test experimental is described and the results are analysed. The data acquisition hardware system is designed based on the result of soil medium impedance test and analysis. In the hardware design, the switch control chip ADG508, the instrumentation amplifier AD620 and programmable amplifier AD526 are employed. In the meantime, the phase locked loop technique for signal demodulation is introduced. The initial data collection is given and discussed under the conditions of existing plant tuber and no existing plant tuber. Conclusions of the hardware design of TERT system are presented.

Large-scale simulations of plastic neural networks on neuromorphic hardware

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James Courtney Knight

2016-04-01

Full Text Available SpiNNaker is a digital, neuromorphic architecture designed for simulating large-scale spiking neural networks at speeds close to biological real-time. Rather than using bespoke analog or digital hardware, the basic computational unit of a SpiNNaker system is a general-purpose ARM processor, allowing it to be programmed to simulate a wide variety of neuron and synapse models. This flexibility is particularly valuable in the study of biological plasticity phenomena. A recently proposed learning rule based on the Bayesian Confidence Propagation Neural Network (BCPNN paradigm offers a generic framework for modeling the interaction of different plasticity mechanisms using spiking neurons. However, it can be computationally expensive to simulate large networks with BCPNN learning since it requires multiple state variables for each synapse, each of which needs to be updated every simulation time-step. We discuss the trade-offs in efficiency and accuracy involved in developing an event-based BCPNN implementation for SpiNNaker based on an analytical solution to the BCPNN equations, and detail the steps taken to fit this within the limited computational and memory resources of the SpiNNaker architecture. We demonstrate this learning rule by learning temporal sequences of neural activity within a recurrent attractor network which we simulate at scales of up to 20000 neurons and 51200000 plastic synapses: the largest plastic neural network ever to be simulated on neuromorphic hardware. We also run a comparable simulation on a Cray XC-30 supercomputer system and find that, if it is to match the run-time of our SpiNNaker simulation, the super computer system uses approximately more power. This suggests that cheaper, more power efficient neuromorphic systems are becoming useful discovery tools in the study of plasticity in large-scale brain models.

COMPUTER HARDWARE MARKING

CERN Multimedia

Groupe de protection des biens

2000-01-01

As part of the campaign to protect CERN property and for insurance reasons, all computer hardware belonging to the Organization must be marked with the words 'PROPRIETE CERN'.IT Division has recently introduced a new marking system that is both economical and easy to use. From now on all desktop hardware (PCs, Macintoshes, printers) issued by IT Division with a value equal to or exceeding 500 CHF will be marked using this new system.For equipment that is already installed but not yet marked, including UNIX workstations and X terminals, IT Division's Desktop Support Service offers the following services free of charge:Equipment-marking wherever the Service is called out to perform other work (please submit all work requests to the IT Helpdesk on 78888 or helpdesk@cern.ch; for unavoidable operational reasons, the Desktop Support Service will only respond to marking requests when these coincide with requests for other work such as repairs, system upgrades, etc.);Training of personnel designated by Division Leade...

GOSH! A roadmap for open-source science hardware

CERN Multimedia

Stefania Pandolfi

2016-01-01

The goal of the Gathering for Open Science Hardware (GOSH! 2016), held from 2 to 5 March 2016 at IdeaSquare, was to lay the foundations of the open-source hardware for science movement.   The participants in the GOSH! 2016 meeting gathered in IdeaSquare. (Image: GOSH Community) “Despite advances in technology, many scientific innovations are held back because of a lack of affordable and customisable hardware,” says François Grey, a professor at the University of Geneva and coordinator of Citizen Cyberlab – a partnership between CERN, the UN Institute for Training and Research and the University of Geneva – which co-organised the GOSH! 2016 workshop. “This scarcity of accessible science hardware is particularly obstructive for citizen science groups and humanitarian organisations that don’t have the same economic means as a well-funded institution.” Instead, open sourcing science hardware co...

Hardware Accelerated Simulated Radiography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Laney, D; Callahan, S; Max, N; Silva, C; Langer, S; Frank, R

2005-01-01

We present the application of hardware accelerated volume rendering algorithms to the simulation of radiographs as an aid to scientists designing experiments, validating simulation codes, and understanding experimental data. The techniques presented take advantage of 32 bit floating point texture capabilities to obtain validated solutions to the radiative transport equation for X-rays. An unsorted hexahedron projection algorithm is presented for curvilinear hexahedra that produces simulated radiographs in the absorption-only regime. A sorted tetrahedral projection algorithm is presented that simulates radiographs of emissive materials. We apply the tetrahedral projection algorithm to the simulation of experimental diagnostics for inertial confinement fusion experiments on a laser at the University of Rochester. We show that the hardware accelerated solution is faster than the current technique used by scientists

BiLBIQ A Biologically Inspired Robot with Walking and Rolling Locomotion

CERN Document Server

King, Ralf Simon

2013-01-01

The book ‘BiLBIQ: A biologically inspired Robot with walking and rolling locomotion’ deals with implementing a locomotion behavior observed in the biological archetype Cebrennus villosus to a robot prototype whose structural design needs to be developed.   The biological sample is investigated as far as possible and compared to other evolutional solutions within the framework of nature’s inventions. Current achievements in robotics are examined and evaluated for their relation and relevance to the robot prototype in question. An overview of what is state of the art in actuation ensures the choice of the hardware available and most suitable for this project. Through a constant consideration of the achievement of two fundamentally different ways of locomotion with one and the same structure, a robot design is developed and constructed taking hardware constraints into account. The development of a special leg structure that needs to resemble and replace body elements of the biological archetype is a speci...

Reliable software for unreliable hardware a cross layer perspective

CERN Document Server

Rehman, Semeen; Henkel, Jörg

2016-01-01

This book describes novel software concepts to increase reliability under user-defined constraints. The authors’ approach bridges, for the first time, the reliability gap between hardware and software. Readers will learn how to achieve increased soft error resilience on unreliable hardware, while exploiting the inherent error masking characteristics and error (stemming from soft errors, aging, and process variations) mitigations potential at different software layers. · Provides a comprehensive overview of reliability modeling and optimization techniques at different hardware and software levels; · Describes novel optimization techniques for software cross-layer reliability, targeting unreliable hardware.

Hardware device to physical structure binding and authentication

Science.gov (United States)

Hamlet, Jason R.; Stein, David J.; Bauer, Todd M.

2013-08-20

Detection and deterrence of device tampering and subversion may be achieved by including a cryptographic fingerprint unit within a hardware device for authenticating a binding of the hardware device and a physical structure. The cryptographic fingerprint unit includes an internal physically unclonable function ("PUF") circuit disposed in or on the hardware device, which generate an internal PUF value. Binding logic is coupled to receive the internal PUF value, as well as an external PUF value associated with the physical structure, and generates a binding PUF value, which represents the binding of the hardware device and the physical structure. The cryptographic fingerprint unit also includes a cryptographic unit that uses the binding PUF value to allow a challenger to authenticate the binding.

Raspberry Pi hardware projects 1

CERN Document Server

Robinson, Andrew

2013-01-01

Learn how to take full advantage of all of Raspberry Pi's amazing features and functions-and have a blast doing it! Congratulations on becoming a proud owner of a Raspberry Pi, the credit-card-sized computer! If you're ready to dive in and start finding out what this amazing little gizmo is really capable of, this ebook is for you. Taken from the forthcoming Raspberry Pi Projects, Raspberry Pi Hardware Projects 1 contains three cool hardware projects that let you have fun with the Raspberry Pi while developing your Raspberry Pi skills. The authors - PiFace inventor, Andrew Robinson and Rasp

A Hardware Abstraction Layer in Java

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schoeberl, Martin; Korsholm, Stephan; Kalibera, Tomas

2011-01-01

Embedded systems use specialized hardware devices to interact with their environment, and since they have to be dependable, it is attractive to use a modern, type-safe programming language like Java to develop programs for them. Standard Java, as a platform-independent language, delegates access...... to devices, direct memory access, and interrupt handling to some underlying operating system or kernel, but in the embedded systems domain resources are scarce and a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) without an underlying middleware is an attractive architecture. The contribution of this article is a proposal...... for Java packages with hardware objects and interrupt handlers that interface to such a JVM. We provide implementations of the proposal directly in hardware, as extensions of standard interpreters, and finally with an operating system middleware. The latter solution is mainly seen as a migration path...

Designing Secure Systems on Reconfigurable Hardware

OpenAIRE

Huffmire, Ted; Brotherton, Brett; Callegari, Nick; Valamehr, Jonathan; White, Jeff; Kastner, Ryan; Sherwood, Ted

2008-01-01

The extremely high cost of custom ASIC fabrication makes FPGAs an attractive alternative for deployment of custom hardware. Embedded systems based on reconfigurable hardware integrate many functions onto a single device. Since embedded designers often have no choice but to use soft IP cores obtained from third parties, the cores operate at different trust levels, resulting in mixed trust designs. The goal of this project is to evaluate recently proposed security primitives for reconfigurab...

Hardware-Accelerated Simulated Radiography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Laney, D; Callahan, S; Max, N; Silva, C; Langer, S.; Frank, R

2005-01-01

We present the application of hardware accelerated volume rendering algorithms to the simulation of radiographs as an aid to scientists designing experiments, validating simulation codes, and understanding experimental data. The techniques presented take advantage of 32-bit floating point texture capabilities to obtain solutions to the radiative transport equation for X-rays. The hardware accelerated solutions are accurate enough to enable scientists to explore the experimental design space with greater efficiency than the methods currently in use. An unsorted hexahedron projection algorithm is presented for curvilinear hexahedral meshes that produces simulated radiographs in the absorption-only regime. A sorted tetrahedral projection algorithm is presented that simulates radiographs of emissive materials. We apply the tetrahedral projection algorithm to the simulation of experimental diagnostics for inertial confinement fusion experiments on a laser at the University of Rochester

From Newton to Einstein - N-body dynamics in galactic nuclei and SPH using new special hardware and astrogrid-D

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Spurzem, R; Berczik, P; Berentzen, I; Merritt, D; Nakasato, N; Adorf, H M; Bruesemeister, T; Schwekendiek, P; Steinacker, J; Wambsganss, J; Martinez, G Marcus; Lienhart, G; Kugel, A; Maenner, R; Burkert, A; Naab, T; Vasquez, H; Wetzstein, M

2007-01-01

The dynamics of galactic nuclei containing multiple supermassive black holes is modelled including relativistic dynamics. It is shown that for certain initial conditions there is no stalling problem for the relativistic coalescence of supermassive black hole binaries. This astrophysical application and another one using a smoothed particle hydrodynamics code are our first use cases on a new computer architecture using GRAPE and new MPRACE accelerator cards based on reconfigurable chips, developed in the GRACE project. We briefly discuss our science applications and first benchmarks obtained with the new hardware. Our present architecture still relies on the GRAPE special purpose hardware (not reconfigurable), but next generations will focus on new architectural approaches including custom network and computing architectures. The new hardware is embedded into national and international grid infrastructures

ATLAS TileCal LVPS Upgrade Hardware and Testing

CERN Document Server

Hibbard, Michael James; The ATLAS collaboration; Hadavand, Haleh Khani

2018-01-01

UTA (University of Texas at Arlington) has been designing and producing new testing stations to ensure the reliability and quality of new TileLVPS (Low Voltage Power Supplies), also produced at UTA, which will power the next generation of upgraded hardware in the TileCal (Tile Calorimeter) system of ATLAS at CERN. UTA has produced two new types of testing stations, which build upon the previous generation of testing stations used in the initial production of the TileCal system. The first station is the Initial Test Station, and quickly quantifies a multitude of performance metrics of a LVPS. We have developed our own PC based program which graphically display and records onto file these metrics. A few notable metrics we are measuring are the system clock and its jitter. Excessive clock jitter in LVPS can affect system stability and derate the working range of the system duty cycle. This station also verifies protection circuitry of LVPS, which protects it from over temperature, current and voltage. The second...

Hardware descriptions of the I and C systems for NPP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Cheol Kwon; Oh, In Suk; Park, Joo Hyun; Kim, Dong Hoon; Han, Jae Bok; Shin, Jae Whal; Kim, Young Bak

2003-09-01

The hardware specifications for I and C Systems of SNPP(Standard Nuclear Power Plant) are reviewed in order to acquire the hardware requirement and specification of KNICS (Korea Nuclear Instrumentation and Control System). In the study, we investigated hardware requirements, hardware configuration, hardware specifications, man-machine hardware requirements, interface requirements with the other system, and data communication requirements that are applicable to SNP. We reviewed those things of control systems, protection systems, monitoring systems, information systems, and process instrumentation systems. Through the study, we described the requirements and specifications of digital systems focusing on a microprocessor and a communication interface, and repeated it for analog systems focusing on the manufacturing companies. It is expected that the experience acquired from this research will provide vital input for the development of the KNICS

An application of characteristic function in order to predict reliability and lifetime of aeronautical hardware

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Żurek, Józef; Kaleta, Ryszard; Zieja, Mariusz [Air Force Institute of Technology ul. Księcia Bolesława 6 01-494 Warsaw (Poland)

2016-06-08

The forecasting of reliability and life of aeronautical hardware requires recognition of many and various destructive processes that deteriorate the health/maintenance status thereof. The aging of technical components of aircraft as an armament system proves of outstanding significance to reliability and safety of the whole system. The aging process is usually induced by many and various factors, just to mention mechanical, biological, climatic, or chemical ones. The aging is an irreversible process and considerably affects (i.e. reduces) reliability and lifetime of aeronautical equipment. Application of the characteristic function of the aging process is suggested to predict reliability and lifetime of aeronautical hardware. An increment in values of diagnostic parameters is introduced to formulate then, using the characteristic function and after some rearrangements, the partial differential equation. An analytical dependence for the characteristic function of the aging process is a solution to this equation. With the inverse transformation applied, the density function of the aging of aeronautical hardware is found. Having found the density function, one can determine the aeronautical equipment’s reliability and lifetime. The in-service collected or the life tests delivered data are used to attain this goal. Coefficients in this relationship are found using the likelihood function.

An application of characteristic function in order to predict reliability and lifetime of aeronautical hardware

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Żurek, Józef; Kaleta, Ryszard; Zieja, Mariusz

2016-01-01

The forecasting of reliability and life of aeronautical hardware requires recognition of many and various destructive processes that deteriorate the health/maintenance status thereof. The aging of technical components of aircraft as an armament system proves of outstanding significance to reliability and safety of the whole system. The aging process is usually induced by many and various factors, just to mention mechanical, biological, climatic, or chemical ones. The aging is an irreversible process and considerably affects (i.e. reduces) reliability and lifetime of aeronautical equipment. Application of the characteristic function of the aging process is suggested to predict reliability and lifetime of aeronautical hardware. An increment in values of diagnostic parameters is introduced to formulate then, using the characteristic function and after some rearrangements, the partial differential equation. An analytical dependence for the characteristic function of the aging process is a solution to this equation. With the inverse transformation applied, the density function of the aging of aeronautical hardware is found. Having found the density function, one can determine the aeronautical equipment’s reliability and lifetime. The in-service collected or the life tests delivered data are used to attain this goal. Coefficients in this relationship are found using the likelihood function.

A Brief Introduction to Chinese Biological Biological

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

无

2005-01-01

Chinese Biological Abstracts sponsored by the Library, the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, the Biological Documentation and Information Network, all of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, commenced publication in 1987 and was initiated to provide access to the Chinese information in the field of biology.

Biologically-initiated rock crust on sandstone: Mechanical and hydraulic properties and resistance to erosion

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Slavík, M.; Bruthans, J.; Filippi, Michal; Schweigstillová, Jana; Falteisek, L.; Řihošek, J.

2017-01-01

Roč. 278, FEB 1 (2017), s. 298-313 ISSN 0169-555X R&D Projects: GA ČR GA13-28040S; GA ČR(CZ) GA16-19459S Institutional support: RVO:67985831 ; RVO:67985891 Keywords : biofilm * biocrust * biologically-initiated rock crust * sandstone protection * case hardening Subject RIV: DB - Geology ; Mineralogy; DB - Geology ; Mineralogy (USMH-B) OBOR OECD: Geology; Geology (USMH-B) Impact factor: 2.958, year: 2016

Multi-User Hardware Solutions to Combustion Science ISS Research

Science.gov (United States)

Otero, Angel M.

2001-01-01

In response to the budget environment and to expand on the International Space Station (ISS) Fluids and Combustion Facility (FCF) Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR), common hardware approach, the NASA Combustion Science Program shifted focus in 1999 from single investigator PI (Principal Investigator)-specific hardware to multi-user 'Minifacilities'. These mini-facilities would take the CIR common hardware philosophy to the next level. The approach that was developed re-arranged all the investigations in the program into sub-fields of research. Then common requirements within these subfields were used to develop a common system that would then be complemented by a few PI-specific components. The sub-fields of research selected were droplet combustion, solids and fire safety, and gaseous fuels. From these research areas three mini-facilities have sprung: the Multi-user Droplet Combustion Apparatus (MDCA) for droplet research, Flow Enclosure for Novel Investigations in Combustion of Solids (FEANICS) for solids and fire safety, and the Multi-user Gaseous Fuels Apparatus (MGFA) for gaseous fuels. These mini-facilities will develop common Chamber Insert Assemblies (CIA) and diagnostics for the respective investigators complementing the capability provided by CIR. Presently there are four investigators for MDCA, six for FEANICS, and four for MGFA. The goal of these multi-user facilities is to drive the cost per PI down after the initial development investment is made. Each of these mini-facilities will become a fixture of future Combustion Science NASA Research Announcements (NRAs), enabling investigators to propose against an existing capability. Additionally, an investigation is provided the opportunity to enhance the existing capability to bridge the gap between the capability and their specific science requirements. This multi-user development approach will enable the Combustion Science Program to drive cost per investigation down while drastically reducing the time

Software-Controlled Dynamically Swappable Hardware Design in Partially Reconfigurable Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huang Chun-Hsian

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract We propose two basic wrapper designs and an enhanced wrapper design for arbitrary digital hardware circuit designs such that they can be enhanced with the capability for dynamic swapping controlled by software. A hardware design with either of the proposed wrappers can thus be swapped out of the partially reconfigurable logic at runtime in some intermediate state of computation and then swapped in when required to continue from that state. The context data is saved to a buffer in the wrapper at interruptible states, and then the wrapper takes care of saving the hardware context to communication memory through a peripheral bus, and later restoring the hardware context after the design is swapped in. The overheads of the hardware standardization and the wrapper in terms of additional reconfigurable logic resources and the time for context switching are small and generally acceptable. With the capability for dynamic swapping, high priority hardware tasks can interrupt low-priority tasks in real-time embedded systems so that the utilization of hardware space per unit time is increased.

CMOL/CMOS hardware architectures and performance/price for Bayesian memory - The building block of intelligent systems

Science.gov (United States)

Zaveri, Mazad Shaheriar

The semiconductor/computer industry has been following Moore's law for several decades and has reaped the benefits in speed and density of the resultant scaling. Transistor density has reached almost one billion per chip, and transistor delays are in picoseconds. However, scaling has slowed down, and the semiconductor industry is now facing several challenges. Hybrid CMOS/nano technologies, such as CMOL, are considered as an interim solution to some of the challenges. Another potential architectural solution includes specialized architectures for applications/models in the intelligent computing domain, one aspect of which includes abstract computational models inspired from the neuro/cognitive sciences. Consequently in this dissertation, we focus on the hardware implementations of Bayesian Memory (BM), which is a (Bayesian) Biologically Inspired Computational Model (BICM). This model is a simplified version of George and Hawkins' model of the visual cortex, which includes an inference framework based on Judea Pearl's belief propagation. We then present a "hardware design space exploration" methodology for implementing and analyzing the (digital and mixed-signal) hardware for the BM. This particular methodology involves: analyzing the computational/operational cost and the related micro-architecture, exploring candidate hardware components, proposing various custom hardware architectures using both traditional CMOS and hybrid nanotechnology - CMOL, and investigating the baseline performance/price of these architectures. The results suggest that CMOL is a promising candidate for implementing a BM. Such implementations can utilize the very high density storage/computation benefits of these new nano-scale technologies much more efficiently; for example, the throughput per 858 mm2 (TPM) obtained for CMOL based architectures is 32 to 40 times better than the TPM for a CMOS based multiprocessor/multi-FPGA system, and almost 2000 times better than the TPM for a PC

Generation of Embedded Hardware/Software from SystemC

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dominique Houzet

2006-08-01

Full Text Available Designers increasingly rely on reusing intellectual property (IP and on raising the level of abstraction to respect system-on-chip (SoC market characteristics. However, most hardware and embedded software codes are recoded manually from system level. This recoding step often results in new coding errors that must be identified and debugged. Thus, shorter time-to-market requires automation of the system synthesis from high-level specifications. In this paper, we propose a design flow intended to reduce the SoC design cost. This design flow unifies hardware and software using a single high-level language. It integrates hardware/software (HW/SW generation tools and an automatic interface synthesis through a custom library of adapters. We have validated our interface synthesis approach on a hardware producer/consumer case study and on the design of a given software radiocommunication application.

Generation of Embedded Hardware/Software from SystemC

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ouadjaout Salim

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Designers increasingly rely on reusing intellectual property (IP and on raising the level of abstraction to respect system-on-chip (SoC market characteristics. However, most hardware and embedded software codes are recoded manually from system level. This recoding step often results in new coding errors that must be identified and debugged. Thus, shorter time-to-market requires automation of the system synthesis from high-level specifications. In this paper, we propose a design flow intended to reduce the SoC design cost. This design flow unifies hardware and software using a single high-level language. It integrates hardware/software (HW/SW generation tools and an automatic interface synthesis through a custom library of adapters. We have validated our interface synthesis approach on a hardware producer/consumer case study and on the design of a given software radiocommunication application.

Cooperative communications hardware, channel and PHY

CERN Document Server

Dohler, Mischa

2010-01-01

Facilitating Cooperation for Wireless Systems Cooperative Communications: Hardware, Channel & PHY focuses on issues pertaining to the PHY layer of wireless communication networks, offering a rigorous taxonomy of this dispersed field, along with a range of application scenarios for cooperative and distributed schemes, demonstrating how these techniques can be employed. The authors discuss hardware, complexity and power consumption issues, which are vital for understanding what can be realized at the PHY layer, showing how wireless channel models differ from more traditional

IDD Archival Hardware Architecture and Workflow

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mendonsa, D; Nekoogar, F; Martz, H

2008-10-09

This document describes the functionality of every component in the DHS/IDD archival and storage hardware system shown in Fig. 1. The document describes steps by step process of image data being received at LLNL then being processed and made available to authorized personnel and collaborators. Throughout this document references will be made to one of two figures, Fig. 1 describing the elements of the architecture and the Fig. 2 describing the workflow and how the project utilizes the available hardware.

Aspects of system modelling in Hardware/Software partitioning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knudsen, Peter Voigt; Madsen, Jan

1996-01-01

This paper addresses fundamental aspects of system modelling and partitioning algorithms in the area of Hardware/Software Codesign. Three basic system models for partitioning are presented and the consequences of partitioning according to each of these are analyzed. The analysis shows...... the importance of making a clear distinction between the model used for partitioning and the model used for evaluation It also illustrates the importance of having a realistic hardware model such that hardware sharing can be taken into account. Finally, the importance of integrating scheduling and allocation...

Hardware Acceleration of Adaptive Neural Algorithms.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

James, Conrad D. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2017-11-01

As tradit ional numerical computing has faced challenges, researchers have turned towards alternative computing approaches to reduce power - per - computation metrics and improve algorithm performance. Here, we describe an approach towards non - conventional computing that strengthens the connection between machine learning and neuroscience concepts. The Hardware Acceleration of Adaptive Neural Algorithms (HAANA) project ha s develop ed neural machine learning algorithms and hardware for applications in image processing and cybersecurity. While machine learning methods are effective at extracting relevant features from many types of data, the effectiveness of these algorithms degrades when subjected to real - world conditions. Our team has generated novel neural - inspired approa ches to improve the resiliency and adaptability of machine learning algorithms. In addition, we have also designed and fabricated hardware architectures and microelectronic devices specifically tuned towards the training and inference operations of neural - inspired algorithms. Finally, our multi - scale simulation framework allows us to assess the impact of microelectronic device properties on algorithm performance.

Hardware/software virtualization for the reconfigurable multicore platform.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ferger, M.; Al Kadi, M.; Hübner, M.; Koedam, M.L.P.J.; Sinha, S.S.; Goossens, K.G.W.; Marchesan Almeida, Gabriel; Rodrigo Azambuja, J.; Becker, Juergen

2012-01-01

This paper presents the Flex Tiles approach for the virtualization of hardware and software for a reconfigurable multicore architecture. The approach enables the virtualization of a dynamic tile-based hardware architecture consisting of processing tiles connected via a network-on-chip and a

Overview of Additive Manufacturing Initiatives at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

Science.gov (United States)

Clinton, R. G., Jr.

2018-01-01

NASA's In Space Manufacturing Initiative (ISM) includes: The case for ISM - why; ISM path to exploration - results from the 3D Printing In Zero-G Technology Demonstration - ISM challenges; In space Robotic Manufacturing and Assembly (IRMA); Additive construction. Additively Manufacturing (AM) development for liquid rocket engine space flight hardware. MSFC standard and specification for additively manufactured space flight hardware. Summary.

PERANCANGAN APLIKASI SISTEM PAKAR DIAGNOSA KERUSAKAN HARDWARE KOMPUTER METODE FORWARD CHAINING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali Akbar Rismayadi

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Damage to computer hardware, not a big disaster, because not all damage to computer hardware can not be repaired, nearly all computer users, whether public or institutions often suffer various kinds of damage that occurred in the computer hardware it has, and the damage can be caused by various factors that are basically as the user does not know the cause of what makes the computer hardware used damaged. Therefore, it is necessary to build an application that can help users to mendiganosa damage to computer hardware. So that everyone can diagnose the type of hardware damage his computer. Development of expert system diagnosis of damage to computer hardware uses forward chaining method by promoting alisisis descriptive of various damage data obtained from several experts and other sources of literature to reach a conclusion on the diagnosis of damage. As well as using the waterfall model as a model system development, starting from the analysis stage to stage software needs support. This application is built using a programming language tools Eclipse ADT as well as SQLite as its database. diagnosis expert system damage computer hardware is expected to be used as a tool to help find the causes of damage to computer hardware independently without the help of a computer technician.

Flight Hardware Virtualization for On-Board Science Data Processing

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Utilize Hardware Virtualization technology to benefit on-board science data processing by investigating new real time embedded Hardware Virtualization solutions and...

Contamination Control and Hardware Processing Solutions at Marshall Space Flight Center

Science.gov (United States)

Burns, DeWitt H.; Hampton, Tammy; Huey, LaQuieta; Mitchell, Mark; Norwood, Joey; Lowrey, Nikki

2012-01-01

The Contamination Control Team of Marshall Space Flight Center's Materials and Processes Laboratory supports many Programs/ Projects that design, manufacture, and test a wide range of hardware types that are sensitive to contamination and foreign object damage (FOD). Examples where contamination/FOD concerns arise include sensitive structural bondline failure, critical orifice blockage, seal leakage, and reactive fluid compatibility (liquid oxygen, hydrazine) as well as performance degradation of sensitive instruments or spacecraft surfaces such as optical elements and thermal control systems. During the design phase, determination of the sensitivity of a hardware system to different types or levels of contamination/FOD is essential. A contamination control and FOD control plan must then be developed and implemented through all phases of ground processing, and, sometimes, on-orbit use, recovery, and refurbishment. Implementation of proper controls prevents cost and schedule impacts due to hardware damage or rework and helps assure mission success. Current capabilities are being used to support recent and on-going activities for multiple Mission Directorates / Programs such as International Space Station (ISS), James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Space Launch System (SLS) elements (tanks, engines, booster), etc. The team also advances Green Technology initiatives and addresses materials obsolescence issues for NASA and external customers, most notably in the area of solvent replacement (e.g. aqueous cleaners containing hexavalent chrome, ozone depleting chemicals (CFC s and HCFC's), suspect carcinogens). The team evaluates new surface cleanliness inspection and cleaning technologies (e.g. plasma cleaning), and maintains databases for processing support materials as well as outgassing and optical compatibility test results for spaceflight environments.

Speed challenge: a case for hardware implementation in soft-computing

Science.gov (United States)

Daud, T.; Stoica, A.; Duong, T.; Keymeulen, D.; Zebulum, R.; Thomas, T.; Thakoor, A.

2000-01-01

For over a decade, JPL has been actively involved in soft computing research on theory, architecture, applications, and electronics hardware. The driving force in all our research activities, in addition to the potential enabling technology promise, has been creation of a niche that imparts orders of magnitude speed advantage by implementation in parallel processing hardware with algorithms made especially suitable for hardware implementation. We review our work on neural networks, fuzzy logic, and evolvable hardware with selected application examples requiring real time response capabilities.

Computer hardware for radiologists: Part I

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Indrajit, IK; Alam, A

2010-01-01

Computers are an integral part of modern radiology practice. They are used in different radiology modalities to acquire, process, and postprocess imaging data. They have had a dramatic influence on contemporary radiology practice. Their impact has extended further with the emergence of Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM), Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS), Radiology information system (RIS) technology, and Teleradiology. A basic overview of computer hardware relevant to radiology practice is presented here. The key hardware components in a computer are the motherboard, central processor unit (CPU), the chipset, the random access memory (RAM), the memory modules, bus, storage drives, and ports. The personnel computer (PC) has a rectangular case that contains important components called hardware, many of which are integrated circuits (ICs). The fiberglass motherboard is the main printed circuit board and has a variety of important hardware mounted on it, which are connected by electrical pathways called “buses”. The CPU is the largest IC on the motherboard and contains millions of transistors. Its principal function is to execute “programs”. A Pentium ® 4 CPU has transistors that execute a billion instructions per second. The chipset is completely different from the CPU in design and function; it controls data and interaction of buses between the motherboard and the CPU. Memory (RAM) is fundamentally semiconductor chips storing data and instructions for access by a CPU. RAM is classified by storage capacity, access speed, data rate, and configuration

Computer hardware for radiologists: Part I

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Indrajit I

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Computers are an integral part of modern radiology practice. They are used in different radiology modalities to acquire, process, and postprocess imaging data. They have had a dramatic influence on contemporary radiology practice. Their impact has extended further with the emergence of Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM, Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS, Radiology information system (RIS technology, and Teleradiology. A basic overview of computer hardware relevant to radiology practice is presented here. The key hardware components in a computer are the motherboard, central processor unit (CPU, the chipset, the random access memory (RAM, the memory modules, bus, storage drives, and ports. The personnel computer (PC has a rectangular case that contains important components called hardware, many of which are integrated circuits (ICs. The fiberglass motherboard is the main printed circuit board and has a variety of important hardware mounted on it, which are connected by electrical pathways called "buses". The CPU is the largest IC on the motherboard and contains millions of transistors. Its principal function is to execute "programs". A Pentium® 4 CPU has transistors that execute a billion instructions per second. The chipset is completely different from the CPU in design and function; it controls data and interaction of buses between the motherboard and the CPU. Memory (RAM is fundamentally semiconductor chips storing data and instructions for access by a CPU. RAM is classified by storage capacity, access speed, data rate, and configuration.

Hardware malware

CERN Document Server

Krieg, Christian

2013-01-01

In our digital world, integrated circuits are present in nearly every moment of our daily life. Even when using the coffee machine in the morning, or driving our car to work, we interact with integrated circuits. The increasing spread of information technology in virtually all areas of life in the industrialized world offers a broad range of attack vectors. So far, mainly software-based attacks have been considered and investigated, while hardware-based attacks have attracted comparatively little interest. The design and production process of integrated circuits is mostly decentralized due to

Hardware Accelerated Sequence Alignment with Traceback

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Scott Lloyd

2009-01-01

in a timely manner. Known methods to accelerate alignment on reconfigurable hardware only address sequence comparison, limit the sequence length, or exhibit memory and I/O bottlenecks. A space-efficient, global sequence alignment algorithm and architecture is presented that accelerates the forward scan and traceback in hardware without memory and I/O limitations. With 256 processing elements in FPGA technology, a performance gain over 300 times that of a desktop computer is demonstrated on sequence lengths of 16000. For greater performance, the architecture is scalable to more processing elements.

Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing

Data.gov (United States)

Federal Laboratory Consortium — RTC has a suite of Hardware-in-the Loop facilities that include three operational facilities that provide performance assessment and production acceptance testing of...

Learning Machines Implemented on Non-Deterministic Hardware

OpenAIRE

Gupta, Suyog; Sindhwani, Vikas; Gopalakrishnan, Kailash

2014-01-01

This paper highlights new opportunities for designing large-scale machine learning systems as a consequence of blurring traditional boundaries that have allowed algorithm designers and application-level practitioners to stay -- for the most part -- oblivious to the details of the underlying hardware-level implementations. The hardware/software co-design methodology advocated here hinges on the deployment of compute-intensive machine learning kernels onto compute platforms that trade-off deter...

Hardware Middleware for Person Tracking on Embedded Distributed Smart Cameras

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali Akbar Zarezadeh

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Tracking individuals is a prominent application in such domains like surveillance or smart environments. This paper provides a development of a multiple camera setup with jointed view that observes moving persons in a site. It focuses on a geometry-based approach to establish correspondence among different views. The expensive computational parts of the tracker are hardware accelerated via a novel system-on-chip (SoC design. In conjunction with this vision application, a hardware object request broker (ORB middleware is presented as the underlying communication system. The hardware ORB provides a hardware/software architecture to achieve real-time intercommunication among multiple smart cameras. Via a probing mechanism, a performance analysis is performed to measure network latencies, that is, time traversing the TCP/IP stack, in both software and hardware ORB approaches on the same smart camera platform. The empirical results show that using the proposed hardware ORB as client and server in separate smart camera nodes will considerably reduce the network latency up to 100 times compared to the software ORB.

Proof-Carrying Hardware: Concept and Prototype Tool Flow for Online Verification

OpenAIRE

Drzevitzky, Stephanie; Kastens, Uwe; Platzner, Marco

2010-01-01

Dynamically reconfigurable hardware combines hardware performance with software-like flexibility and finds increasing use in networked systems. The capability to load hardware modules at runtime provides these systems with an unparalleled degree of adaptivity but at the same time poses new challenges for security and safety. In this paper, we elaborate on the presentation of proof carrying hardware (PCH) as a novel approach to reconfigurable system security. PCH takes ...

Hardware based technology assessment in support of near-term space fission missions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Houts, Mike; Van Dyke, Melissa; Godfroy, Tom; Martin, James; Bragg-Sitton, Shannon; Dickens, Ricky; Salvail, Pat; Williams, Eric; Harper, Roger; Hrbud, Ivana; Carter, Robert

2003-01-01

Fission technology can enable rapid, affordable access to any point in the solar system. If fission propulsion systems are to be developed to their full potential; however, near-term customers must be identified and initial fission systems successfully developed, launched, and utilized. Successful utilization will most likely occur if frequent, significant hardware-based milestones can be achieved throughout the program. Achieving these milestones will depend on the capability to perform highly realistic non-nuclear testing of nuclear systems. This paper discusses ongoing and potential research that could help achieve these milestones

Hardware Based Technology Assessment in Support of Near-Term Space Fission Missions

Science.gov (United States)

Houts, Mike; VanDyke, Melissa; Godfroy, Tom; Martin, James; BraggSitton, Shannon; Carter, Robert; Dickens, Ricky; Salvail, Pat; Williams, Eric; Harper, Roger

2003-01-01

Fission technology can enable rapid, affordable access to any point in the solar system. If fission propulsion systems are to be developed to their full potential; however, near-term customers must be identified and initial fission systems successfully developed, launched, and utilized. Successful utilization will most likely occur if frequent, significant hardware-based milestones can be achieved throughout the program. Achieving these milestones will depend on the capability to perform highly realistic non-nuclear testing of nuclear systems. This paper discusses ongoing and potential research that could help achieve these milestones.

4273π: bioinformatics education on low cost ARM hardware.

Science.gov (United States)

Barker, Daniel; Ferrier, David Ek; Holland, Peter Wh; Mitchell, John Bo; Plaisier, Heleen; Ritchie, Michael G; Smart, Steven D

2013-08-12

Teaching bioinformatics at universities is complicated by typical computer classroom settings. As well as running software locally and online, students should gain experience of systems administration. For a future career in biology or bioinformatics, the installation of software is a useful skill. We propose that this may be taught by running the course on GNU/Linux running on inexpensive Raspberry Pi computer hardware, for which students may be granted full administrator access. We release 4273π, an operating system image for Raspberry Pi based on Raspbian Linux. This includes minor customisations for classroom use and includes our Open Access bioinformatics course, 4273π Bioinformatics for Biologists. This is based on the final-year undergraduate module BL4273, run on Raspberry Pi computers at the University of St Andrews, Semester 1, academic year 2012-2013. 4273π is a means to teach bioinformatics, including systems administration tasks, to undergraduates at low cost.

Probes & Drugs portal: an interactive, open data resource for chemical biology

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Škuta, Ctibor; Popr, M.; Muller, Tomáš; Jindřich, Jindřich; Kahle, Michal; Sedlák, David; Svozil, Daniel; Bartůněk, Petr

2017-01-01

Roč. 14, č. 8 (2017), s. 758-759 ISSN 1548-7091 R&D Projects: GA MŠk LO1220 Institutional support: RVO:68378050 Keywords : bioactive compound, ,, * chemical probe * chemical biology * portal Subject RIV: EB - Genetics ; Molecular Biology OBOR OECD: Computer sciences, information science, bioinformathics (hardware development to be 2.2, social aspect to be 5.8) Impact factor: 25.062, year: 2016

The VMTG Hardware Description

CERN Document Server

Puccio, B

1998-01-01

The document describes the hardware features of the CERN Master Timing Generator. This board is the common platform for the transmission of General Timing Machine required by the CERN accelerators. In addition, the paper shows the various jumper options to customise the card which is compliant to the VMEbus standard.

Dynamically-Loaded Hardware Libraries (HLL) Technology for Audio Applications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Esposito, A.; Lomuscio, A.; Nunzio, L. Di

2016-01-01

In this work, we apply hardware acceleration to embedded systems running audio applications. We present a new framework, Dynamically-Loaded Hardware Libraries or HLL, to dynamically load hardware libraries on reconfigurable platforms (FPGAs). Provided a library of application-specific processors......, we load on-the-fly the specific processor in the FPGA, and we transfer the execution from the CPU to the FPGA-based accelerator. The proposed architecture provides excellent flexibility with respect to the different audio applications implemented, high quality audio, and an energy efficient solution....

Hardware Approach for Real Time Machine Stereo Vision

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael Tornow

2006-02-01

Full Text Available Image processing is an effective tool for the analysis of optical sensor information for driver assistance systems and controlling of autonomous robots. Algorithms for image processing are often very complex and costly in terms of computation. In robotics and driver assistance systems, real-time processing is necessary. Signal processing algorithms must often be drastically modified so they can be implemented in the hardware. This task is especially difficult for continuous real-time processing at high speeds. This article describes a hardware-software co-design for a multi-object position sensor based on a stereophotogrammetric measuring method. In order to cover a large measuring area, an optimized algorithm based on an image pyramid is implemented in an FPGA as a parallel hardware solution for depth map calculation. Object recognition and tracking are then executed in real-time in a processor with help of software. For this task a statistical cluster method is used. Stabilization of the tracking is realized through use of a Kalman filter. Keywords: stereophotogrammetry, hardware-software co-design, FPGA, 3-d image analysis, real-time, clustering and tracking.

Hardware implementation of a GFSR pseudo-random number generator

Science.gov (United States)

Aiello, G. R.; Budinich, M.; Milotti, E.

1989-12-01

We describe the hardware implementation of a pseudo-random number generator of the "Generalized Feedback Shift Register" (GFSR) type. After brief theoretical considerations we describe two versions of the hardware, the tests done and the performances achieved.

Hardware Realization of Chaos Based Symmetric Image Encryption

KAUST Repository

Barakat, Mohamed L.

2012-06-01

This thesis presents a novel work on hardware realization of symmetric image encryption utilizing chaos based continuous systems as pseudo random number generators. Digital implementation of chaotic systems results in serious degradations in the dynamics of the system. Such defects are illuminated through a new technique of generalized post proceeding with very low hardware cost. The thesis further discusses two encryption algorithms designed and implemented as a block cipher and a stream cipher. The security of both systems is thoroughly analyzed and the performance is compared with other reported systems showing a superior results. Both systems are realized on Xilinx Vetrix-4 FPGA with a hardware and throughput performance surpassing known encryption systems.

Desenvolvimento de hardware reconfigurável de criptografia assimétrica

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Otávio Souza Martins Gomes

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Este artigo apresenta o resultado parcial do desenvolvimento de uma interface de hardware reconfigurável para criptografia assimétrica que permite a troca segura de dados. Hardwares reconfiguráveis permitem o desenvolvimento deste tipo de dispositivo com segurança e flexibilidade e possibilitam a mudança de características no projeto com baixo custo e de forma rápida.Palavras-chave: Criptografia. Hardware. ElGamal. FPGA. Segurança. Development of an asymmetric cryptography reconfigurable harwadre ABSTRACTThis paper presents some conclusions and choices about the development of an asymmetric cryptography reconfigurable hardware interface to allow a safe data communication. Reconfigurable hardwares allows the development of this kind of device with safety and flexibility, and offer the possibility to change some features with low cost and in a fast way.Keywords: Cryptography. Hardware. ElGamal. FPGAs. Security.

MRI monitoring of focused ultrasound sonications near metallic hardware.

Science.gov (United States)

Weber, Hans; Ghanouni, Pejman; Pascal-Tenorio, Aurea; Pauly, Kim Butts; Hargreaves, Brian A

2018-07-01

To explore the temperature-induced signal change in two-dimensional multi-spectral imaging (2DMSI) for fast thermometry near metallic hardware to enable MR-guided focused ultrasound surgery (MRgFUS) in patients with implanted metallic hardware. 2DMSI was optimized for temperature sensitivity and applied to monitor focus ultrasound surgery (FUS) sonications near metallic hardware in phantoms and ex vivo porcine muscle tissue. Further, we evaluated its temperature sensitivity for in vivo muscle in patients without metallic hardware. In addition, we performed a comparison of temperature sensitivity between 2DMSI and conventional proton-resonance-frequency-shift (PRFS) thermometry at different distances from metal devices and different signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). 2DMSI thermometry enabled visualization of short ultrasound sonications near metallic hardware. Calibration using in vivo muscle yielded a constant temperature sensitivity for temperatures below 43 °C. For an off-resonance coverage of ± 6 kHz, we achieved a temperature sensitivity of 1.45%/K, resulting in a minimum detectable temperature change of ∼2.5 K for an SNR of 100 with a temporal resolution of 6 s per frame. The proposed 2DMSI thermometry has the potential to allow MR-guided FUS treatments of patients with metallic hardware and therefore expand its reach to a larger patient population. Magn Reson Med 80:259-271, 2018. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Hardware Testing for the Optical PAyload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS)

Science.gov (United States)

Slagle, Amanda

2011-01-01

Hardware for several subsystems of the proposed Optical PAyload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS), including the gimbal and avionics, was tested. Microswitches installed on the gimbal were evaluated to verify that their point of actuation would remain within the acceptable range even if the switches themselves move slightly during launch. An inspection of the power board was conducted to ensure that all power and ground signals were isolated, that polarized components were correctly oriented, and that all components were intact and securely soldered. Initial testing on the power board revealed several minor problems, but once they were fixed the power board was shown to function correctly. All tests and inspections were documented for future use in verifying launch requirements.

Trends in computer hardware and software.

Science.gov (United States)

Frankenfeld, F M

1993-04-01

Previously identified and current trends in the development of computer systems and in the use of computers for health care applications are reviewed. Trends identified in a 1982 article were increasing miniaturization and archival ability, increasing software costs, increasing software independence, user empowerment through new software technologies, shorter computer-system life cycles, and more rapid development and support of pharmaceutical services. Most of these trends continue today. Current trends in hardware and software include the increasing use of reduced instruction-set computing, migration to the UNIX operating system, the development of large software libraries, microprocessor-based smart terminals that allow remote validation of data, speech synthesis and recognition, application generators, fourth-generation languages, computer-aided software engineering, object-oriented technologies, and artificial intelligence. Current trends specific to pharmacy and hospitals are the withdrawal of vendors of hospital information systems from the pharmacy market, improved linkage of information systems within hospitals, and increased regulation by government. The computer industry and its products continue to undergo dynamic change. Software development continues to lag behind hardware, and its high cost is offsetting the savings provided by hardware.

CERN Neutrino Platform Hardware

CERN Document Server

Nelson, Kevin

2017-01-01

My summer research was broadly in CERN's neutrino platform hardware efforts. This project had two main components: detector assembly and data analysis work for ICARUS. Specifically, I worked on assembly for the ProtoDUNE project and monitored the safety of ICARUS as it was transported to Fermilab by analyzing the accelerometer data from its move.

Human Centered Hardware Modeling and Collaboration

Science.gov (United States)

Stambolian Damon; Lawrence, Brad; Stelges, Katrine; Henderson, Gena

2013-01-01

In order to collaborate engineering designs among NASA Centers and customers, to in clude hardware and human activities from multiple remote locations, live human-centered modeling and collaboration across several sites has been successfully facilitated by Kennedy Space Center. The focus of this paper includes innovative a pproaches to engineering design analyses and training, along with research being conducted to apply new technologies for tracking, immersing, and evaluating humans as well as rocket, vehic le, component, or faci lity hardware utilizing high resolution cameras, motion tracking, ergonomic analysis, biomedical monitoring, wor k instruction integration, head-mounted displays, and other innovative human-system integration modeling, simulation, and collaboration applications.

Analysis for Parallel Execution without Performing Hardware/Software Co-simulation

OpenAIRE

Muhammad Rashid

2014-01-01

Hardware/software co-simulation improves the performance of embedded applications by executing the applications on a virtual platform before the actual hardware is available in silicon. However, the virtual platform of the target architecture is often not available during early stages of the embedded design flow. Consequently, analysis for parallel execution without performing hardware/software co-simulation is required. This article presents an analysis methodology for parallel execution of ...

Software error masking effect on hardware faults

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, Jong Gyun; Seong, Poong Hyun

1999-01-01

Based on the Very High Speed Integrated Circuit (VHSIC) Hardware Description Language (VHDL), in this work, a simulation model for fault injection is developed to estimate the dependability of the digital system in operational phase. We investigated the software masking effect on hardware faults through the single bit-flip and stuck-at-x fault injection into the internal registers of the processor and memory cells. The fault location reaches all registers and memory cells. Fault distribution over locations is randomly chosen based on a uniform probability distribution. Using this model, we have predicted the reliability and masking effect of an application software in a digital system-Interposing Logic System (ILS) in a nuclear power plant. We have considered four the software operational profiles. From the results it was found that the software masking effect on hardware faults should be properly considered for predicting the system dependability accurately in operation phase. It is because the masking effect was formed to have different values according to the operational profile

Instrument hardware and software upgrades at IPNS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Worlton, Thomas; Hammonds, John; Mikkelson, D.; Mikkelson, Ruth; Porter, Rodney; Tao, Julian; Chatterjee, Alok

2006-01-01

IPNS is in the process of upgrading their time-of-flight neutron scattering instruments with improved hardware and software. The hardware upgrades include replacing old VAX Qbus and Multibus-based data acquisition systems with new systems based on VXI and VME. Hardware upgrades also include expanded detector banks and new detector electronics. Old VAX Fortran-based data acquisition and analysis software is being replaced with new software as part of the ISAW project. ISAW is written in Java for ease of development and portability, and is now used routinely for data visualization, reduction, and analysis on all upgraded instruments. ISAW provides the ability to process and visualize the data from thousands of detector pixels, each having thousands of time channels. These operations can be done interactively through a familiar graphical user interface or automatically through simple scripts. Scripts and operators provided by end users are automatically included in the ISAW menu structure, along with those distributed with ISAW, when the application is started

MFTF supervisory control and diagnostics system hardware

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Butner, D.N.

1979-01-01

The Supervisory Control and Diagnostics System (SCDS) for the Mirror Fusion Test Facility (MFTF) is a multiprocessor minicomputer system designed so that for most single-point failures, the hardware may be quickly reconfigured to provide continued operation of the experiment. The system is made up of nine Perkin-Elmer computers - a mixture of 8/32's and 7/32's. Each computer has ports on a shared memory system consisting of two independent shared memory modules. Each processor can signal other processors through hardware external to the shared memory. The system communicates with the Local Control and Instrumentation System, which consists of approximately 65 microprocessors. Each of the six system processors has facilities for communicating with a group of microprocessors; the groups consist of from four to 24 microprocessors. There are hardware switches so that if an SCDS processor communicating with a group of microprocessors fails, another SCDS processor takes over the communication

Flight Hardware Virtualization for On-Board Science Data Processing Project

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Utilize Hardware Virtualization technology to benefit on-board science data processing by investigating new real time embedded Hardware Virtualization solutions and...

Impact of Recent Hardware and Software Trends on High Performance Transaction Processing and Analytics

Science.gov (United States)

Mohan, C.

In this paper, I survey briefly some of the recent and emerging trends in hardware and software features which impact high performance transaction processing and data analytics applications. These features include multicore processor chips, ultra large main memories, flash storage, storage class memories, database appliances, field programmable gate arrays, transactional memory, key-value stores, and cloud computing. While some applications, e.g., Web 2.0 ones, were initially built without traditional transaction processing functionality in mind, slowly system architects and designers are beginning to address such previously ignored issues. The availability, analytics and response time requirements of these applications were initially given more importance than ACID transaction semantics and resource consumption characteristics. A project at IBM Almaden is studying the implications of phase change memory on transaction processing, in the context of a key-value store. Bitemporal data management has also become an important requirement, especially for financial applications. Power consumption and heat dissipation properties are also major considerations in the emergence of modern software and hardware architectural features. Considerations relating to ease of configuration, installation, maintenance and monitoring, and improvement of total cost of ownership have resulted in database appliances becoming very popular. The MapReduce paradigm is now quite popular for large scale data analysis, in spite of the major inefficiencies associated with it.

Event-driven processing for hardware-efficient neural spike sorting

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Yan; Pereira, João L.; Constandinou, Timothy G.

2018-02-01

Objective. The prospect of real-time and on-node spike sorting provides a genuine opportunity to push the envelope of large-scale integrated neural recording systems. In such systems the hardware resources, power requirements and data bandwidth increase linearly with channel count. Event-based (or data-driven) processing can provide here a new efficient means for hardware implementation that is completely activity dependant. In this work, we investigate using continuous-time level-crossing sampling for efficient data representation and subsequent spike processing. Approach. (1) We first compare signals (synthetic neural datasets) encoded with this technique against conventional sampling. (2) We then show how such a representation can be directly exploited by extracting simple time domain features from the bitstream to perform neural spike sorting. (3) The proposed method is implemented in a low power FPGA platform to demonstrate its hardware viability. Main results. It is observed that considerably lower data rates are achievable when using 7 bits or less to represent the signals, whilst maintaining the signal fidelity. Results obtained using both MATLAB and reconfigurable logic hardware (FPGA) indicate that feature extraction and spike sorting accuracies can be achieved with comparable or better accuracy than reference methods whilst also requiring relatively low hardware resources. Significance. By effectively exploiting continuous-time data representation, neural signal processing can be achieved in a completely event-driven manner, reducing both the required resources (memory, complexity) and computations (operations). This will see future large-scale neural systems integrating on-node processing in real-time hardware.

Flexible hardware design for RSA and Elliptic Curve Cryptosystems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Batina, L.; Bruin - Muurling, G.; Örs, S.B.; Okamoto, T.

2004-01-01

This paper presents a scalable hardware implementation of both commonly used public key cryptosystems, RSA and Elliptic Curve Cryptosystem (ECC) on the same platform. The introduced hardware accelerator features a design which can be varied from very small (less than 20 Kgates) targeting wireless

Sharing open hardware through ROP, the robotic open platform

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lunenburg, J.; Soetens, R.P.T.; Schoenmakers, F.; Metsemakers, P.M.G.; van de Molengraft, M.J.G.; Steinbuch, M.; Behnke, S.; Veloso, M.; Visser, A.; Xiong, R.

2014-01-01

The robot open source software community, in particular ROS, drastically boosted robotics research. However, a centralized place to exchange open hardware designs does not exist. Therefore we launched the Robotic Open Platform (ROP). A place to share and discuss open hardware designs. Among others

Sharing open hardware through ROP, the Robotic Open Platform

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lunenburg, J.J.M.; Soetens, R.P.T.; Schoenmakers, Ferry; Metsemakers, P.M.G.; Molengraft, van de M.J.G.; Steinbuch, M.

2013-01-01

The robot open source software community, in particular ROS, drastically boosted robotics research. However, a centralized place to exchange open hardware designs does not exist. Therefore we launched the Robotic Open Platform (ROP). A place to share and discuss open hardware designs. Among others

Hardware Abstraction and Protocol Optimization for Coded Sensor Networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nistor, Maricica; Roetter, Daniel Enrique Lucani; Barros, João

2015-01-01

The design of the communication protocols in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) often neglects several key characteristics of the sensor's hardware, while assuming that the number of transmitted bits is the dominating factor behind the system's energy consumption. A closer look at the hardware speci...

Fast DRR splat rendering using common consumer graphics hardware

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Spoerk, Jakob; Bergmann, Helmar; Wanschitz, Felix; Dong, Shuo; Birkfellner, Wolfgang

2007-01-01

Digitally rendered radiographs (DRR) are a vital part of various medical image processing applications such as 2D/3D registration for patient pose determination in image-guided radiotherapy procedures. This paper presents a technique to accelerate DRR creation by using conventional graphics hardware for the rendering process. DRR computation itself is done by an efficient volume rendering method named wobbled splatting. For programming the graphics hardware, NVIDIAs C for Graphics (Cg) is used. The description of an algorithm used for rendering DRRs on the graphics hardware is presented, together with a benchmark comparing this technique to a CPU-based wobbled splatting program. Results show a reduction of rendering time by about 70%-90% depending on the amount of data. For instance, rendering a volume of 2x10 6 voxels is feasible at an update rate of 38 Hz compared to 6 Hz on a common Intel-based PC using the graphics processing unit (GPU) of a conventional graphics adapter. In addition, wobbled splatting using graphics hardware for DRR computation provides higher resolution DRRs with comparable image quality due to special processing characteristics of the GPU. We conclude that DRR generation on common graphics hardware using the freely available Cg environment is a major step toward 2D/3D registration in clinical routine

FPS-RAM: Fast Prefix Search RAM-Based Hardware for Forwarding Engine

Science.gov (United States)

Zaitsu, Kazuya; Yamamoto, Koji; Kuroda, Yasuto; Inoue, Kazunari; Ata, Shingo; Oka, Ikuo

Ternary content addressable memory (TCAM) is becoming very popular for designing high-throughput forwarding engines on routers. However, TCAM has potential problems in terms of hardware and power costs, which limits its ability to deploy large amounts of capacity in IP routers. In this paper, we propose new hardware architecture for fast forwarding engines, called fast prefix search RAM-based hardware (FPS-RAM). We designed FPS-RAM hardware with the intent of maintaining the same search performance and physical user interface as TCAM because our objective is to replace the TCAM in the market. Our RAM-based hardware architecture is completely different from that of TCAM and has dramatically reduced the costs and power consumption to 62% and 52%, respectively. We implemented FPS-RAM on an FPGA to examine its lookup operation.

Development of a hardware-based AC microgrid for AC stability assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Swanson, Robert R.

As more power electronic-based devices enable the development of high-bandwidth AC microgrids, the topic of microgrid power distribution stability has become of increased interest. Recently, researchers have proposed a relatively straightforward method to assess the stability of AC systems based upon the time-constants of sources, the net bus capacitance, and the rate limits of sources. In this research, a focus has been to develop a hardware test system to evaluate AC system stability. As a first step, a time domain model of a two converter microgrid was established in which a three phase inverter acts as a power source and an active rectifier serves as an adjustable constant power AC load. The constant power load can be utilized to create rapid power flow transients to the generating system. As a second step, the inverter and active rectifier were designed using a Smart Power Module IGBT for switching and an embedded microcontroller as a processor for algorithm implementation. The inverter and active rectifier were designed to operate simultaneously using a synchronization signal to ensure each respective local controller operates in a common reference frame. Finally, the physical system was created and initial testing performed to validate the hardware functionality as a variable amplitude and variable frequency AC system.

Generation of Efficient High-Level Hardware Code from Dataflow Programs

OpenAIRE

Siret , Nicolas; Wipliez , Matthieu; Nezan , Jean François; Palumbo , Francesca

2012-01-01

High-level synthesis (HLS) aims at reducing the time-to-market by providing an automated design process that interprets and compiles high-level abstraction programs into hardware. However, HLS tools still face limitations regarding the performance of the generated code, due to the difficulties of compiling input imperative languages into efficient hardware code. Moreover the hardware code generated by the HLS tools is usually target-dependant and at a low level of abstraction (i.e. gate-level...

Hardware and software status of QCDOC

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boyle, P.A.; Chen, D.; Christ, N.H.; Clark, M.; Cohen, S.D.; Cristian, C.; Dong, Z.; Gara, A.; Joo, B.; Jung, C.; Kim, C.; Levkova, L.; Liao, X.; Liu, G.; Mawhinney, R.D.; Ohta, S.; Petrov, K.; Wettig, T.; Yamaguchi, A.

2004-01-01

QCDOC is a massively parallel supercomputer whose processing nodes are based on an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). This ASIC was custom-designed so that crucial lattice QCD kernels achieve an overall sustained performance of 50% on machines with several 10,000 nodes. This strong scalability, together with low power consumption and a price/performance ratio of $1 per sustained MFlops, enable QCDOC to attack the most demanding lattice QCD problems. The first ASICs became available in June of 2003, and the testing performed so far has shown all systems functioning according to specification. We review the hardware and software status of QCDOC and present performance figures obtained in real hardware as well as in simulation

Quantum neuromorphic hardware for quantum artificial intelligence

Science.gov (United States)

Prati, Enrico

2017-08-01

The development of machine learning methods based on deep learning boosted the field of artificial intelligence towards unprecedented achievements and application in several fields. Such prominent results were made in parallel with the first successful demonstrations of fault tolerant hardware for quantum information processing. To which extent deep learning can take advantage of the existence of a hardware based on qubits behaving as a universal quantum computer is an open question under investigation. Here I review the convergence between the two fields towards implementation of advanced quantum algorithms, including quantum deep learning.

Concurrent heterogeneous neural model simulation on real-time neuromimetic hardware.

Science.gov (United States)

Rast, Alexander; Galluppi, Francesco; Davies, Sergio; Plana, Luis; Patterson, Cameron; Sharp, Thomas; Lester, David; Furber, Steve

2011-11-01

Dedicated hardware is becoming increasingly essential to simulate emerging very-large-scale neural models. Equally, however, it needs to be able to support multiple models of the neural dynamics, possibly operating simultaneously within the same system. This may be necessary either to simulate large models with heterogeneous neural types, or to simplify simulation and analysis of detailed, complex models in a large simulation by isolating the new model to a small subpopulation of a larger overall network. The SpiNNaker neuromimetic chip is a dedicated neural processor able to support such heterogeneous simulations. Implementing these models on-chip uses an integrated library-based tool chain incorporating the emerging PyNN interface that allows a modeller to input a high-level description and use an automated process to generate an on-chip simulation. Simulations using both LIF and Izhikevich models demonstrate the ability of the SpiNNaker system to generate and simulate heterogeneous networks on-chip, while illustrating, through the network-scale effects of wavefront synchronisation and burst gating, methods that can provide effective behavioural abstractions for large-scale hardware modelling. SpiNNaker's asynchronous virtual architecture permits greater scope for model exploration, with scalable levels of functional and temporal abstraction, than conventional (or neuromorphic) computing platforms. The complete system illustrates a potential path to understanding the neural model of computation, by building (and breaking) neural models at various scales, connecting the blocks, then comparing them against the biology: computational cognitive neuroscience. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction to co-simulation of software and hardware in embedded processor systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dreike, P.L.; McCoy, J.A.

1996-09-01

From the dawn of the first use of microprocessors and microcontrollers in embedded systems, the software has been blamed for products being late to market, This is due to software being developed after hardware is fabricated. During the past few years, the use of Hardware Description (or Design) Languages (HDLs) and digital simulation have advanced to a point where the concurrent development of software and hardware can be contemplated using simulation environments. This offers the potential of 50% or greater reductions in time-to-market for embedded systems. This paper is a tutorial on the technical issues that underlie software-hardware (swhw) co-simulation, and the current state of the art. We review the traditional sequential hardware-software design paradigm, and suggest a paradigm for concurrent design, which is supported by co-simulation of software and hardware. This is followed by sections on HDLs modeling and simulation;hardware assisted approaches to simulation; microprocessor modeling methods; brief descriptions of four commercial products for sw-hw co-simulation and a description of our own experiments to develop a co-simulation environment.

The LASS hardware processor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kunz, P.F.

1976-01-01

The problems of data analysis with hardware processors are reviewed and a description is given of a programmable processor. This processor, the 168/E, has been designed for use in the LASS multi-processor system; it has an execution speed comparable to the IBM 370/168 and uses the subset of IBM 370 instructions appropriate to the LASS analysis task. (Auth.)

RRFC hardware operation manual

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abhold, M.E.; Hsue, S.T.; Menlove, H.O.; Walton, G.

1996-05-01

The Research Reactor Fuel Counter (RRFC) system was developed to assay the 235 U content in spent Material Test Reactor (MTR) type fuel elements underwater in a spent fuel pool. RRFC assays the 235 U content using active neutron coincidence counting and also incorporates an ion chamber for gross gamma-ray measurements. This manual describes RRFC hardware, including detectors, electronics, and performance characteristics

Removal of symptomatic craniofacial titanium hardware following craniotomy: Case series and review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sheri K. Palejwala

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Titanium craniofacial hardware has become commonplace for reconstruction and bone flap fixation following craniotomy. Complications of titanium hardware include palpability, visibility, infection, exposure, pain, and hardware malfunction, which can necessitate hardware removal. We describe three patients who underwent craniofacial reconstruction following craniotomies for trauma with post-operative courses complicated by medically intractable facial pain. All three patients subsequently underwent removal of the symptomatic craniofacial titanium hardware and experienced rapid resolution of their painful parasthesias. Symptomatic plates were found in the region of the frontozygomatic suture or MacCarty keyhole, or in close proximity with the supraorbital nerve. Titanium plates, though relatively safe and low profile, can cause local nerve irritation or neuropathy. Surgeons should be cognizant of the potential complications of titanium craniofacial hardware and locations that are at higher risk for becoming symptomatic necessitating a second surgery for removal.

Memory Based Machine Intelligence Techniques in VLSI hardware

OpenAIRE

James, Alex Pappachen

2012-01-01

We briefly introduce the memory based approaches to emulate machine intelligence in VLSI hardware, describing the challenges and advantages. Implementation of artificial intelligence techniques in VLSI hardware is a practical and difficult problem. Deep architectures, hierarchical temporal memories and memory networks are some of the contemporary approaches in this area of research. The techniques attempt to emulate low level intelligence tasks and aim at providing scalable solutions to high ...

Hardware support for collecting performance counters directly to memory

Science.gov (United States)

Gara, Alan; Salapura, Valentina; Wisniewski, Robert W.

2012-09-25

Hardware support for collecting performance counters directly to memory, in one aspect, may include a plurality of performance counters operable to collect one or more counts of one or more selected activities. A first storage element may be operable to store an address of a memory location. A second storage element may be operable to store a value indicating whether the hardware should begin copying. A state machine may be operable to detect the value in the second storage element and trigger hardware copying of data in selected one or more of the plurality of performance counters to the memory location whose address is stored in the first storage element.

Why Open Source Hardware matters and why you should care

OpenAIRE

Gürkaynak, Frank K.

2017-01-01

Open source hardware is currently where open source software was about 30 years ago. The idea is well received by enthusiasts, there is interest and the open source hardware has gained visible momentum recently, with several well-known universities including UC Berkeley, Cambridge and ETH Zürich actively working on large projects involving open source hardware, attracting the attention of companies big and small. But it is still not quite there yet. In this talk, based on my experience on the...

Acceleration of Meshfree Radial Point Interpolation Method on Graphics Hardware

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakata, Susumu

2008-01-01

This article describes a parallel computational technique to accelerate radial point interpolation method (RPIM)-based meshfree method using graphics hardware. RPIM is one of the meshfree partial differential equation solvers that do not require the mesh structure of the analysis targets. In this paper, a technique for accelerating RPIM using graphics hardware is presented. In the method, the computation process is divided into small processes suitable for processing on the parallel architecture of the graphics hardware in a single instruction multiple data manner.

No-hardware-signature cybersecurity-crypto-module: a resilient cyber defense agent

Science.gov (United States)

Zaghloul, A. R. M.; Zaghloul, Y. A.

2014-06-01

We present an optical cybersecurity-crypto-module as a resilient cyber defense agent. It has no hardware signature since it is bitstream reconfigurable, where single hardware architecture functions as any selected device of all possible ones of the same number of inputs. For a two-input digital device, a 4-digit bitstream of 0s and 1s determines which device, of a total of 16 devices, the hardware performs as. Accordingly, the hardware itself is not physically reconfigured, but its performance is. Such a defense agent allows the attack to take place, rendering it harmless. On the other hand, if the system is already infected with malware sending out information, the defense agent allows the information to go out, rendering it meaningless. The hardware architecture is immune to side attacks since such an attack would reveal information on the attack itself and not on the hardware. This cyber defense agent can be used to secure a point-to-point, point-to-multipoint, a whole network, and/or a single entity in the cyberspace. Therefore, ensuring trust between cyber resources. It can provide secure communication in an insecure network. We provide the hardware design and explain how it works. Scalability of the design is briefly discussed. (Protected by United States Patents No.: US 8,004,734; US 8,325,404; and other National Patents worldwide.)

The Self-Directed Biological Transformation Initiative and Well-Being.

Science.gov (United States)

Mills, Paul J; Wilson, Kathleen L; Pung, Meredith A; Weiss, Lizabeth; Patel, Sheila; Doraiswamy, P Murali; Peterson, Christine; Porter, Valencia; Schadt, Eric; Chopra, Deepak; Tanzi, Rudolph E

2016-08-01

To examine the effects of a comprehensive residential mind-body program on well-being. The Self-Directed Biological Transformation Initiative was a quasi-randomized trial comparing the effects of participation in a 6-day Ayurvedic system of medicine-based comprehensive residential program with a 6-day residential vacation at the same retreat location. Retreat setting. 69 healthy women (n = 58) and men (n = 11) (mean age ± standard deviation, 53.6 ± 12 years). The Ayurvedic intervention addressed physical and emotional well-being through group meditation and yoga, massage, diet, adaptogenic herbs, lectures, and journaling. A battery of standardized questionnaires. Participants in the Ayurvedic program showed significant and sustained increases in ratings of spirituality (p < 0.01) and gratitude (p < 0.05) compared with the vacation group, which showed no change. The Ayurvedic participants also showed increased ratings for self-compassion (p < 0.01) as well as less anxiety at the 1-month follow-up (p < 0.05). Findings suggest that a short-term intensive program providing holistic instruction and experience in mind-body healing practices can lead to significant and sustained increases in perceived well-being and that relaxation alone is not enough to improve certain aspects of well-being.

Fabrication of luminescent hydroxyapatite nanorods through surface-initiated RAFT polymerization: Characterization, biological imaging and drug delivery applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Heng, Chunning [Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Degradable Biomedical Materials, Shaanxi R& D Center of Biomaterials and Fermentation Engineering, School of Chemical and Engineering, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710069 (China); Department of Chemistry, Nanchang University, 999 Xuefu Avenue, Nanchang 330031 (China); Zheng, Xiaoyan [Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Degradable Biomedical Materials, Shaanxi R& D Center of Biomaterials and Fermentation Engineering, School of Chemical and Engineering, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710069 (China); Liu, Meiying; Xu, Dazhuang; Huang, Hongye; Deng, Fengjie [Department of Chemistry, Nanchang University, 999 Xuefu Avenue, Nanchang 330031 (China); Hui, Junfeng, E-mail: huijunfeng@126.com [Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Degradable Biomedical Materials, Shaanxi R& D Center of Biomaterials and Fermentation Engineering, School of Chemical and Engineering, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710069 (China); Zhang, Xiaoyong, E-mail: xiaoyongzhang1980@gmail.com [Department of Chemistry, Nanchang University, 999 Xuefu Avenue, Nanchang 330031 (China); Wei, Yen, E-mail: weiyen@tsinghua.edu.cn [Department of Chemistry and the Tsinghua Center for Frontier Polymer Research, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084 (China)

2016-11-15

Highlights: • Hydrophobic hydroxyapatite nanorods were obtained from hydrothermal synthesis. • Surface initiated RAFT polymerization was adopted to surface modification of hydroxyapatite nanorods. • These modified hydroxyapatite nanorods showed high water dispersibility and biocompatibility. • These modified hydroxyapatite nanorods can be used for controlled drug delivery. - Abstract: Hydroxyapatite nanomaterials as an important class of nanomaterials, have been widely applied for different biomedical applications for their excellent biocompatibility, biodegradation potential and low cost. In this work, hydroxyapatite nanorods with uniform size and morphology were prepared through hydrothermal synthesis. The surfaces of these hydroxyapatite nanorods are covered with hydrophobic oleic acid, making them poor dispersibility in aqueous solution and difficult for biomedical applications. To overcome this issue, a simple surface initiated polymerization strategy has been developed via combination of the surface ligand exchange and reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. Hydroxyapatite nanorods were first modified with Riboflavin-5-phosphate sodium (RPSSD) via ligand exchange reaction between the phosphate group of RPSSD and oleic acid. Then hydroxyl group of nHAp-RPSSD was used to immobilize chain transfer agent, which was used as the initiator for surface-initiated RAFT polymerization. The nHAp-RPSSD-poly(IA-PEGMA) nanocomposites were characterized by means of {sup 1}H nuclear magnetic resonance, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy and thermal gravimetric analysis in detailed. The biocompatibility, biological imaging and drug delivery of nHAp-RPSSD-poly(IA-PEGMA) were also investigated. Results showed that nHAp-RPSSD-poly(IA-PEGMA) exhibited excellent water dispersibility, desirable optical properties, good biocompatibility and high drug loading capability, making them promising candidates for

Fabrication of luminescent hydroxyapatite nanorods through surface-initiated RAFT polymerization: Characterization, biological imaging and drug delivery applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heng, Chunning; Zheng, Xiaoyan; Liu, Meiying; Xu, Dazhuang; Huang, Hongye; Deng, Fengjie; Hui, Junfeng; Zhang, Xiaoyong; Wei, Yen

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Hydrophobic hydroxyapatite nanorods were obtained from hydrothermal synthesis. • Surface initiated RAFT polymerization was adopted to surface modification of hydroxyapatite nanorods. • These modified hydroxyapatite nanorods showed high water dispersibility and biocompatibility. • These modified hydroxyapatite nanorods can be used for controlled drug delivery. - Abstract: Hydroxyapatite nanomaterials as an important class of nanomaterials, have been widely applied for different biomedical applications for their excellent biocompatibility, biodegradation potential and low cost. In this work, hydroxyapatite nanorods with uniform size and morphology were prepared through hydrothermal synthesis. The surfaces of these hydroxyapatite nanorods are covered with hydrophobic oleic acid, making them poor dispersibility in aqueous solution and difficult for biomedical applications. To overcome this issue, a simple surface initiated polymerization strategy has been developed via combination of the surface ligand exchange and reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. Hydroxyapatite nanorods were first modified with Riboflavin-5-phosphate sodium (RPSSD) via ligand exchange reaction between the phosphate group of RPSSD and oleic acid. Then hydroxyl group of nHAp-RPSSD was used to immobilize chain transfer agent, which was used as the initiator for surface-initiated RAFT polymerization. The nHAp-RPSSD-poly(IA-PEGMA) nanocomposites were characterized by means of "1H nuclear magnetic resonance, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy and thermal gravimetric analysis in detailed. The biocompatibility, biological imaging and drug delivery of nHAp-RPSSD-poly(IA-PEGMA) were also investigated. Results showed that nHAp-RPSSD-poly(IA-PEGMA) exhibited excellent water dispersibility, desirable optical properties, good biocompatibility and high drug loading capability, making them promising candidates for biological

TreeBASIS Feature Descriptor and Its Hardware Implementation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Spencer Fowers

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a novel feature descriptor called TreeBASIS that provides improvements in descriptor size, computation time, matching speed, and accuracy. This new descriptor uses a binary vocabulary tree that is computed using basis dictionary images and a test set of feature region images. To facilitate real-time implementation, a feature region image is binary quantized and the resulting quantized vector is passed into the BASIS vocabulary tree. A Hamming distance is then computed between the feature region image and the effectively descriptive basis dictionary image at a node to determine the branch taken and the path the feature region image takes is saved as a descriptor. The TreeBASIS feature descriptor is an excellent candidate for hardware implementation because of its reduced descriptor size and the fact that descriptors can be created and features matched without the use of floating point operations. The TreeBASIS descriptor is more computationally and space efficient than other descriptors such as BASIS, SIFT, and SURF. Moreover, it can be computed entirely in hardware without the support of a CPU for additional software-based computations. Experimental results and a hardware implementation show that the TreeBASIS descriptor compares well with other descriptors for frame-to-frame homography computation while requiring fewer hardware resources.

Parallel asynchronous hardware implementation of image processing algorithms

Science.gov (United States)

Coon, Darryl D.; Perera, A. G. U.

1990-01-01

Research is being carried out on hardware for a new approach to focal plane processing. The hardware involves silicon injection mode devices. These devices provide a natural basis for parallel asynchronous focal plane image preprocessing. The simplicity and novel properties of the devices would permit an independent analog processing channel to be dedicated to every pixel. A laminar architecture built from arrays of the devices would form a two-dimensional (2-D) array processor with a 2-D array of inputs located directly behind a focal plane detector array. A 2-D image data stream would propagate in neuron-like asynchronous pulse-coded form through the laminar processor. No multiplexing, digitization, or serial processing would occur in the preprocessing state. High performance is expected, based on pulse coding of input currents down to one picoampere with noise referred to input of about 10 femtoamperes. Linear pulse coding has been observed for input currents ranging up to seven orders of magnitude. Low power requirements suggest utility in space and in conjunction with very large arrays. Very low dark current and multispectral capability are possible because of hardware compatibility with the cryogenic environment of high performance detector arrays. The aforementioned hardware development effort is aimed at systems which would integrate image acquisition and image processing.

A Hybrid Hardware and Software Component Architecture for Embedded System Design

Science.gov (United States)

Marcondes, Hugo; Fröhlich, Antônio Augusto

Embedded systems are increasing in complexity, while several metrics such as time-to-market, reliability, safety and performance should be considered during the design of such systems. A component-based design which enables the migration of its components between hardware and software can cope to achieve such metrics. To enable that, we define hybrid hardware and software components as a development artifact that can be deployed by different combinations of hardware and software elements. In this paper, we present an architecture for developing such components in order to construct a repository of components that can migrate between the hardware and software domains to meet the design system requirements.

Community-driven computational biology with Debian Linux.

Science.gov (United States)

Möller, Steffen; Krabbenhöft, Hajo Nils; Tille, Andreas; Paleino, David; Williams, Alan; Wolstencroft, Katy; Goble, Carole; Holland, Richard; Belhachemi, Dominique; Plessy, Charles

2010-12-21

The Open Source movement and its technologies are popular in the bioinformatics community because they provide freely available tools and resources for research. In order to feed the steady demand for updates on software and associated data, a service infrastructure is required for sharing and providing these tools to heterogeneous computing environments. The Debian Med initiative provides ready and coherent software packages for medical informatics and bioinformatics. These packages can be used together in Taverna workflows via the UseCase plugin to manage execution on local or remote machines. If such packages are available in cloud computing environments, the underlying hardware and the analysis pipelines can be shared along with the software. Debian Med closes the gap between developers and users. It provides a simple method for offering new releases of software and data resources, thus provisioning a local infrastructure for computational biology. For geographically distributed teams it can ensure they are working on the same versions of tools, in the same conditions. This contributes to the world-wide networking of researchers.

Travel Software using GPU Hardware

CERN Document Server

Szalwinski, Chris M; Dimov, Veliko Atanasov; CERN. Geneva. ATS Department

2015-01-01

Travel is the main multi-particle tracking code being used at CERN for the beam dynamics calculations through hadron and ion linear accelerators. It uses two routines for the calculation of space charge forces, namely, rings of charges and point-to-point. This report presents the studies to improve the performance of Travel using GPU hardware. The studies showed that the performance of Travel with the point-to-point simulations of space-charge effects can be speeded up at least 72 times using current GPU hardware. Simple recompilation of the source code using an Intel compiler can improve performance at least 4 times without GPU support. The limited memory of the GPU is the bottleneck. Two algorithms were investigated on this point: repeated computation and tiling. The repeating computation algorithm is simpler and is the currently recommended solution. The tiling algorithm was more complicated and degraded performance. Both build and test instructions for the parallelized version of the software are inclu...

The principles of computer hardware

CERN Document Server

Clements, Alan

2000-01-01

Principles of Computer Hardware, now in its third edition, provides a first course in computer architecture or computer organization for undergraduates. The book covers the core topics of such a course, including Boolean algebra and logic design; number bases and binary arithmetic; the CPU; assembly language; memory systems; and input/output methods and devices. It then goes on to cover the related topics of computer peripherals such as printers; the hardware aspects of the operating system; and data communications, and hence provides a broader overview of the subject. Its readable, tutorial-based approach makes it an accessible introduction to the subject. The book has extensive in-depth coverage of two microprocessors, one of which (the 68000) is widely used in education. All chapters in the new edition have been updated. Major updates include: powerful software simulations of digital systems to accompany the chapters on digital design; a tutorial-based introduction to assembly language, including many exam...

Hardware and software for image acquisition in nuclear medicine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fideles, E.L.; Vilar, G.; Silva, H.S.

1992-01-01

A system for image acquisition and processing in nuclear medicine is presented, including the hardware and software referring to acquisition. The hardware is consisted of an analog-digital conversion card, developed in wire-wape. Its function is digitate the analogic signs provided by gamma camera. The acquisitions are made in list or frame mode. (C.G.C.)

Hardware Realization of Chaos-based Symmetric Video Encryption

KAUST Repository

Ibrahim, Mohamad A.

2013-05-01

This thesis reports original work on hardware realization of symmetric video encryption using chaos-based continuous systems as pseudo-random number generators. The thesis also presents some of the serious degradations caused by digitally implementing chaotic systems. Subsequently, some techniques to eliminate such defects, including the ultimately adopted scheme are listed and explained in detail. Moreover, the thesis describes original work on the design of an encryption system to encrypt MPEG-2 video streams. Information about the MPEG-2 standard that fits this design context is presented. Then, the security of the proposed system is exhaustively analyzed and the performance is compared with other reported systems, showing superiority in performance and security. The thesis focuses more on the hardware and the circuit aspect of the system’s design. The system is realized on Xilinx Vetrix-4 FPGA with hardware parameters and throughput performance surpassing conventional encryption systems.

Structural Biology: Practical NMR Applications

CERN Document Server

Teng, Quincy

2005-01-01

This textbook begins with an overview of NMR development and applications in biological systems. It describes recent developments in instrument hardware and methodology. Chapters highlight the scope and limitation of NMR methods. While detailed math and quantum mechanics dealing with NMR theory have been addressed in several well-known NMR volumes, chapter two of this volume illustrates the fundamental principles and concepts of NMR spectroscopy in a more descriptive manner. Topics such as instrument setup, data acquisition, and data processing using a variety of offline software are discussed. Chapters further discuss several routine stategies for preparing samples, especially for macromolecules and complexes. The target market for such a volume includes researchers in the field of biochemistry, chemistry, structural biology and biophysics.

Systematic development of industrial control systems using Software/Hardware Engineering

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Voeten, J.P.M.; van der Putten, P.H.A.; Stevens, M.P.J.; Milligan, P.; Corr, P.

1997-01-01

SHE (Software/Hardware Engineering) is a new object-oriented analysis, specification and design method for complex reactive hardware/software systems. SHE is based on the formal specification language POOSL and a design framework guiding analysis and design activities. This paper reports on the

CT image reconstruction system based on hardware implementation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Silva, Hamilton P. da; Evseev, Ivan; Schelin, Hugo R.; Paschuk, Sergei A.; Milhoretto, Edney; Setti, Joao A.P.; Zibetti, Marcelo; Hormaza, Joel M.; Lopes, Ricardo T.

2009-01-01

Full text: The timing factor is very important for medical imaging systems, which can nowadays be synchronized by vital human signals, like heartbeats or breath. The use of hardware implemented devices in such a system has advantages considering the high speed of information treatment combined with arbitrary low cost on the market. This article refers to a hardware system which is based on electronic programmable logic called FPGA, model Cyclone II from ALTERA Corporation. The hardware was implemented on the UP3 ALTERA Kit. A partially connected neural network with unitary weights was programmed. The system was tested with 60 topographic projections, 100 points in each, of the Shepp and Logan phantom created by MATLAB. The main restriction was found to be the memory size available on the device: the dynamic range of reconstructed image was limited to 0 65535. Also, the normalization factor must be observed in order to do not saturate the image during the reconstruction and filtering process. The test shows a principal possibility to build CT image reconstruction systems for any reasonable amount of input data by arranging the parallel work of the hardware units like we have tested. However, further studies are necessary for better understanding of the error propagation from topographic projections to reconstructed image within the implemented method. (author)

Hardware Implementation Of Line Clipping A lgorithm By Using FPGA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amar Dawod

2013-04-01

Full Text Available The computer graphics system performance is increasing faster than any other computing application. Algorithms for line clipping against convex polygons and lines have been studied for a long time and many research papers have been published so far. In spite of the latest graphical hardware development and significant increase of performance the clipping is still a bottleneck of any graphical system. So its implementation in hardware is essential for real time applications. In this paper clipping operation is discussed and a hardware implementation of the line clipping algorithm is presented and finally formulated and tested using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA. The designed hardware unit consists of two parts : the first is positional code generator unit and the second is the clipping unit. Finally it is worth mentioning that the  designed unit is capable of clipping (232524 line segments per second.       

Performance comparison between ISCSI and other hardware and software solutions

CERN Document Server

Gug, M

2003-01-01

We report on our investigations on some technologies that can be used to build disk servers and networks of disk servers using commodity hardware and software solutions. It focuses on the performance that can be achieved by these systems and gives measured figures for different configurations. It is divided into two parts : iSCSI and other technologies and hardware and software RAID solutions. The first part studies different technologies that can be used by clients to access disk servers using a gigabit ethernet network. It covers block access technologies (iSCSI, hyperSCSI, ENBD). Experimental figures are given for different numbers of clients and servers. The second part compares a system based on 3ware hardware RAID controllers, a system using linux software RAID and IDE cards and a system mixing both hardware RAID and software RAID. Performance measurements for reading and writing are given for different RAID levels.

Hardware based redundant multi-threading inside a GPU for improved reliability

Science.gov (United States)

Sridharan, Vilas; Gurumurthi, Sudhanva

2015-05-05

A system and method for verifying computation output using computer hardware are provided. Instances of computation are generated and processed on hardware-based processors. As instances of computation are processed, each instance of computation receives a load accessible to other instances of computation. Instances of output are generated by processing the instances of computation. The instances of output are verified against each other in a hardware based processor to ensure accuracy of the output.

Next generation hyper-scale software and hardware systems for big data analytics

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2013-01-01

Building on foundational technologies such as many-core systems, non-volatile memories and photonic interconnects, we describe some current technologies and future research to create real-time, big data analytics, IT infrastructure. We will also briefly describe some of our biologically-inspired software and hardware architecture for creating radically new hyper-scale cognitive computing systems. About the speaker Rich Friedrich is the director of Strategic Innovation and Research Services (SIRS) at HP Labs. In this strategic role, he is responsible for research investments in nano-technology, exascale computing, cyber security, information management, cloud computing, immersive interaction, sustainability, social computing and commercial digital printing. Rich's philosophy is to fuse strategy and inspiration to create compelling capabilities for next generation information devices, systems and services. Using essential insights gained from the metaphysics of innnovation, he effectively leads ...

Integrated circuit authentication hardware Trojans and counterfeit detection

CERN Document Server

Tehranipoor, Mohammad; Zhang, Xuehui

2013-01-01

This book describes techniques to verify the authenticity of integrated circuits (ICs). It focuses on hardware Trojan detection and prevention and counterfeit detection and prevention. The authors discuss a variety of detection schemes and design methodologies for improving Trojan detection techniques, as well as various attempts at developing hardware Trojans in IP cores and ICs. While describing existing Trojan detection methods, the authors also analyze their effectiveness in disclosing various types of Trojans, and demonstrate several architecture-level solutions. 

Non-canonical transcription initiation: the expanding universe of transcription initiating substrates

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Barvík, I.; Rejman, Dominik; Panova, Natalya; Šanderová, Hana; Krásný, Libor

2017-01-01

Roč. 41, č. 2 (2017), s. 131-138 ISSN 0168-6445 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA15-05228S; GA ČR GA15-11711S Institutional support: RVO:61388963 ; RVO:61388971 Keywords : RNA polymerase * non-canonical transcription initiation * transcription initiating substrate * nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD(+)) * coenzymes * RNA stability Subject RIV: EB - Genetics ; Molecular Biology; EE - Microbiology, Virology (MBU-M) OBOR OECD: Biochemistry and molecular biology; Microbiology (MBU-M) Impact factor: 12.198, year: 2016

A Hardware Lab Anywhere At Any Time

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tobias Schubert

2004-12-01

Full Text Available Scientific technical courses are an important component in any student's education. These courses are usually characterised by the fact that the students execute experiments in special laboratories. This leads to extremely high costs and a reduction in the maximum number of possible participants. From this traditional point of view, it doesn't seem possible to realise the concepts of a Virtual University in the context of sophisticated technical courses since the students must be "on the spot". In this paper we introduce the so-called Mobile Hardware Lab which makes student participation possible at any time and from any place. This lab nevertheless transfers a feeling of being present in a laboratory. This is accomplished with a special Learning Management System in combination with hardware components which correspond to a fully equipped laboratory workstation that are lent out to the students for the duration of the lab. The experiments are performed and solved at home, then handed in electronically. Judging and marking are also both performed electronically. Since 2003 the Mobile Hardware Lab is now offered in a completely web based form.

Hardware controls for the STAR experiment at RHIC

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reichhold, D.; Bieser, F.; Bordua, M.; Cherney, M.; Chrin, J.; Dunlop, J.C.; Ferguson, M.I.; Ghazikhanian, V.; Gross, J.; Harper, G.; Howe, M.; Jacobson, S.; Klein, S.R.; Kravtsov, P.; Lewis, S.; Lin, J.; Lionberger, C.; LoCurto, G.; McParland, C.; McShane, T.; Meier, J.; Sakrejda, I.; Sandler, Z.; Schambach, J.; Shi, Y.; Willson, R.; Yamamoto, E.; Zhang, W.

2003-01-01

The STAR detector sits in a high radiation area when operating normally; therefore it was necessary to develop a robust system to remotely control all hardware. The STAR hardware controls system monitors and controls approximately 14,000 parameters in the STAR detector. Voltages, currents, temperatures, and other parameters are monitored. Effort has been minimized by the adoption of experiment-wide standards and the use of pre-packaged software tools. The system is based on the Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) . VME processors communicate with subsystem-based sensors over a variety of field busses, with High-level Data Link Control (HDLC) being the most prevalent. Other features of the system include interfaces to accelerator and magnet control systems, a web-based archiver, and C++-based communication between STAR online, run control and hardware controls and their associated databases. The system has been designed for easy expansion as new detector elements are installed in STAR

Motion compensation in digital subtraction angiography using graphics hardware.

Science.gov (United States)

Deuerling-Zheng, Yu; Lell, Michael; Galant, Adam; Hornegger, Joachim

2006-07-01

An inherent disadvantage of digital subtraction angiography (DSA) is its sensitivity to patient motion which causes artifacts in the subtraction images. These artifacts could often reduce the diagnostic value of this technique. Automated, fast and accurate motion compensation is therefore required. To cope with this requirement, we first examine a method explicitly designed to detect local motions in DSA. Then, we implement a motion compensation algorithm by means of block matching on modern graphics hardware. Both methods search for maximal local similarity by evaluating a histogram-based measure. In this context, we are the first who have mapped an optimizing search strategy on graphics hardware while paralleling block matching. Moreover, we provide an innovative method for creating histograms on graphics hardware with vertex texturing and frame buffer blending. It turns out that both methods can effectively correct the artifacts in most case, as the hardware implementation of block matching performs much faster: the displacements of two 1024 x 1024 images can be calculated at 3 frames/s with integer precision or 2 frames/s with sub-pixel precision. Preliminary clinical evaluation indicates that the computation with integer precision could already be sufficient.

Hardware packet pacing using a DMA in a parallel computer

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Dong; Heidelberger, Phillip; Vranas, Pavlos

2013-08-13

Method and system for hardware packet pacing using a direct memory access controller in a parallel computer which, in one aspect, keeps track of a total number of bytes put on the network as a result of a remote get operation, using a hardware token counter.

The priority queue as an example of hardware/software codesign

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Høeg, Flemming; Mellergaard, Niels; Staunstrup, Jørgen

1994-01-01

The paper identifies a number of issues that are believed to be important for hardware/software codesign. The issues are illustrated by a small comprehensible example: a priority queue. Based on simulations of a real application, we suggest a combined hardware/software realization of the priority...

Hardware characteristic and application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gu, Dong Hyeon

1990-03-01

The contents of this book are system board on memory, performance, system timer system click and specification, coprocessor such as programing interface and hardware interface, power supply on input and output, protection for DC output, Power Good signal, explanation on 84 keyboard and 101/102 keyboard,BIOS system, 80286 instruction set and 80287 coprocessor, characters, keystrokes and colors, communication and compatibility of IBM personal computer on application direction, multitasking and code for distinction of system.

Hardware architecture design of image restoration based on time-frequency domain computation

Science.gov (United States)

Wen, Bo; Zhang, Jing; Jiao, Zipeng

2013-10-01

The image restoration algorithms based on time-frequency domain computation is high maturity and applied widely in engineering. To solve the high-speed implementation of these algorithms, the TFDC hardware architecture is proposed. Firstly, the main module is designed, by analyzing the common processing and numerical calculation. Then, to improve the commonality, the iteration control module is planed for iterative algorithms. In addition, to reduce the computational cost and memory requirements, the necessary optimizations are suggested for the time-consuming module, which include two-dimensional FFT/IFFT and the plural calculation. Eventually, the TFDC hardware architecture is adopted for hardware design of real-time image restoration system. The result proves that, the TFDC hardware architecture and its optimizations can be applied to image restoration algorithms based on TFDC, with good algorithm commonality, hardware realizability and high efficiency.

Automating an EXAFS facility: hardware and software considerations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Georgopoulos, P.; Sayers, D.E.; Bunker, B.; Elam, T.; Grote, W.A.

1981-01-01

The basic design considerations for computer hardware and software, applicable not only to laboratory EXAFS facilities, but also to synchrotron installations, are reviewed. Uniformity and standardization of both hardware configurations and program packages for data collection and analysis are heavily emphasized. Specific recommendations are made with respect to choice of computers, peripherals, and interfaces, and guidelines for the development of software packages are set forth. A description of two working computer-interfaced EXAFS facilities is presented which can serve as prototypes for future developments. 3 figures

Commodity hardware and software summary

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wolbers, S.

1997-04-01

A review is given of the talks and papers presented in the Commodity Hardware and Software Session at the CHEP97 conference. An examination of the trends leading to the consideration of PC's for HEP is given, and a status of the work that is being done at various HEP labs and Universities is given

Lessons learned about spaceflight and cell biology experiments

Science.gov (United States)

Hughes-Fulford, Millie

2004-01-01

Conducting cell biology experiments in microgravity can be among the most technically challenging events in a biologist's life. Conflicting events of spaceflight include waiting to get manifested, delays in manifest schedules, training astronauts to not shake your cultures and to add reagents slowly, as shaking or quick injection can activate signaling cascades and give you erroneous results. It is important to select good hardware that is reliable. Possible conflicting environments in flight include g-force and vibration of launch, exposure of cells to microgravity for extended periods until hardware is turned on, changes in cabin gases and cosmic radiation. One should have an on-board 1-g control centrifuge in order to eliminate environmental differences. Other obstacles include getting your funding in a timely manner (it is not uncommon for two to three years to pass between notification of grant approval for funding and actually getting funded). That said, it is important to note that microgravity research is worthwhile since all terrestrial life evolved in a gravity field and secrets of biological function may only be answered by removing the constant of gravity. Finally, spaceflight experiments are rewarding and worth your effort and patience.

Surface moisture measurement system hardware acceptance test report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ritter, G.A., Westinghouse Hanford

1996-05-28

This document summarizes the results of the hardware acceptance test for the Surface Moisture Measurement System (SMMS). This test verified that the mechanical and electrical features of the SMMS functioned as designed and that the unit is ready for field service. The bulk of hardware testing was performed at the 306E Facility in the 300 Area and the Fuels and Materials Examination Facility in the 400 Area. The SMMS was developed primarily in support of Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) Safety Programs for moisture measurement in organic and ferrocyanide watch list tanks.

Computer organization and design the hardware/software interface

CERN Document Server

Hennessy, John L

1994-01-01

Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface presents the interaction between hardware and software at a variety of levels, which offers a framework for understanding the fundamentals of computing. This book focuses on the concepts that are the basis for computers.Organized into nine chapters, this book begins with an overview of the computer revolution. This text then explains the concepts and algorithms used in modern computer arithmetic. Other chapters consider the abstractions and concepts in memory hierarchies by starting with the simplest possible cache. This book di

The role of the visual hardware system in rugby performance ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study explores the importance of the 'hardware' factors of the visual system in the game of rugby. A group of professional and club rugby players were tested and the results compared. The results were also compared with the established norms for elite athletes. The findings indicate no significant difference in hardware ...

OER Approach for Specific Student Groups in Hardware-Based Courses

Science.gov (United States)

Ackovska, Nevena; Ristov, Sasko

2014-01-01

Hardware-based courses in computer science studies require much effort from both students and teachers. The most important part of students' learning is attending in person and actively working on laboratory exercises on hardware equipment. This paper deals with a specific group of students, those who are marginalized by not being able to…

BRIC-60: Biological Research in Canisters (BRIC)-60

Science.gov (United States)

Richards, Stephanie E. (Compiler); Levine, Howard G.; Romero, Vergel

2016-01-01

The Biological Research in Canisters (BRIC) is an anodized-aluminum cylinder used to provide passive stowage for investigations evaluating the effects of space flight on small organisms. Specimens flown in the BRIC 60 mm petri dish (BRIC-60) hardware include Lycoperscion esculentum (tomato), Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress), Glycine max (soybean) seedlings, Physarum polycephalum (slime mold) cells, Pothetria dispar (gypsy moth) eggs and Ceratodon purpureus (moss).

Radiosensitivity of cancer-initiating cells and normal stem cells (or what the Heisenberg uncertainly principle has to do with biology).

Science.gov (United States)

Woodward, Wendy Ann; Bristow, Robert Glen

2009-04-01

Mounting evidence suggests that parallels between normal stem cell biology and cancer biology may provide new targets for cancer therapy. Prospective identification and isolation of cancer-initiating cells from solid tumors has promoted the descriptive and functional identification of these cells allowing for characterization of their response to contemporary cancer therapies, including chemotherapy and radiation. In clinical radiation therapy, the failure to clinically eradicate all tumor cells (eg, a lack of response, partial response, or nonpermanent complete response by imaging) is considered a treatment failure. As such, biologists have explored the characteristics of the small population of clonogenic cancer cells that can survive and are capable of repopulating the tumor after subcurative therapy. Herein, we discuss the convergence of these clonogenic studies with contemporary radiosensitivity studies that use cell surface markers to identify cancer-initiating cells. Implications for and uncertainties regarding incorporation of these concepts into the practice of modern radiation oncology are discussed.

A Framework for Hardware-Accelerated Services Using Partially Reconfigurable SoCs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MACHIDON, O. M.

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The current trend towards ?Everything as a Service? fosters a new approach on reconfigurable hardware resources. This innovative, service-oriented approach has the potential of bringing a series of benefits for both reconfigurable and distributed computing fields by favoring a hardware-based acceleration of web services and increasing service performance. This paper proposes a framework for accelerating web services by offloading the compute-intensive tasks to reconfigurable System-on-Chip (SoC devices, as integrated IP (Intellectual Property cores. The framework provides a scalable, dynamic management of the tasks and hardware processing cores, based on dynamic partial reconfiguration of the SoC. We have enhanced security of the entire system by making use of the built-in detection features of the hardware device and also by implementing active counter-measures that protect the sensitive data.

Outline of a Hardware Reconfiguration Framework for Modular Industrial Mobile Manipulators

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schou, Casper; Bøgh, Simon; Madsen, Ole

2014-01-01

This paper presents concepts and ideas of a hard- ware reconfiguration framework for modular industrial mobile manipulators. Mobile manipulators pose a highly flexible pro- duction resource due to their ability to autonomously navigate between workstations. However, due to this high flexibility new...... approaches to the operation of the robots are needed. Reconfig- uring the robot to a new task should be carried out by shop floor operators and, thus, be both quick and intuitive. Late research has already proposed a method for intuitive robot programming. However, this relies on a predetermined hardware...... configuration. Finding a single multi-purpose hardware configuration suited to all tasks is considered unrealistic. As a result, the need for reconfiguration of the hardware is inevitable. In this paper an outline of a framework for making hardware reconfiguration quick and intuitive is presented. Two main...

Security challenges and opportunities in adaptive and reconfigurable hardware

OpenAIRE

Costan, Victor Marius; Devadas, Srinivas

2011-01-01

We present a novel approach to building hardware support for providing strong security guarantees for computations running in the cloud (shared hardware in massive data centers), while maintaining the high performance and low cost that make cloud computing attractive in the first place. We propose augmenting regular cloud servers with a Trusted Computation Base (TCB) that can securely perform high-performance computations. Our TCB achieves cost savings by spreading functionality across two pa...

Review of Maxillofacial Hardware Complications and Indications for Salvage

OpenAIRE

Hernandez Rosa, Jonatan; Villanueva, Nathaniel L.; Sanati-Mehrizy, Paymon; Factor, Stephanie H.; Taub, Peter J.

2015-01-01

From 2002 to 2006, more than 117,000 facial fractures were recorded in the U.S. National Trauma Database. These fractures are commonly treated with open reduction and internal fixation. While in place, the hardware facilitates successful bony union. However, when postoperative complications occur, the plates may require removal before bony union. Indications for salvage versus removal of the maxillofacial hardware are not well defined. A literature review was performed to identify instances w...

System-level protection and hardware Trojan detection using weighted voting.

Science.gov (United States)

Amin, Hany A M; Alkabani, Yousra; Selim, Gamal M I

2014-07-01

The problem of hardware Trojans is becoming more serious especially with the widespread of fabless design houses and design reuse. Hardware Trojans can be embedded on chip during manufacturing or in third party intellectual property cores (IPs) during the design process. Recent research is performed to detect Trojans embedded at manufacturing time by comparing the suspected chip with a golden chip that is fully trusted. However, Trojan detection in third party IP cores is more challenging than other logic modules especially that there is no golden chip. This paper proposes a new methodology to detect/prevent hardware Trojans in third party IP cores. The method works by gradually building trust in suspected IP cores by comparing the outputs of different untrusted implementations of the same IP core. Simulation results show that our method achieves higher probability of Trojan detection over a naive implementation of simple voting on the output of different IP cores. In addition, experimental results show that the proposed method requires less hardware overhead when compared with a simple voting technique achieving the same degree of security.

System-level protection and hardware Trojan detection using weighted voting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hany A.M. Amin

2014-07-01

Full Text Available The problem of hardware Trojans is becoming more serious especially with the widespread of fabless design houses and design reuse. Hardware Trojans can be embedded on chip during manufacturing or in third party intellectual property cores (IPs during the design process. Recent research is performed to detect Trojans embedded at manufacturing time by comparing the suspected chip with a golden chip that is fully trusted. However, Trojan detection in third party IP cores is more challenging than other logic modules especially that there is no golden chip. This paper proposes a new methodology to detect/prevent hardware Trojans in third party IP cores. The method works by gradually building trust in suspected IP cores by comparing the outputs of different untrusted implementations of the same IP core. Simulation results show that our method achieves higher probability of Trojan detection over a naive implementation of simple voting on the output of different IP cores. In addition, experimental results show that the proposed method requires less hardware overhead when compared with a simple voting technique achieving the same degree of security.

A Modular Framework for Modeling Hardware Elements in Distributed Engine Control Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Zinnecker, Alicia M.; Culley, Dennis E.; Aretskin-Hariton, Eliot D.

2015-01-01

Progress toward the implementation of distributed engine control in an aerospace application may be accelerated through the development of a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) system for testing new control architectures and hardware outside of a physical test cell environment. One component required in an HIL simulation system is a high-fidelity model of the control platform: sensors, actuators, and the control law. The control system developed for the Commercial Modular Aero-Propulsion System Simulation 40k (C-MAPSS40k) provides a verifiable baseline for development of a model for simulating a distributed control architecture. This distributed controller model will contain enhanced hardware models, capturing the dynamics of the transducer and the effects of data processing, and a model of the controller network. A multilevel framework is presented that establishes three sets of interfaces in the control platform: communication with the engine (through sensors and actuators), communication between hardware and controller (over a network), and the physical connections within individual pieces of hardware. This introduces modularity at each level of the model, encouraging collaboration in the development and testing of various control schemes or hardware designs. At the hardware level, this modularity is leveraged through the creation of a SimulinkR library containing blocks for constructing smart transducer models complying with the IEEE 1451 specification. These hardware models were incorporated in a distributed version of the baseline C-MAPSS40k controller and simulations were run to compare the performance of the two models. The overall tracking ability differed only due to quantization effects in the feedback measurements in the distributed controller. Additionally, it was also found that the added complexity of the smart transducer models did not prevent real-time operation of the distributed controller model, a requirement of an HIL system.

Test Program for Stirling Radioisotope Generator Hardware at NASA Glenn Research Center

Science.gov (United States)

Lewandowski, Edward J.; Bolotin, Gary S.; Oriti, Salvatore M.

2015-01-01

Stirling-based energy conversion technology has demonstrated the potential of high efficiency and low mass power systems for future space missions. This capability is beneficial, if not essential, to making certain deep space missions possible. Significant progress was made developing the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG), a 140-W radioisotope power system. A variety of flight-like hardware, including Stirling convertors, controllers, and housings, was designed and built under the ASRG flight development project. To support future Stirling-based power system development NASA has proposals that, if funded, will allow this hardware to go on test at the NASA Glenn Research Center. While future flight hardware may not be identical to the hardware developed under the ASRG flight development project, many components will likely be similar, and system architectures may have heritage to ASRG. Thus, the importance of testing the ASRG hardware to the development of future Stirling-based power systems cannot be understated. This proposed testing will include performance testing, extended operation to establish an extensive reliability database, and characterization testing to quantify subsystem and system performance and better understand system interfaces. This paper details this proposed test program for Stirling radioisotope generator hardware at NASA Glenn. It explains the rationale behind the proposed tests and how these tests will meet the stated objectives.

Hardware and layout aspects affecting maintainability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jayaraman, V.N.; Surendar, Ch.

1977-01-01

It has been found from maintenance experience at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station that proper hardware and instrumentation layout can reduce maintenance and down-time on the related equipment. The problems faced in this connection and how they were solved is narrated. (M.G.B.)

Building Correlators with Many-Core Hardware

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Nieuwpoort, R.V.

2010-01-01

Radio telescopes typically consist of multiple receivers whose signals are cross-correlated to filter out noise. A recent trend is to correlate in software instead of custom-built hardware, taking advantage of the flexibility that software solutions offer. Examples include e-VLBI and LOFAR. However,

Harnessing the Power of Integrated Mitochondrial Biology and Physiology: A Special Report on the NHLBI Mitochondria in Heart Diseases Initiative.

Science.gov (United States)

Ping, Peipei; Gustafsson, Åsa B; Bers, Don M; Blatter, Lothar A; Cai, Hua; Jahangir, Arshad; Kelly, Daniel; Muoio, Deborah; O'Rourke, Brian; Rabinovitch, Peter; Trayanova, Natalia; Van Eyk, Jennifer; Weiss, James N; Wong, Renee; Schwartz Longacre, Lisa

2015-07-17

Mitochondrial biology is the sum of diverse phenomena from molecular profiles to physiological functions. A mechanistic understanding of mitochondria in disease development, and hence the future prospect of clinical translations, relies on a systems-level integration of expertise from multiple fields of investigation. Upon the successful conclusion of a recent National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute initiative on integrative mitochondrial biology in cardiovascular diseases, we reflect on the accomplishments made possible by this unique interdisciplinary collaboration effort and exciting new fronts on the study of these remarkable organelles. © 2015 American Heart Association, Inc.

Hardware and software maintenance strategies for upgrading vintage computers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, B.C.; Buijs, W.J.; Banting, R.D.

1992-01-01

The paper focuses on the maintenance of the computer hardware and software for digital control computers (DCC). Specific design and problems related to various maintenance strategies are reviewed. A foundation was required for a reliable computer maintenance and upgrading program to provide operation of the DCC with high availability and reliability for 40 years. This involved a carefully planned and executed maintenance and upgrading program, involving complementary hardware and software strategies. The computer system was designed on a modular basis, with large sections easily replaceable, to facilitate maintenance and improve availability of the system. Advances in computer hardware have made it possible to replace DCC peripheral devices with reliable, inexpensive, and widely available components from PC-based systems (PC = personal computer). By providing a high speed link from the DCC to a PC, it is now possible to use many commercial software packages to process data from the plant. 1 fig

THE PATH OF TEACHING NATURAL SCIENCES THROUGH THE PEDAGOGY OF MEMORY. AN INITIAL CONTRIBUTION TO THINKING ABOUT BIOLOGY TEACHING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura Marcela Trujillo Castro

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The biology teaching is in relation whit the pedagogy of the memory, that allows to identify first the events, information and facts that have made possible the construction and the reconfiguration of the different structuring components of the biology. Secondly (developed with major extent in the written present, there is identified how from the recognition of the historical reality of the country from the memory, that is to say the memory and the comprehension of the events that have formed the history of the country, is possible the emergency of the biology teaching from a contextual perspective in route of the appropriation and of the construction of identity.   The recognition of the events and facts allows to come out of the memory information to be located from a systemic vision for the comprehension of the events of a discipline and of the happening of the history of a country. In this sense, the written present tries to give an initial offer, from the pedagogy of the memory and from the perspective of education as institutional practice and social action, which consists of starting thinking the education of the biology as act of biological and contextual appropriation.

Open source hardware and software platform for robotics and artificial intelligence applications

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, S. Ng; Tan, K. O.; Lai Clement, T. H.; Ng, S. K.; Mohammed, A. H. Ali; Mailah, Musa; Azhar Yussof, Wan; Hamedon, Zamzuri; Yussof, Zulkifli

2016-02-01

Recent developments in open source hardware and software platforms (Android, Arduino, Linux, OpenCV etc.) have enabled rapid development of previously expensive and sophisticated system within a lower budget and flatter learning curves for developers. Using these platform, we designed and developed a Java-based 3D robotic simulation system, with graph database, which is integrated in online and offline modes with an Android-Arduino based rubbish picking remote control car. The combination of the open source hardware and software system created a flexible and expandable platform for further developments in the future, both in the software and hardware areas, in particular in combination with graph database for artificial intelligence, as well as more sophisticated hardware, such as legged or humanoid robots.

Open source hardware and software platform for robotics and artificial intelligence applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liang, S Ng; Tan, K O; Clement, T H Lai; Ng, S K; Mohammed, A H Ali; Mailah, Musa; Yussof, Wan Azhar; Hamedon, Zamzuri; Yussof, Zulkifli

2016-01-01

Recent developments in open source hardware and software platforms (Android, Arduino, Linux, OpenCV etc.) have enabled rapid development of previously expensive and sophisticated system within a lower budget and flatter learning curves for developers. Using these platform, we designed and developed a Java-based 3D robotic simulation system, with graph database, which is integrated in online and offline modes with an Android-Arduino based rubbish picking remote control car. The combination of the open source hardware and software system created a flexible and expandable platform for further developments in the future, both in the software and hardware areas, in particular in combination with graph database for artificial intelligence, as well as more sophisticated hardware, such as legged or humanoid robots. (paper)

X-Window for process control in a mixed hardware environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clausen, M.; Rehlich, K.

1992-01-01

X-Window is a common standard for display purposes on the current workstations. The possibility to create more than one window on a single screen enables the operators to gain more information about the process. Multiple windows from different control systems using mixed hardware is one of the problems this paper will describe. The experience shows that X-Window is a standard per definition, but not in any case. But it is an excellent tool to separate data-acquisition and display from each other over long distances using different types of hardware and software for communications and display. Our experience with X-Window displays for the cryogenic control system and the vacuum control system at HERA on DEC and SUN hardware will be described. (author)

Plutonium Protection System (PPS). Volume 2. Hardware description. Final report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miyoshi, D.S.

1979-05-01

The Plutonium Protection System (PPS) is an integrated safeguards system developed by Sandia Laboratories for the Department of Energy, Office of Safeguards and Security. The system is designed to demonstrate and test concepts for the improved safeguarding of plutonium. Volume 2 of the PPS final report describes the hardware elements of the system. The major areas containing hardware elements are the vault, where plutonium is stored, the packaging room, where plutonium is packaged into Container Modules, the Security Operations Center, which controls movement of personnel, the Material Accountability Center, which maintains the system data base, and the Material Operations Center, which monitors the operating procedures in the system. References are made to documents in which details of the hardware items can be found

Current trends in hardware and software for brain-computer interfaces (BCIs).

Science.gov (United States)

Brunner, P; Bianchi, L; Guger, C; Cincotti, F; Schalk, G

2011-04-01

A brain-computer interface (BCI) provides a non-muscular communication channel to people with and without disabilities. BCI devices consist of hardware and software. BCI hardware records signals from the brain, either invasively or non-invasively, using a series of device components. BCI software then translates these signals into device output commands and provides feedback. One may categorize different types of BCI applications into the following four categories: basic research, clinical/translational research, consumer products, and emerging applications. These four categories use BCI hardware and software, but have different sets of requirements. For example, while basic research needs to explore a wide range of system configurations, and thus requires a wide range of hardware and software capabilities, applications in the other three categories may be designed for relatively narrow purposes and thus may only need a very limited subset of capabilities. This paper summarizes technical aspects for each of these four categories of BCI applications. The results indicate that BCI technology is in transition from isolated demonstrations to systematic research and commercial development. This process requires several multidisciplinary efforts, including the development of better integrated and more robust BCI hardware and software, the definition of standardized interfaces, and the development of certification, dissemination and reimbursement procedures.

Current trends in hardware and software for brain-computer interfaces (BCIs)

Science.gov (United States)

Brunner, P.; Bianchi, L.; Guger, C.; Cincotti, F.; Schalk, G.

2011-04-01

A brain-computer interface (BCI) provides a non-muscular communication channel to people with and without disabilities. BCI devices consist of hardware and software. BCI hardware records signals from the brain, either invasively or non-invasively, using a series of device components. BCI software then translates these signals into device output commands and provides feedback. One may categorize different types of BCI applications into the following four categories: basic research, clinical/translational research, consumer products, and emerging applications. These four categories use BCI hardware and software, but have different sets of requirements. For example, while basic research needs to explore a wide range of system configurations, and thus requires a wide range of hardware and software capabilities, applications in the other three categories may be designed for relatively narrow purposes and thus may only need a very limited subset of capabilities. This paper summarizes technical aspects for each of these four categories of BCI applications. The results indicate that BCI technology is in transition from isolated demonstrations to systematic research and commercial development. This process requires several multidisciplinary efforts, including the development of better integrated and more robust BCI hardware and software, the definition of standardized interfaces, and the development of certification, dissemination and reimbursement procedures.

Tomographic image reconstruction and rendering with texture-mapping hardware

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Azevedo, S.G.; Cabral, B.K.; Foran, J.

1994-07-01

The image reconstruction problem, also known as the inverse Radon transform, for x-ray computed tomography (CT) is found in numerous applications in medicine and industry. The most common algorithm used in these cases is filtered backprojection (FBP), which, while a simple procedure, is time-consuming for large images on any type of computational engine. Specially-designed, dedicated parallel processors are commonly used in medical CT scanners, whose results are then passed to graphics workstation for rendering and analysis. However, a fast direct FBP algorithm can be implemented on modern texture-mapping hardware in current high-end workstation platforms. This is done by casting the FBP algorithm as an image warping operation with summing. Texture-mapping hardware, such as that on the Silicon Graphics Reality Engine (TM), shows around 600 times speedup of backprojection over a CPU-based implementation (a 100 Mhz R4400 in this case). This technique has the further advantages of flexibility and rapid programming. In addition, the same hardware can be used for both image reconstruction and for volumetric rendering. The techniques can also be used to accelerate iterative reconstruction algorithms. The hardware architecture also allows more complex operations than straight-ray backprojection if they are required, including fan-beam, cone-beam, and curved ray paths, with little or no speed penalties

Hardware realization of an SVM algorithm implemented in FPGAs

Science.gov (United States)

Wiśniewski, Remigiusz; Bazydło, Grzegorz; Szcześniak, Paweł

2017-08-01

The paper proposes a technique of hardware realization of a space vector modulation (SVM) of state function switching in matrix converter (MC), oriented on the implementation in a single field programmable gate array (FPGA). In MC the SVM method is based on the instantaneous space-vector representation of input currents and output voltages. The traditional computation algorithms usually involve digital signal processors (DSPs) which consumes the large number of power transistors (18 transistors and 18 independent PWM outputs) and "non-standard positions of control pulses" during the switching sequence. Recently, hardware implementations become popular since computed operations may be executed much faster and efficient due to nature of the digital devices (especially concurrency). In the paper, we propose a hardware algorithm of SVM computation. In opposite to the existing techniques, the presented solution applies COordinate Rotation DIgital Computer (CORDIC) method to solve the trigonometric operations. Furthermore, adequate arithmetic modules (that is, sub-devices) used for intermediate calculations, such as code converters or proper sectors selectors (for output voltages and input current) are presented in detail. The proposed technique has been implemented as a design described with the use of Verilog hardware description language. The preliminary results of logic implementation oriented on the Xilinx FPGA (particularly, low-cost device from Artix-7 family from Xilinx was used) are also presented.

Hardware Design Considerations for Edge-Accelerated Stereo Correspondence Algorithms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christos Ttofis

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Stereo correspondence is a popular algorithm for the extraction of depth information from a pair of rectified 2D images. Hence, it has been used in many computer vision applications that require knowledge about depth. However, stereo correspondence is a computationally intensive algorithm and requires high-end hardware resources in order to achieve real-time processing speed in embedded computer vision systems. This paper presents an overview of the use of edge information as a means to accelerate hardware implementations of stereo correspondence algorithms. The presented approach restricts the stereo correspondence algorithm only to the edges of the input images rather than to all image points, thus resulting in a considerable reduction of the search space. The paper highlights the benefits of the edge-directed approach by applying it to two stereo correspondence algorithms: an SAD-based fixed-support algorithm and a more complex adaptive support weight algorithm. Furthermore, we present design considerations about the implementation of these algorithms on reconfigurable hardware and also discuss issues related to the memory structures needed, the amount of parallelism that can be exploited, the organization of the processing blocks, and so forth. The two architectures (fixed-support based versus adaptive-support weight based are compared in terms of processing speed, disparity map accuracy, and hardware overheads, when both are implemented on a Virtex-5 FPGA platform.

Introduction to Hardware Security and Trust

CERN Document Server

Wang, Cliff

2012-01-01

The emergence of a globalized, horizontal semiconductor business model raises a set of concerns involving the security and trust of the information systems on which modern society is increasingly reliant for mission-critical functionality. Hardware-oriented security and trust issues span a broad range including threats related to the malicious insertion of Trojan circuits designed, e.g.,to act as a ‘kill switch’ to disable a chip, to integrated circuit (IC) piracy,and to attacks designed to extract encryption keys and IP from a chip. This book provides the foundations for understanding hardware security and trust, which have become major concerns for national security over the past decade.  Coverage includes security and trust issues in all types of electronic devices and systems such as ASICs, COTS, FPGAs, microprocessors/DSPs, and embedded systems.  This serves as an invaluable reference to the state-of-the-art research that is of critical significance to the security of,and trust in, modern society�...

Fast Initialization of Bubble-Memory Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Looney, K. T.; Nichols, C. D.; Hayes, P. J.

1986-01-01

Improved scheme several orders of magnitude faster than normal initialization scheme. State-of-the-art commercial bubble-memory device used. Hardware interface designed connects controlling microprocessor to bubblememory circuitry. System software written to exercise various functions of bubble-memory system in comparison made between normal and fast techniques. Future implementations of approach utilize E2PROM (electrically-erasable programable read-only memory) to provide greater system flexibility. Fastinitialization technique applicable to all bubble-memory devices.

Utilizing IXP1200 hardware and software for packet filtering

OpenAIRE

Lindholm, Jeffery L.

2004-01-01

As network processors have advanced in speed and efficiency they have become more and more complex in both hardware and software configurations. Intel's IXP1200 is one of these new network processors that has been given to different universities worldwide to conduct research on. The goal of this thesis is to take the first step in starting that research by providing a stable system that can provide a reliable platform for further research. This thesis introduces the fundamental hardware of In...

The hardware control system for WEAVE at the William Herschel telescope

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Delgado Hernandez, Jose M.; Rodríguez-Ramos, Luis F.; Cano Infantes, Diego; Martin, Carlos; Bevil, Craige; Picó, Sergio; Dee, Kevin M.; Abrams, Don Carlos; Lewis, Ian J.; Pragt, Johan; Stuik, Remko; Tromp, Niels; Dalton, Gavin; L. Aguerri, J. Alfonso; Bonifacio, Piercarlo; Middleton, Kevin F.; Trager, Scott C.

This work describes the hardware control system of the Prime Focus Corrector (PFC) and the Spectrograph, two of the main parts of WEAVE, a multi-object fiber spectrograph for the WHT Telescope. The PFC and Spectrograph control system hardware is based on the Allen Bradley's Programmable Automation

A Message-Passing Hardware/Software Cosimulation Environment for Reconfigurable Computing Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Manuel Saldaña

2009-01-01

Full Text Available High-performance reconfigurable computers (HPRCs provide a mix of standard processors and FPGAs to collectively accelerate applications. This introduces new design challenges, such as the need for portable programming models across HPRCs and system-level verification tools. To address the need for cosimulating a complete heterogeneous application using both software and hardware in an HPRC, we have created a tool called the Message-passing Simulation Framework (MSF. We have used it to simulate and develop an interface enabling an MPI-based approach to exchange data between X86 processors and hardware engines inside FPGAs. The MSF can also be used as an application development tool that enables multiple FPGAs in simulation to exchange messages amongst themselves and with X86 processors. As an example, we simulate a LINPACK benchmark hardware core using an Intel-FSB-Xilinx-FPGA platform to quickly prototype the hardware, to test the communications. and to verify the benchmark results.

Establishing a novel modeling tool: a python-based interface for a neuromorphic hardware system.

Science.gov (United States)

Brüderle, Daniel; Müller, Eric; Davison, Andrew; Muller, Eilif; Schemmel, Johannes; Meier, Karlheinz

2009-01-01

Neuromorphic hardware systems provide new possibilities for the neuroscience modeling community. Due to the intrinsic parallelism of the micro-electronic emulation of neural computation, such models are highly scalable without a loss of speed. However, the communities of software simulator users and neuromorphic engineering in neuroscience are rather disjoint. We present a software concept that provides the possibility to establish such hardware devices as valuable modeling tools. It is based on the integration of the hardware interface into a simulator-independent language which allows for unified experiment descriptions that can be run on various simulation platforms without modification, implying experiment portability and a huge simplification of the quantitative comparison of hardware and simulator results. We introduce an accelerated neuromorphic hardware device and describe the implementation of the proposed concept for this system. An example setup and results acquired by utilizing both the hardware system and a software simulator are demonstrated.

Benchmarking Model Variants in Development of a Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation System

Science.gov (United States)

Aretskin-Hariton, Eliot D.; Zinnecker, Alicia M.; Kratz, Jonathan L.; Culley, Dennis E.; Thomas, George L.

2016-01-01

Distributed engine control architecture presents a significant increase in complexity over traditional implementations when viewed from the perspective of system simulation and hardware design and test. Even if the overall function of the control scheme remains the same, the hardware implementation can have a significant effect on the overall system performance due to differences in the creation and flow of data between control elements. A Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulation system is under development at NASA Glenn Research Center that enables the exploration of these hardware dependent issues. The system is based on, but not limited to, the Commercial Modular Aero-Propulsion System Simulation 40k (C-MAPSS40k). This paper describes the step-by-step conversion from the self-contained baseline model to the hardware in the loop model, and the validation of each step. As the control model hardware fidelity was improved during HIL system development, benchmarking simulations were performed to verify that engine system performance characteristics remained the same. The results demonstrate the goal of the effort; the new HIL configurations have similar functionality and performance compared to the baseline C-MAPSS40k system.

Hon-yaku: a biology-driven Bayesian methodology for identifying translation initiation sites in prokaryotes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

de Hoon Michiel JL

2007-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Computational prediction methods are currently used to identify genes in prokaryote genomes. However, identification of the correct translation initiation sites remains a difficult task. Accurate translation initiation sites (TISs are important not only for the annotation of unknown proteins but also for the prediction of operons, promoters, and small non-coding RNA genes, as this typically makes use of the intergenic distance. A further problem is that most existing methods are optimized for Escherichia coli data sets; applying these methods to newly sequenced bacterial genomes may not result in an equivalent level of accuracy. Results Based on a biological representation of the translation process, we applied Bayesian statistics to create a score function for predicting translation initiation sites. In contrast to existing programs, our combination of methods uses supervised learning to optimally use the set of known translation initiation sites. We combined the Ribosome Binding Site (RBS sequence, the distance between the translation initiation site and the RBS sequence, the base composition of the start codon, the nucleotide composition (A-rich sequences following start codons, and the expected distribution of the protein length in a Bayesian scoring function. To further increase the prediction accuracy, we also took into account the operon orientation. The outcome of the procedure achieved a prediction accuracy of 93.2% in 858 E. coli genes from the EcoGene data set and 92.7% accuracy in a data set of 1243 Bacillus subtilis 'non-y' genes. We confirmed the performance in the GC-rich Gamma-Proteobacteria Herminiimonas arsenicoxydans, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Burkholderia pseudomallei K96243. Conclusion Hon-yaku, being based on a careful choice of elements important in translation, improved the prediction accuracy in B. subtilis data sets and other bacteria except for E. coli. We believe that most remaining

Establishing a novel modeling tool: a python-based interface for a neuromorphic hardware system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Brüderle

2009-06-01

Full Text Available Neuromorphic hardware systems provide new possibilities for the neuroscience modeling community. Due to the intrinsic parallelism of the micro-electronic emulation of neural computation, such models are highly scalable without a loss of speed. However, the communities of software simulator users and neuromorphic engineering in neuroscience are rather disjoint. We present a software concept that provides the possibility to establish such hardware devices as valuable modeling tools. It is based on the integration of the hardware interface into a simulator-independent language which allows for unified experiment descriptions that can be run on various simulation platforms without modification, implying experiment portability and a huge simplification of the quantitative comparison of hardware and simulator results. We introduce an accelerated neuromorphic hardware device and describe the implementation of the proposed concept for this system. An example setup and results acquired by utilizing both the hardware system and a software simulator are demonstrated.

Enabling Open Hardware through FOSS tools

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2016-01-01

Software developers often take open file formats and tools for granted. When you publish code on github, you do not ask yourself if somebody will be able to open it and modify it. We need the same freedom in the open hardware world, to make it truly accessible for everyone.

Integrated conception of hardware/software mixed systems used in nuclear instrumentation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dias, Ailton F.; Sorel, Yves; Akil, Mohamed

2002-01-01

Hardware/software codesign carries out the design of systems composed by a hardware portion, with specific components, and a software portion, with microprocessor based architecture. This paper describes the Algorithm Architecture Adequation (AAA) design methodology - originally oriented to programmable multicomponent architectures, its extension to reconfigurable circuits and its application to design and development of nuclear instrumentation systems composed by programmable and configurable circuits. AAA methodology uses an unified model to describe algorithm, architecture and implementation, based on graph theory. The great advantage of AAA methodology is the utilization of a same model from the specification to the implementation of hardware/software systems, reducing the complexity and design time. (author)

Calculator: A Hardware Design, Math and Software Programming Project Base Learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

F. Criado

2015-03-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the implementation by the students of a complex calculator in hardware. This project meets hardware design goals, and also highly motivates them to use competences learned in others subjects. The learning process, associated to System Design, is hard enough because the students have to deal with parallel execution, signal delay, synchronization … Then, to strengthen the knowledge of hardware design a methodology as project based learning (PBL is proposed. Moreover, it is also used to reinforce cross subjects like math and software programming. This methodology creates a course dynamics that is closer to a professional environment where they will work with software and mathematics to resolve the hardware design problems. The students design from zero the functionality of the calculator. They are who make the decisions about the math operations that it is able to resolve it, and also the operands format or how to introduce a complex equation into the calculator. This will increase the student intrinsic motivation. In addition, since the choices may have consequences on the reliability of the calculator, students are encouraged to program in software the decisions about how implement the selected mathematical algorithm. Although math and hardware design are two tough subjects for students, the perception that they get at the end of the course is quite positive.

MORPION: a fast hardware processor for straight line finding in MWPC

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mur, M.

1980-02-01

A fast hardware processor for straight line finding in MWPC has been built in Saclay and successfully operated in the NA3 experiment at CERN. We give the motivations to build this processor, and describe the hardware implementation of the line finding algorithm. Finally its use and performance in NA3 are described

Environmental Control System Software & Hardware Development

Science.gov (United States)

Vargas, Daniel Eduardo

2017-01-01

ECS hardware: (1) Provides controlled purge to SLS Rocket and Orion spacecraft. (2) Provide mission-focused engineering products and services. ECS software: (1) NASA requires Compact Unique Identifiers (CUIs); fixed-length identifier used to identify information items. (2) CUI structure; composed of nine semantic fields that aid the user in recognizing its purpose.

Total knee arthroplasty using patient-specific blocks after prior femoral fracture without hardware removal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Raju Vaishya

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Background: The options to perform total knee arthroplasty (TKA with retained hardware in femur are mainly – removal of hardware, use of extramedullary guide, or computer-assisted surgery. Patient-specific blocks (PSBs have been introduced with many potential advantages, but their use in retained hardware has not been adequately explored. The purpose of the present study was to outline and assess the usefulness of the PSBs in performing TKA in patients with retained femoral hardware. Materials and Materials and Methods: Nine patients with retained femoral hardware underwent TKA using PSBs. All the surgeries were performed by the same surgeon using same implants. Nine cases (7 males and 2 females out of total of 120 primary TKA had retained hardware. The average age of the patients was 60.55 years. The retained hardware were 6 patients with nails, 2 with plates and one patient had screws. Out of the nine cases, only one patient needed removal of a screw which was hindering placement of pin for the PSB. Results: All the patients had significant improvement in their Knee Society Score (KSS which improved from 47.0 to postoperative KSS of 86.77 (P < 0.00. The mechanical axis was significantly improved (P < 0.03 after surgery. No patient required blood transfusion and the average tourniquet time was 41 min. Conclusion: TKA using PSBs is useful and can be used in patients with retained hardware with good functional and radiological outcome.

Event management for large scale event-driven digital hardware spiking neural networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Caron, Louis-Charles; D'Haene, Michiel; Mailhot, Frédéric; Schrauwen, Benjamin; Rouat, Jean

2013-09-01

The interest in brain-like computation has led to the design of a plethora of innovative neuromorphic systems. Individually, spiking neural networks (SNNs), event-driven simulation and digital hardware neuromorphic systems get a lot of attention. Despite the popularity of event-driven SNNs in software, very few digital hardware architectures are found. This is because existing hardware solutions for event management scale badly with the number of events. This paper introduces the structured heap queue, a pipelined digital hardware data structure, and demonstrates its suitability for event management. The structured heap queue scales gracefully with the number of events, allowing the efficient implementation of large scale digital hardware event-driven SNNs. The scaling is linear for memory, logarithmic for logic resources and constant for processing time. The use of the structured heap queue is demonstrated on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) with an image segmentation experiment and a SNN of 65,536 neurons and 513,184 synapses. Events can be processed at the rate of 1 every 7 clock cycles and a 406×158 pixel image is segmented in 200 ms. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hardware-assisted software clock synchronization for homogeneous distributed systems

Science.gov (United States)

Ramanathan, P.; Kandlur, Dilip D.; Shin, Kang G.

1990-01-01

A clock synchronization scheme that strikes a balance between hardware and software solutions is proposed. The proposed is a software algorithm that uses minimal additional hardware to achieve reasonably tight synchronization. Unlike other software solutions, the guaranteed worst-case skews can be made insensitive to the maximum variation of message transit delay in the system. The scheme is particularly suitable for large partially connected distributed systems with topologies that support simple point-to-point broadcast algorithms. Examples of such topologies include the hypercube and the mesh interconnection structures.

Patterns of Participation and Motivation in Folding@home: The Contribution of Hardware Enthusiasts and Overclockers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vickie Curtis

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Folding@home is a distributed computing project in which participants run protein folding simulations on their computers. Participants complete work units and are awarded points for their contribution. An investigation into motivations to participate and patterns of participation revealed the significant contribution of a sub-community composed of individuals who custom-build computers to maximise their processing power. These individuals, known as “overclockers” or “hardware enthusiasts,” use distributed computing projects such as Folding@home to benchmark their modified computers and to compete with one another to see who can process the greatest number of project work units. Many are initially drawn to the project to learn about computer hardware from other overclockers and to compete for points. However, once they learn more about the scientific outputs of Folding@home, some participants become more motivated by the desire to contribute to scientific research. Overclockers form numerous online communities where members collaborate and help each other maximise their computing output. They invest heavily in their computers and process the majority of Folding@home’s simulations, thus providing an invaluable (and free resource.

Surface grafting of zwitterionic polymers onto dye doped AIE-active luminescent silica nanoparticles through surface-initiated ATRP for biological imaging applications

Science.gov (United States)

Mao, Liucheng; Liu, Xinhua; Liu, Meiying; Huang, Long; Xu, Dazhuang; Jiang, Ruming; Huang, Qiang; Wen, Yuanqing; Zhang, Xiaoyong; Wei, Yen

2017-10-01

Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) dyes have recently been intensively explored for biological imaging applications owing to their outstanding optical feature as compared with conventional organic dyes. The AIE-active luminescent silica nanoparticles (LSNPs) are expected to combine the advantages both of silica nanoparticles and AIE-active dyes. Although the AIE-active LSNPs have been prepared previously, surface modification of these AIE-active LSNPs with functional polymers has not been reported thus far. In this work, we reported a rather facile and general strategy for preparation of polymers functionalized AIE-active LSNPs through the surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). The AIE-active LSNPs were fabricated via direct encapsulation of AIE-active dye into silica nanoparticles through a non-covalent modified Stöber method. The ATRP initiator was subsequently immobilized onto these AIE-active LSNPs through amidation reaction between 3-aminopropyl-triethoxy-silane and 2-bromoisobutyryl bromide. Finally, the zwitterionic 2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC) was selected as model monomer and grafted onto MSNs through ATRP. The characterization results suggested that LSNPs can be successfully modified with poly(MPC) through surface-initiated ATRP. The biological evaluation results demonstrated that the final SNPs-AIE-pMPC composites possess low cytotoxicity, desirable optical properties and great potential for biological imaging. Taken together, we demonstrated that AIE-active LSNPs can be fabricated and surface modified with functional polymers to endow novel functions and better performance for biomedical applications. More importantly, this strategy developed in this work could also be extended for fabrication of many other LSNPs polymer composites owing to the good monomer adoptability of ATRP.

Hardware availability calculations and results of the IFMIF accelerator facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bargalló, Enric; Arroyo, Jose Manuel; Abal, Javier; Beauvais, Pierre-Yves; Gobin, Raphael; Orsini, Fabienne; Weber, Moisés; Podadera, Ivan; Grespan, Francesco; Fagotti, Enrico; De Blas, Alfredo; Dies, Javier; Tapia, Carlos; Mollá, Joaquín; Ibarra, Ángel

2014-01-01

Highlights: • IFMIF accelerator facility hardware availability analyses methodology is described. • Results of the individual hardware availability analyses are shown for the reference design. • Accelerator design improvements are proposed for each system. • Availability results are evaluated and compared with the requirements. - Abstract: Hardware availability calculations have been done individually for each system of the deuteron accelerators of the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF). The principal goal of these analyses is to estimate the availability of the systems, compare it with the challenging IFMIF requirements and find new paths to improve availability performances. Major unavailability contributors are highlighted and possible design changes are proposed in order to achieve the hardware availability requirements established for each system. In this paper, such possible improvements are implemented in fault tree models and the availability results are evaluated. The parallel activity on the design and construction of the linear IFMIF prototype accelerator (LIPAc) provides detailed design information for the RAMI (reliability, availability, maintainability and inspectability) analyses and allows finding out the improvements that the final accelerator could have. Because of the R and D behavior of the LIPAc, RAMI improvements could be the major differences between the prototype and the IFMIF accelerator design

Hardware availability calculations and results of the IFMIF accelerator facility

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bargalló, Enric, E-mail: enric.bargallo-font@upc.edu [Fusion Energy Engineering Laboratory (FEEL), Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), Barcelona (Spain); Arroyo, Jose Manuel [Laboratorio Nacional de Fusión por Confinamiento Magnético – CIEMAT, Madrid (Spain); Abal, Javier [Fusion Energy Engineering Laboratory (FEEL), Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), Barcelona (Spain); Beauvais, Pierre-Yves; Gobin, Raphael; Orsini, Fabienne [Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique, Saclay (France); Weber, Moisés; Podadera, Ivan [Laboratorio Nacional de Fusión por Confinamiento Magnético – CIEMAT, Madrid (Spain); Grespan, Francesco; Fagotti, Enrico [Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Legnaro (Italy); De Blas, Alfredo; Dies, Javier; Tapia, Carlos [Fusion Energy Engineering Laboratory (FEEL), Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), Barcelona (Spain); Mollá, Joaquín; Ibarra, Ángel [Laboratorio Nacional de Fusión por Confinamiento Magnético – CIEMAT, Madrid (Spain)

2014-10-15

Highlights: • IFMIF accelerator facility hardware availability analyses methodology is described. • Results of the individual hardware availability analyses are shown for the reference design. • Accelerator design improvements are proposed for each system. • Availability results are evaluated and compared with the requirements. - Abstract: Hardware availability calculations have been done individually for each system of the deuteron accelerators of the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF). The principal goal of these analyses is to estimate the availability of the systems, compare it with the challenging IFMIF requirements and find new paths to improve availability performances. Major unavailability contributors are highlighted and possible design changes are proposed in order to achieve the hardware availability requirements established for each system. In this paper, such possible improvements are implemented in fault tree models and the availability results are evaluated. The parallel activity on the design and construction of the linear IFMIF prototype accelerator (LIPAc) provides detailed design information for the RAMI (reliability, availability, maintainability and inspectability) analyses and allows finding out the improvements that the final accelerator could have. Because of the R and D behavior of the LIPAc, RAMI improvements could be the major differences between the prototype and the IFMIF accelerator design.

Advanced hardware design for error correcting codes

CERN Document Server

Coussy, Philippe

2015-01-01

This book provides thorough coverage of error correcting techniques. It includes essential basic concepts and the latest advances on key topics in design, implementation, and optimization of hardware/software systems for error correction. The book’s chapters are written by internationally recognized experts in this field. Topics include evolution of error correction techniques, industrial user needs, architectures, and design approaches for the most advanced error correcting codes (Polar Codes, Non-Binary LDPC, Product Codes, etc). This book provides access to recent results, and is suitable for graduate students and researchers of mathematics, computer science, and engineering. • Examines how to optimize the architecture of hardware design for error correcting codes; • Presents error correction codes from theory to optimized architecture for the current and the next generation standards; • Provides coverage of industrial user needs advanced error correcting techniques.

Computer hardware for radiologists: Part 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Indrajit, IK; Alam, A

2010-01-01

Computers are an integral part of modern radiology equipment. In the first half of this two-part article, we dwelt upon some fundamental concepts regarding computer hardware, covering components like motherboard, central processing unit (CPU), chipset, random access memory (RAM), and memory modules. In this article, we describe the remaining computer hardware components that are of relevance to radiology. “Storage drive” is a term describing a “memory” hardware used to store data for later retrieval. Commonly used storage drives are hard drives, floppy drives, optical drives, flash drives, and network drives. The capacity of a hard drive is dependent on many factors, including the number of disk sides, number of tracks per side, number of sectors on each track, and the amount of data that can be stored in each sector. “Drive interfaces” connect hard drives and optical drives to a computer. The connections of such drives require both a power cable and a data cable. The four most popular “input/output devices” used commonly with computers are the printer, monitor, mouse, and keyboard. The “bus” is a built-in electronic signal pathway in the motherboard to permit efficient and uninterrupted data transfer. A motherboard can have several buses, including the system bus, the PCI express bus, the PCI bus, the AGP bus, and the (outdated) ISA bus. “Ports” are the location at which external devices are connected to a computer motherboard. All commonly used peripheral devices, such as printers, scanners, and portable drives, need ports. A working knowledge of computers is necessary for the radiologist if the workflow is to realize its full potential and, besides, this knowledge will prepare the radiologist for the coming innovations in the ‘ever increasing’ digital future

Computer hardware for radiologists: Part 2

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Indrajit I

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Computers are an integral part of modern radiology equipment. In the first half of this two-part article, we dwelt upon some fundamental concepts regarding computer hardware, covering components like motherboard, central processing unit (CPU, chipset, random access memory (RAM, and memory modules. In this article, we describe the remaining computer hardware components that are of relevance to radiology. "Storage drive" is a term describing a "memory" hardware used to store data for later retrieval. Commonly used storage drives are hard drives, floppy drives, optical drives, flash drives, and network drives. The capacity of a hard drive is dependent on many factors, including the number of disk sides, number of tracks per side, number of sectors on each track, and the amount of data that can be stored in each sector. "Drive interfaces" connect hard drives and optical drives to a computer. The connections of such drives require both a power cable and a data cable. The four most popular "input/output devices" used commonly with computers are the printer, monitor, mouse, and keyboard. The "bus" is a built-in electronic signal pathway in the motherboard to permit efficient and uninterrupted data transfer. A motherboard can have several buses, including the system bus, the PCI express bus, the PCI bus, the AGP bus, and the (outdated ISA bus. "Ports" are the location at which external devices are connected to a computer motherboard. All commonly used peripheral devices, such as printers, scanners, and portable drives, need ports. A working knowledge of computers is necessary for the radiologist if the workflow is to realize its full potential and, besides, this knowledge will prepare the radiologist for the coming innovations in the ′ever increasing′ digital future.

Hardwares e sistemas multiagente: um estudo sobre arquiteturas híbridas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rafhael Rodrigues Cunha

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Este artigo apresenta três estudos de caso sobre a aplicabilidade de arquiteturas de hardware reconfiguráveis, como FPGA, voltadas à utilização em sistemas multiagentes. Feita uma análise visando à elucidação dos resultados e das contribuições que os estudos proporcionaram aos autores, observa-se que o desenvolvimento de sistemas inteligentes depende cada vez mais de uma programação que explore o hardware ao máximo. Esse desfecho torna o uso de hardwares reconfiguráveis o mais aconselhável quando problemas computacionais complexos demandam respostas rápidas e eficientes, como nos casos estudados.

Identification of Bacteria and Determination of Biological Indicators

Science.gov (United States)

Venkateswaran, Kasthuri; La Duc, Myron T.; Vaishampayan, Parag A.

2009-01-01

The ultimate goal of planetary protection research is to develop superior strategies for inactivating resistance bearing micro-organisms like Rummeli - bacillus stabekisii. By first identifying the particular physiologic pathway and/or structural component of the cell/spore that affords it such elevated tolerance, eradication regimes can then be designed to target these resistance-conferring moieties without jeopardizing the structural integrity of spacecraft hardware. Furthermore, hospitals and government agencies frequently use biological indicators to ensure the efficacy of a wide range of sterilization processes. The spores of Rummelibacillus stabekisii, which are far more resistant to many of such perturbations, could likely serve as a more significant biological indicator for potential survival than those being used currently.

Accelerator Technology: Injection and Extraction Related Hardware: Kickers and Septa

CERN Document Server

Barnes, M J; Mertens, V

2013-01-01

This document is part of Subvolume C 'Accelerators and Colliders' of Volume 21 'Elementary Particles' of Landolt-Börnstein - Group I 'Elementary Particles, Nuclei and Atoms'. It contains the the Section '8.7 Injection and Extraction Related Hardware: Kickers and Septa' of the Chapter '8 Accelerator Technology' with the content: 8.7 Injection and Extraction Related Hardware: Kickers and Septa 8.7.1 Fast Pulsed Systems (Kickers) 8.7.2 Electrostatic and Magnetic Septa

Testing Microgravity Flight Hardware Concepts on the NASA KC-135

Science.gov (United States)

Motil, Susan M.; Harrivel, Angela R.; Zimmerli, Gregory A.

2001-01-01

This paper provides an overview of utilizing the NASA KC-135 Reduced Gravity Aircraft for the Foam Optics and Mechanics (FOAM) microgravity flight project. The FOAM science requirements are summarized, and the KC-135 test-rig used to test hardware concepts designed to meet the requirements are described. Preliminary results regarding foam dispensing, foam/surface slip tests, and dynamic light scattering data are discussed in support of the flight hardware development for the FOAM experiment.

Hardware control system using modular software under RSX-11D

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kittell, R.S.; Helland, J.A.

1978-01-01

A modular software system used to control extensive hardware is described. The development, operation, and experience with this software are discussed. Included are the methods employed to implement this system while taking advantage of the Real-Time features of RSX-11D. Comparisons are made between this system and an earlier nonmodular system. The controlled hardware includes magnet power supplies, stepping motors, DVM's, and multiplexors, and is interfaced through CAMAC. 4 figures

ARM assembly language with hardware experiments

CERN Document Server

Elahi, Ata

2015-01-01

This book provides a hands-on approach to learning ARM assembly language with the use of a TI microcontroller. The book starts with an introduction to computer architecture and then discusses number systems and digital logic. The text covers ARM Assembly Language, ARM Cortex Architecture and its components, and Hardware Experiments using TILM3S1968. Written for those interested in learning embedded programming using an ARM Microcontroller. ·         Introduces number systems and signal transmission methods   ·         Reviews logic gates, registers, multiplexers, decoders and memory   ·         Provides an overview and examples of ARM instruction set   ·         Uses using Keil development tools for writing and debugging ARM assembly language Programs   ·         Hardware experiments using a Mbed NXP LPC1768 microcontroller; including General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) configuration, real time clock configuration, binary input to 7-segment display, creating ...

Fast image processing on parallel hardware

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bittner, U.

1988-01-01

Current digital imaging modalities in the medical field incorporate parallel hardware which is heavily used in the stage of image formation like the CT/MR image reconstruction or in the DSA real time subtraction. In order to image post-processing as efficient as image acquisition, new software approaches have to be found which take full advantage of the parallel hardware architecture. This paper describes the implementation of two-dimensional median filter which can serve as an example for the development of such an algorithm. The algorithm is analyzed by viewing it as a complete parallel sort of the k pixel values in the chosen window which leads to a generalization to rank order operators and other closely related filters reported in literature. A section about the theoretical base of the algorithm gives hints for how to characterize operations suitable for implementations on pipeline processors and the way to find the appropriate algorithms. Finally some results that computation time and usefulness of medial filtering in radiographic imaging are given

Secure Hardware Performance Analysis in Virtualized Cloud Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chee-Heng Tan

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The main obstacle in mass adoption of cloud computing for database operations is the data security issue. In this paper, it is shown that IT services particularly in hardware performance evaluation in virtual machine can be accomplished effectively without IT personnel gaining access to real data for diagnostic and remediation purposes. The proposed mechanisms utilized TPC-H benchmark to achieve 2 objectives. First, the underlying hardware performance and consistency is supervised via a control system, which is constructed using a combination of TPC-H queries, linear regression, and machine learning techniques. Second, linear programming techniques are employed to provide input to the algorithms that construct stress-testing scenarios in the virtual machine, using the combination of TPC-H queries. These stress-testing scenarios serve 2 purposes. They provide the boundary resource threshold verification to the first control system, so that periodic training of the synthetic data sets for performance evaluation is not constrained by hardware inadequacy, particularly when the resources in the virtual machine are scaled up or down which results in the change of the utilization threshold. Secondly, they provide a platform for response time verification on critical transactions, so that the expected Quality of Service (QoS from these transactions is assured.

ePlant and the 3D data display initiative: integrative systems biology on the world wide web.

Science.gov (United States)

Fucile, Geoffrey; Di Biase, David; Nahal, Hardeep; La, Garon; Khodabandeh, Shokoufeh; Chen, Yani; Easley, Kante; Christendat, Dinesh; Kelley, Lawrence; Provart, Nicholas J

2011-01-10

Visualization tools for biological data are often limited in their ability to interactively integrate data at multiple scales. These computational tools are also typically limited by two-dimensional displays and programmatic implementations that require separate configurations for each of the user's computing devices and recompilation for functional expansion. Towards overcoming these limitations we have developed "ePlant" (http://bar.utoronto.ca/eplant) - a suite of open-source world wide web-based tools for the visualization of large-scale data sets from the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana. These tools display data spanning multiple biological scales on interactive three-dimensional models. Currently, ePlant consists of the following modules: a sequence conservation explorer that includes homology relationships and single nucleotide polymorphism data, a protein structure model explorer, a molecular interaction network explorer, a gene product subcellular localization explorer, and a gene expression pattern explorer. The ePlant's protein structure explorer module represents experimentally determined and theoretical structures covering >70% of the Arabidopsis proteome. The ePlant framework is accessed entirely through a web browser, and is therefore platform-independent. It can be applied to any model organism. To facilitate the development of three-dimensional displays of biological data on the world wide web we have established the "3D Data Display Initiative" (http://3ddi.org).

An Error Analysis of Structured Light Scanning of Biological Tissue

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Sebastian Hoppe Nesgaard; Wilm, Jakob; Aanæs, Henrik

2017-01-01

This paper presents an error analysis and correction model for four structured light methods applied to three common types of biological tissue; skin, fat and muscle. Despite its many advantages, structured light is based on the assumption of direct reflection at the object surface only......, statistical linear model based on the scan geometry. As such, scans can be corrected without introducing any specially designed pattern strategy or hardware. We can effectively reduce the error in a structured light scanner applied to biological tissue by as much as factor of two or three........ This assumption is violated by most biological material e.g. human skin, which exhibits subsurface scattering. In this study, we find that in general, structured light scans of biological tissue deviate significantly from the ground truth. We show that a large portion of this error can be predicted with a simple...

Performance/price estimates for cortex-scale hardware: a design space exploration.

Science.gov (United States)

Zaveri, Mazad S; Hammerstrom, Dan

2011-04-01

In this paper, we revisit the concept of virtualization. Virtualization is useful for understanding and investigating the performance/price and other trade-offs related to the hardware design space. Moreover, it is perhaps the most important aspect of a hardware design space exploration. Such a design space exploration is a necessary part of the study of hardware architectures for large-scale computational models for intelligent computing, including AI, Bayesian, bio-inspired and neural models. A methodical exploration is needed to identify potentially interesting regions in the design space, and to assess the relative performance/price points of these implementations. As an example, in this paper we investigate the performance/price of (digital and mixed-signal) CMOS and hypothetical CMOL (nanogrid) technology based hardware implementations of human cortex-scale spiking neural systems. Through this analysis, and the resulting performance/price points, we demonstrate, in general, the importance of virtualization, and of doing these kinds of design space explorations. The specific results suggest that hybrid nanotechnology such as CMOL is a promising candidate to implement very large-scale spiking neural systems, providing a more efficient utilization of the density and storage benefits of emerging nano-scale technologies. In general, we believe that the study of such hypothetical designs/architectures will guide the neuromorphic hardware community towards building large-scale systems, and help guide research trends in intelligent computing, and computer engineering. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A photovoltaic source I/U model suitable for hardware in the loop application

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stala Robert

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a novel, low-complexity method of simulating PV source characteristics suitable for real-time modeling and hardware implementation. The application of the suitable model of the PV source as well as the model of all the PV system components in a real-time hardware gives a safe, fast and low cost method of testing PV systems. The paper demonstrates the concept of the PV array model and the hardware implementation in FPGAs of the system which combines two PV arrays. The obtained results confirm that the proposed model is of low complexity and can be suitable for hardware in the loop (HIL tests of the complex PV system control, with various arrays operating under different conditions.

Low cost and open source multi-fluorescence imaging system for teaching and research in biology and bioengineering.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Isaac Nuñez

Full Text Available The advent of easy-to-use open source microcontrollers, off-the-shelf electronics and customizable manufacturing technologies has facilitated the development of inexpensive scientific devices and laboratory equipment. In this study, we describe an imaging system that integrates low-cost and open-source hardware, software and genetic resources. The multi-fluorescence imaging system consists of readily available 470 nm LEDs, a Raspberry Pi camera and a set of filters made with low cost acrylics. This device allows imaging in scales ranging from single colonies to entire plates. We developed a set of genetic components (e.g. promoters, coding sequences, terminators and vectors following the standard framework of Golden Gate, which allowed the fabrication of genetic constructs in a combinatorial, low cost and robust manner. In order to provide simultaneous imaging of multiple wavelength signals, we screened a series of long stokes shift fluorescent proteins that could be combined with cyan/green fluorescent proteins. We found CyOFP1, mBeRFP and sfGFP to be the most compatible set for 3-channel fluorescent imaging. We developed open source Python code to operate the hardware to run time-lapse experiments with automated control of illumination and camera and a Python module to analyze data and extract meaningful biological information. To demonstrate the potential application of this integral system, we tested its performance on a diverse range of imaging assays often used in disciplines such as microbial ecology, microbiology and synthetic biology. We also assessed its potential use in a high school environment to teach biology, hardware design, optics, and programming. Together, these results demonstrate the successful integration of open source hardware, software, genetic resources and customizable manufacturing to obtain a powerful, low cost and robust system for education, scientific research and bioengineering. All the resources developed here

Low cost and open source multi-fluorescence imaging system for teaching and research in biology and bioengineering.

Science.gov (United States)

Nuñez, Isaac; Matute, Tamara; Herrera, Roberto; Keymer, Juan; Marzullo, Timothy; Rudge, Timothy; Federici, Fernán

2017-01-01

The advent of easy-to-use open source microcontrollers, off-the-shelf electronics and customizable manufacturing technologies has facilitated the development of inexpensive scientific devices and laboratory equipment. In this study, we describe an imaging system that integrates low-cost and open-source hardware, software and genetic resources. The multi-fluorescence imaging system consists of readily available 470 nm LEDs, a Raspberry Pi camera and a set of filters made with low cost acrylics. This device allows imaging in scales ranging from single colonies to entire plates. We developed a set of genetic components (e.g. promoters, coding sequences, terminators) and vectors following the standard framework of Golden Gate, which allowed the fabrication of genetic constructs in a combinatorial, low cost and robust manner. In order to provide simultaneous imaging of multiple wavelength signals, we screened a series of long stokes shift fluorescent proteins that could be combined with cyan/green fluorescent proteins. We found CyOFP1, mBeRFP and sfGFP to be the most compatible set for 3-channel fluorescent imaging. We developed open source Python code to operate the hardware to run time-lapse experiments with automated control of illumination and camera and a Python module to analyze data and extract meaningful biological information. To demonstrate the potential application of this integral system, we tested its performance on a diverse range of imaging assays often used in disciplines such as microbial ecology, microbiology and synthetic biology. We also assessed its potential use in a high school environment to teach biology, hardware design, optics, and programming. Together, these results demonstrate the successful integration of open source hardware, software, genetic resources and customizable manufacturing to obtain a powerful, low cost and robust system for education, scientific research and bioengineering. All the resources developed here are available under

Flight Hardware Packaging Design for Stringent EMC Radiated Emission Requirements

Science.gov (United States)

Lortz, Charlene L.; Huang, Chi-Chien N.; Ravich, Joshua A.; Steiner, Carl N.

2013-01-01

This packaging design approach can help heritage hardware meet a flight project's stringent EMC radiated emissions requirement. The approach requires only minor modifications to a hardware's chassis and mainly concentrates on its connector interfaces. The solution is to raise the surface area where the connector is mounted by a few millimeters using a pedestal, and then wrapping with conductive tape from the cable backshell down to the surface-mounted connector. This design approach has been applied to JPL flight project subsystems. The EMC radiated emissions requirements for flight projects can vary from benign to mission critical. If the project's EMC requirements are stringent, the best approach to meet EMC requirements would be to design an EMC control program for the project early on and implement EMC design techniques starting with the circuit board layout. This is the ideal scenario for hardware that is built from scratch. Implementation of EMC radiated emissions mitigation techniques can mature as the design progresses, with minimal impact to the design cycle. The real challenge exists for hardware that is planned to be flown following a built-to-print approach, in which heritage hardware from a past project with a different set of requirements is expected to perform satisfactorily for a new project. With acceptance of heritage, the design would already be established (circuit board layout and components have already been pre-determined), and hence any radiated emissions mitigation techniques would only be applicable at the packaging level. The key is to take a heritage design with its known radiated emissions spectrum and repackage, or modify its chassis design so that it would have a better chance of meeting the new project s radiated emissions requirements.

Validation of Alzheimer's disease CSF and plasma biological markers: the multicentre reliability study of the pilot European Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (E-ADNI)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Buerger, Katharina; Frisoni, Giovanni; Uspenskaya, Olga

2009-01-01

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiatives ("ADNI") aim to validate neuroimaging and biochemical markers of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Data of the pilot European-ADNI (E-ADNI) biological marker programme of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma candidate biomarkers are reported. METHO...

Hardware implementation of the ORNL fissile mass flow monitor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McEvers, J.; Sumner, J.; Jones, R.; Ferrell, R.; Martin, C.; Uckan, T.; March-Leuba, J.

1998-01-01

This paper provides an overall description of the implementation of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Fissile Mass Flow Monitor, which is part of a Blend Down Monitoring System (BDMS) developed by the US Department of Energy (DOE). The Fissile Mass Flow Monitor is designed to measure the mass flow of fissile material through a gaseous or liquid process stream. It consists of a source-modulator assembly, a detector assembly, and a cabinet that houses all control, data acquisition, and supporting electronics equipment. The development of this flow monitor was first funded by DOE/NE in September 95, and an initial demonstration by ORNL was described in previous INMM meetings. This methodology was chosen by DOE/NE for implementation in November 1996, and the hardware/software development is complete. Successful BDMS installation and operation of the complete BDMS has been demonstrated in the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PGDP), which is operated by Lockheed Martin Utility Services, Inc. for the US Enrichment Corporation and regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Equipment for two BDMS units has been shipped to the Russian Federation

Hardware detection and parameter tuning method for speed control system of PMSM

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Zhengqiang; Yang, Huiling

2018-03-01

In this paper, the development of permanent magnet synchronous motor AC speed control system is taken as an example, aiming to expound the principle and parameter setting method of the system hardware, and puts forward the method of using software or hardware to eliminate the problem.

Open Source Hardware for DIY Environmental Sensing

Science.gov (United States)

Aufdenkampe, A. K.; Hicks, S. D.; Damiano, S. G.; Montgomery, D. S.

2014-12-01

The Arduino open source electronics platform has been very popular within the DIY (Do It Yourself) community for several years, and it is now providing environmental science researchers with an inexpensive alternative to commercial data logging and transmission hardware. Here we present the designs for our latest series of custom Arduino-based dataloggers, which include wireless communication options like self-meshing radio networks and cellular phone modules. The main Arduino board uses a custom interface board to connect to various research-grade sensors to take readings of turbidity, dissolved oxygen, water depth and conductivity, soil moisture, solar radiation, and other parameters. Sensors with SDI-12 communications can be directly interfaced to the logger using our open Arduino-SDI-12 software library (https://github.com/StroudCenter/Arduino-SDI-12). Different deployment options are shown, like rugged enclosures to house the loggers and rigs for mounting the sensors in both fresh water and marine environments. After the data has been collected and transmitted by the logger, the data is received by a mySQL-PHP stack running on a web server that can be accessed from anywhere in the world. Once there, the data can be visualized on web pages or served though REST requests and Water One Flow (WOF) services. Since one of the main benefits of using open source hardware is the easy collaboration between users, we are introducing a new web platform for discussion and sharing of ideas and plans for hardware and software designs used with DIY environmental sensors and data loggers.

The LISA Pathfinder interferometry-hardware and system testing

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Audley, H; Danzmann, K; MarIn, A Garcia; Heinzel, G; Monsky, A; Nofrarias, M; Steier, F; Bogenstahl, J [Albert-Einstein-Institut, Max-Planck-Institut fuer Gravitationsphysik und Universitaet Hannover, 30167 Hannover (Germany); Gerardi, D; Gerndt, R; Hechenblaikner, G; Johann, U; Luetzow-Wentzky, P; Wand, V [EADS Astrium GmbH, Friedrichshafen (Germany); Antonucci, F [Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita di Trento and INFN, Gruppo Collegato di Trento, 38050 Povo, Trento (Italy); Armano, M [European Space Astronomy Centre, European Space Agency, Villanueva de la Canada, 28692 Madrid (Spain); Auger, G; Binetruy, P [APC UMR7164, Universite Paris Diderot, Paris (France); Benedetti, M [Dipartimento di Ingegneria dei Materiali e Tecnologie Industriali, Universita di Trento and INFN, Gruppo Collegato di Trento, Mesiano, Trento (Italy); Boatella, C, E-mail: antonio.garcia@aei.mpg.de [CNES, DCT/AQ/EC, 18 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31401 Toulouse, Cedex 9 (France)

2011-05-07

Preparations for the LISA Pathfinder mission have reached an exciting stage. Tests of the engineering model (EM) of the optical metrology system have recently been completed at the Albert Einstein Institute, Hannover, and flight model tests are now underway. Significantly, they represent the first complete integration and testing of the space-qualified hardware and are the first tests on an optical system level. The results and test procedures of these campaigns will be utilized directly in the ground-based flight hardware tests, and subsequently during in-flight operations. In addition, they allow valuable testing of the data analysis methods using the MATLAB-based LTP data analysis toolbox. This paper presents an overview of the results from the EM test campaign that was successfully completed in December 2009.

Initial site characterization and evaluation of radionuclide contaminated soil waste burial grounds

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Phillips, S.J.; Reisenauer, A.E.; Rickard, W.H.; Sandness, G.A.

1977-02-01

A survey of historical records and literature containing information on the contents of 300 Area and North Burial Grounds was completed. Existing records of radioactive waste location, type, and quantity within each burial ground facility were obtained and distributed to cooperating investigators. A study was then initiated to evaluate geophysical exploration techniques for mapping buried waste materials, waste containers, and trench boundaries. Results indicate that a combination of ground penetrating radar, magnetometer, metal detector, and acoustic measurements will be effective but will require further study, hardware development, and field testing. Drilling techniques for recovering radionuclide-contaminated materials and sediment cores were developed and tested. Laboratory sediment characterization and fluid transport and monitoring analyses were begun by installation of in situ transducers at the 300 North Burial Ground site. Biological transport mechanisms that control radionuclide movement at contaminated sites were also studied. Flora and fauna presently inhabiting specific burial ground areas were identified and analyzed. Future monitoring of specific mammal populations will permit determination of dose rate and pathways of contaminated materials contained in and adjacent to burial ground sites

A mechanical brake hardware-in-the-loop simulation of a railway vehicle that accounts for hysteresis and pneumatic cylinder dynamics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dong-Chan Lee

2015-11-01

Full Text Available A brake hardware-in-the-loop simulation system for a railway vehicle provides an effective platform for testing the braking performance under various dangerous braking conditions. However, in general, four-brake calipers are required to implement a mechanical brake system for one car. In this article, we implement a brake hardware-in-the-loop simulation system only with one brake caliper and three air tanks accounting for hysteresis and pneumatic cylinder dynamics, ultimately saving installation space and reducing financial budget costs. Since the brake caliper has a high nonlinearity, such as hysteresis resulting from friction and from the precompressed spring of the brake cylinder, we measured the hysteresis of the brake caliper clamping force for a mechanical brake system using loadcells, based on which a mathematical model was constructed for the hysteresis of the clamping force between the brake pad and the disk. Moreover, the pneumatic cylinder dynamics are identified and are implemented in three air tanks, together with hysteresis nonlinearity. The proposed brake hardware-in-the-loop simulation system is applied to the wheel-slide protection simulation of a railway vehicle with an initial speed of 80 km/h and demonstrated experimentally accounting for the hysteresis and brake cylinder dynamics.

Design of hardware accelerators for demanding applications.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jozwiak, L.; Jan, Y.

2010-01-01

This paper focuses on mastering the architecture development of hardware accelerators. It presents the results of our analysis of the main issues that have to be addressed when designing accelerators for modern demanding applications, when using as an example the accelerator design for LDPC decoding

Introduction to 6800/6802 microprocessor systems hardware, software and experimentation

CERN Document Server

Simpson, Robert J

1987-01-01

Introduction to 6800/6802 Microprocessor Systems: Hardware, Software and Experimentation introduces the reader to the features, characteristics, operation, and applications of the 6800/6802 microprocessor and associated family of devices. Many worked examples are included to illustrate the theoretical and practical aspects of the 6800/6802 microprocessor.Comprised of six chapters, this book begins by presenting several aspects of digital systems before introducing the concepts of fetching and execution of a microprocessor instruction. Details and descriptions of hardware elements (MPU, RAM, RO

CAMAC high energy physics electronics hardware

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kolpakov, I.F.

1977-01-01

CAMAC hardware for high energy physics large spectrometers and control systems is reviewed as is the development of CAMAC modules at the High Energy Laboratory, JINR (Dubna). The total number of crates used at the Laboratory is 179. The number of CAMAC modules of 120 different types exceeds 1700. The principles of organization and the structure of developed CAMAC systems are described. (author)

Hardware Realization of Chaos Based Symmetric Image Encryption

KAUST Repository

Barakat, Mohamed L.

2012-01-01

This thesis presents a novel work on hardware realization of symmetric image encryption utilizing chaos based continuous systems as pseudo random number generators. Digital implementation of chaotic systems results in serious degradations

Asymmetric Hardware Distortions in Receive Diversity Systems: Outage Performance Analysis

KAUST Repository

Javed, Sidrah; Amin, Osama; Ikki, Salama S.; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim

2017-01-01

This paper studies the impact of asymmetric hardware distortion (HWD) on the performance of receive diversity systems using linear and switched combining receivers. The asymmetric attribute of the proposed model motivates the employment of improper Gaussian signaling (IGS) scheme rather than the traditional proper Gaussian signaling (PGS) scheme. The achievable rate performance is analyzed for the ideal and non-ideal hardware scenarios using PGS and IGS transmission schemes for different combining receivers. In addition, the IGS statistical characteristics are optimized to maximize the achievable rate performance. Moreover, the outage probability performance of the receive diversity systems is analyzed yielding closed form expressions for both PGS and IGS based transmission schemes. HWD systems that employ IGS is proven to efficiently combat the self interference caused by the HWD. Furthermore, the obtained analytic expressions are validated through Monte-Carlo simulations. Eventually, non-ideal hardware transceivers degradation and IGS scheme acquired compensation are quantified through suitable numerical results.

Reconfigurable Signal Processing and Hardware Architecture for Broadband Wireless Communications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liang Ying-Chang

2005-01-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes a broadband wireless transceiver which can be reconfigured to any type of cyclic-prefix (CP -based communication systems, including orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM, single-carrier cyclic-prefix (SCCP system, multicarrier (MC code-division multiple access (MC-CDMA, MC direct-sequence CDMA (MC-DS-CDMA, CP-based CDMA (CP-CDMA, and CP-based direct-sequence CDMA (CP-DS-CDMA. A hardware platform is proposed and the reusable common blocks in such a transceiver are identified. The emphasis is on the equalizer design for mobile receivers. It is found that after block despreading operation, MC-DS-CDMA and CP-DS-CDMA have the same equalization blocks as OFDM and SCCP systems, respectively, therefore hardware and software sharing is possible for these systems. An attempt has also been made to map the functional reconfigurable transceiver onto the proposed hardware platform. The different functional entities which will be required to perform the reconfiguration and realize the transceiver are explained.

Asymmetric Hardware Distortions in Receive Diversity Systems: Outage Performance Analysis

KAUST Repository

Javed, Sidrah

2017-02-22

This paper studies the impact of asymmetric hardware distortion (HWD) on the performance of receive diversity systems using linear and switched combining receivers. The asymmetric attribute of the proposed model motivates the employment of improper Gaussian signaling (IGS) scheme rather than the traditional proper Gaussian signaling (PGS) scheme. The achievable rate performance is analyzed for the ideal and non-ideal hardware scenarios using PGS and IGS transmission schemes for different combining receivers. In addition, the IGS statistical characteristics are optimized to maximize the achievable rate performance. Moreover, the outage probability performance of the receive diversity systems is analyzed yielding closed form expressions for both PGS and IGS based transmission schemes. HWD systems that employ IGS is proven to efficiently combat the self interference caused by the HWD. Furthermore, the obtained analytic expressions are validated through Monte-Carlo simulations. Eventually, non-ideal hardware transceivers degradation and IGS scheme acquired compensation are quantified through suitable numerical results.

Qualification of software and hardware

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gossner, S.; Schueller, H.; Gloee, G.

1987-01-01

The qualification of on-line process control equipment is subdivided into three areas: 1) materials and structural elements; 2) on-line process-control components and devices; 3) electrical systems (reactor protection and confinement system). Microprocessor-aided process-control equipment are difficult to verify for failure-free function owing to the complexity of the functional structures of the hardware and to the variety of the software feasible for microprocessors. Hence, qualification will make great demands on the inspecting expert. (DG) [de

Hardware dependencies of GPU-accelerated beamformer performances for microwave breast cancer detection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Salomon Christoph J.

2016-09-01

Full Text Available UWB microwave imaging has proven to be a promising technique for early-stage breast cancer detection. The extensive image reconstruction time can be accelerated by parallelizing the execution of the underlying beamforming algorithms. However, the efficiency of the parallelization will most likely depend on the grade of parallelism of the imaging algorithm and of the utilized hardware. This paper investigates the dependencies of two different beamforming algorithms on multiple hardware specification of several graphics boards. The parallel implementation is realized by using NVIDIA’s CUDA. Three conclusions are drawn about the behavior of the parallel implementation and how to efficiently use the accessible hardware.

Automation Hardware & Software for the STELLA Robotic Telescope

Science.gov (United States)

Weber, M.; Granzer, Th.; Strassmeier, K. G.

The STELLA telescope (a joint project of the AIP, Hamburger Sternwarte and the IAC) is to operate in fully robotic mode, with no human interaction necessary for regular operation. Thus, the hardware must be kept as simple as possible to avoid unnecessary failures, and the environmental conditions must be monitored accurately to protect the telescope in case of bad weather. All computers are standard PCs running Linux, and communication with specialized hardware is done via a RS232/RS485 bus system. The high level (java based) control software consists of independent modules to ease bug-tracking and to allow the system to be extended without changing existing modules. Any command cycle consists of three messages, the actual command sent from the central node to the operating device, an immediate acknowledge, and a final done message, both sent back from the receiving device to the central node. This reply-splitting allows a direct distinction between communication problems (no acknowledge message) and hardware problems (no or a delayed done message). To avoid bug-prone packing of all the sensor-analyzing software into a single package, each sensor-reading and interaction with other sensors is done within a self-contained thread. Weather-decision making is therefore totally decoupled from the core control software to avoid dead-locks in the core module.

Multi-loop PWR modeling and hardware-in-the-loop testing using ACSL

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thomas, V.M.; Heibel, M.D.; Catullo, W.J.

1989-01-01

Westinghouse has developed an Advanced Digital Feedwater Control System (ADFCS) which is aimed at reducing feedwater related reactor trips through improved control performance for pressurized water reactor (PWR) power plants. To support control system setpoint studies and functional design efforts for the ADFCS, an ACSL based model of the nuclear steam supply system (NSSS) of a Westinghouse (PWR) was generated. Use of this plant model has been extended from system design to system testing through integration of the model into a Hardware-in-Loop test environment for the ADFCS. This integration includes appropriate interfacing between a Gould SEL 32/87 computer, upon which the plant model executes in real time, and the Westinghouse Distributed Processing family (WDPF) test hardware. A development program has been undertaken to expand the existing ACSL model to include capability to explicitly model multiple plant loops, steam generators, and corresponding feedwater systems. Furthermore, the program expands the ADFCS Hardware-in-Loop testing to include the multi-loop plant model. This paper provides an overview of the testing approach utilized for the ADFCS with focus on the role of Hardware-in-Loop testing. Background on the plant model, methodology and test environment is also provided. Finally, an overview is presented of the program to expand the model and associated Hardware-in-Loop test environment to handle multiple loops

Hardware architecture for projective model calculation and false match refining using random sample consensus algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

Azimi, Ehsan; Behrad, Alireza; Ghaznavi-Ghoushchi, Mohammad Bagher; Shanbehzadeh, Jamshid

2016-11-01

The projective model is an important mapping function for the calculation of global transformation between two images. However, its hardware implementation is challenging because of a large number of coefficients with different required precisions for fixed point representation. A VLSI hardware architecture is proposed for the calculation of a global projective model between input and reference images and refining false matches using random sample consensus (RANSAC) algorithm. To make the hardware implementation feasible, it is proved that the calculation of the projective model can be divided into four submodels comprising two translations, an affine model and a simpler projective mapping. This approach makes the hardware implementation feasible and considerably reduces the required number of bits for fixed point representation of model coefficients and intermediate variables. The proposed hardware architecture for the calculation of a global projective model using the RANSAC algorithm was implemented using Verilog hardware description language and the functionality of the design was validated through several experiments. The proposed architecture was synthesized by using an application-specific integrated circuit digital design flow utilizing 180-nm CMOS technology as well as a Virtex-6 field programmable gate array. Experimental results confirm the efficiency of the proposed hardware architecture in comparison with software implementation.

A Cost-Effective Approach to Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Mikkel Melters; Hansen, M. R.; Ballebye, M.

2012-01-01

This paper presents an approach for developing cost effective hardware-in-the- loop (HIL) simulation platforms for the use in controller software test and development. The approach is aimed at the many smaller manufacturers of e.g. mobile hydraulic machinery, which often do not have very advanced...... testing facilities at their disposal. A case study is presented where a HIL simulation platform is developed for the controller of a truck mounted loader crane. The total expenses in hardware and software is less than 10.000$....

Electrical, electronics, and digital hardware essentials for scientists and engineers

CERN Document Server

Lipiansky, Ed

2012-01-01

A practical guide for solving real-world circuit board problems Electrical, Electronics, and Digital Hardware Essentials for Scientists and Engineers arms engineers with the tools they need to test, evaluate, and solve circuit board problems. It explores a wide range of circuit analysis topics, supplementing the material with detailed circuit examples and extensive illustrations. The pros and cons of various methods of analysis, fundamental applications of electronic hardware, and issues in logic design are also thoroughly examined. The author draws on more than tw

Carbonate fuel cell endurance: Hardware corrosion and electrolyte management status

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yuh, C.; Johnsen, R.; Farooque, M.; Maru, H.

1993-01-01

Endurance tests of carbonate fuel cell stacks (up to 10,000 hours) have shown that hardware corrosion and electrolyte losses can be reasonably controlled by proper material selection and cell design. Corrosion of stainless steel current collector hardware, nickel clad bipolar plate and aluminized wet seal show rates within acceptable limits. Electrolyte loss rate to current collector surface has been minimized by reducing exposed current collector surface area. Electrolyte evaporation loss appears tolerable. Electrolyte redistribution has been restrained by proper design of manifold seals.

Carbonate fuel cell endurance: Hardware corrosion and electrolyte management status

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yuh, C.; Johnsen, R.; Farooque, M.; Maru, H.

1993-05-01

Endurance tests of carbonate fuel cell stacks (up to 10,000 hours) have shown that hardware corrosion and electrolyte losses can be reasonably controlled by proper material selection and cell design. Corrosion of stainless steel current collector hardware, nickel clad bipolar plate and aluminized wet seal show rates within acceptable limits. Electrolyte loss rate to current collector surface has been minimized by reducing exposed current collector surface area. Electrolyte evaporation loss appears tolerable. Electrolyte redistribution has been restrained by proper design of manifold seals.

Internet-based hardware/software co-design framework for embedded 3D graphics applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wong Weng-Fai

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Advances in technology are making it possible to run three-dimensional (3D graphics applications on embedded and handheld devices. In this article, we propose a hardware/software co-design environment for 3D graphics application development that includes the 3D graphics software, OpenGL ES application programming interface (API, device driver, and 3D graphics hardware simulators. We developed a 3D graphics system-on-a-chip (SoC accelerator using transaction-level modeling (TLM. This gives software designers early access to the hardware even before it is ready. On the other hand, hardware designers also stand to gain from the more complex test benches made available in the software for verification. A unique aspect of our framework is that it allows hardware and software designers from geographically dispersed areas to cooperate and work on the same framework. Designs can be entered and executed from anywhere in the world without full access to the entire framework, which may include proprietary components. This results in controlled and secure transparency and reproducibility, granting leveled access to users of various roles.

Summary of multi-core hardware and programming model investigations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kelly, Suzanne Marie; Pedretti, Kevin Thomas Tauke; Levenhagen, Michael J.

2008-05-01

This report summarizes our investigations into multi-core processors and programming models for parallel scientific applications. The motivation for this study was to better understand the landscape of multi-core hardware, future trends, and the implications on system software for capability supercomputers. The results of this study are being used as input into the design of a new open-source light-weight kernel operating system being targeted at future capability supercomputers made up of multi-core processors. A goal of this effort is to create an agile system that is able to adapt to and efficiently support whatever multi-core hardware and programming models gain acceptance by the community.

Hardware Realization of Chaos-based Symmetric Video Encryption

KAUST Repository

Ibrahim, Mohamad A.

2013-01-01

This thesis reports original work on hardware realization of symmetric video encryption using chaos-based continuous systems as pseudo-random number generators. The thesis also presents some of the serious degradations caused by digitally

Control/interlock/display system for EBT-P using commercially-available hardware and firmware

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schmitt, R.J.

1983-01-01

For the EBT-P project, alternative commercially-available hardware, software and firmware have been employed for control, interlock and data display functions. This paper describes the criteria and rationale used to select that commercial equipment and discusses the important features of the equipment chosen, especially programmable controllers. Additional discussion is centered on interface problems which are encountered upon attempts to integrate equipment from several vendors. Some solutions to these problems are discussed. Details of software and hardware performance during tests are presented. The extent to which the EBT-P hardware and software configuration addresses and resolves various issues is discussed. Several areas have been uncovered in which relatively slight improvements/modifications of commercial programmable controller firmware would significantly improve the capability of this type of hardware in fusion control applications. These improvements are discussed in detail

Digital Hardware Design Teaching: An Alternative Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Benkrid, Khaled; Clayton, Thomas

2012-01-01

This article presents the design and implementation of a complete review of undergraduate digital hardware design teaching in the School of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. Four guiding principles have been used in this exercise: learning-outcome driven teaching, deep learning, affordability, and flexibility. This has identified…

Development of a hardware-in-loop attitude control simulator for a CubeSat satellite

Science.gov (United States)

Tapsawat, Wittawat; Sangpet, Teerawat; Kuntanapreeda, Suwat

2018-01-01

Attitude control is an important part in satellite on-orbit operation. It greatly affects the performance of satellites. Testing of an attitude determination and control subsystem (ADCS) is very challenging since it might require attitude dynamics and space environment in the orbit. This paper develops a low-cost hardware-in-loop (HIL) simulator for testing an ADCS of a CubeSat satellite. The simulator consists of a numerical simulation part, a hardware part, and a HIL interface hardware unit. The numerical simulation part includes orbital dynamics, attitude dynamics and Earth’s magnetic field. The hardware part is the real ADCS board of the satellite. The simulation part outputs satellite’s angular velocity and geomagnetic field information to the HIL interface hardware. Then, based on this information, the HIL interface hardware generates I2C signals mimicking the signals of the on-board rate-gyros and magnetometers and consequently outputs the signals to the ADCS board. The ADCS board reads the rate-gyro and magnetometer signals, calculates control signals, and drives the attitude actuators which are three magnetic torquers (MTQs). The responses of the MTQs sensed by a separated magnetometer are feedback to the numerical simulation part completing the HIL simulation loop. Experimental studies are conducted to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the simulator.

A comprehensive approach to decipher biological computation to achieve next generation high-performance exascale computing.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

James, Conrad D.; Schiess, Adrian B.; Howell, Jamie; Baca, Michael J.; Partridge, L. Donald; Finnegan, Patrick Sean; Wolfley, Steven L.; Dagel, Daryl James; Spahn, Olga Blum; Harper, Jason C.; Pohl, Kenneth Roy; Mickel, Patrick R.; Lohn, Andrew; Marinella, Matthew

2013-10-01

The human brain (volume=1200cm3) consumes 20W and is capable of performing > 10^16 operations/s. Current supercomputer technology has reached 1015 operations/s, yet it requires 1500m^3 and 3MW, giving the brain a 10^12 advantage in operations/s/W/cm^3. Thus, to reach exascale computation, two achievements are required: 1) improved understanding of computation in biological tissue, and 2) a paradigm shift towards neuromorphic computing where hardware circuits mimic properties of neural tissue. To address 1), we will interrogate corticostriatal networks in mouse brain tissue slices, specifically with regard to their frequency filtering capabilities as a function of input stimulus. To address 2), we will instantiate biological computing characteristics such as multi-bit storage into hardware devices with future computational and memory applications. Resistive memory devices will be modeled, designed, and fabricated in the MESA facility in consultation with our internal and external collaborators.

How biological crusts are stabilizing the soil surface? The devolpment of organo-mineral interactions in the initial phase

Science.gov (United States)

Fischer, T.; Veste, M.; Wiehe, W.; Lange, P.

2009-04-01

First colonizers of new land surfaces are cryptogames which often form biological soil crusts (BSC) covering the first millimetre of the top soil in many ecosystems from polar to desert ecosystems. These BSC are assemblages of cyanobacteria, green algae, mosses, liverworts, fungi and/or lichens. The development of soil surface crusts plays a major role for the further vegetation pattern through changes to the physico-chemical conditions and influencing various ecosystem processes. We studied the development of BSC on quaternary substrate of an initial artificial water catchment in Lusatia, Germany. Due to lack of organic matter in the geological substrate, photoautotrophic organisms like green algae and cyanobacteria dominated the initial phases of ecosystem development and, hence, of organo-mineral ineractions. We combined SEM/EDX and FTIR microscopy to study the contact zone of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) of green algae and cyanobacteria with quartz, spars and mica on a >40 µm scale in undisturbed biological soil crusts, which had a maximum thickness of approx. 2 mm. SEM/EDX microscopy was used to determine the spatial distribution of S, Ca, Fe, Al, Si and K in the profiles, organic compounds were identified using FTIR microscopy. Exudates of crust organisms served as cementing material between sand particles. The crust could be subdivided into two horizontal layers. The upper layer, which had a thickness of approx. 200 µm, is characterized by accumulation of Al and K, but absence of Fe in microbial derived organic matter, indicating capture of weathering products of feldspars and mica by microbial exudates. The pore space between mineral particles was entirely filled with organic matter here. The underlying layer can be characterized by empty pores and organo-mineral bridges between the sand particles. Contrarily to the upper layer of the crust, Fe, Al and Si were associated with organic matter here but K was absent. Highest similarity of the FTIR

Evaluating the scalability of HEP software and multi-core hardware

CERN Document Server

Jarp, S; Leduc, J; Nowak, A

2011-01-01

As researchers have reached the practical limits of processor performance improvements by frequency scaling, it is clear that the future of computing lies in the effective utilization of parallel and multi-core architectures. Since this significant change in computing is well underway, it is vital for HEP programmers to understand the scalability of their software on modern hardware and the opportunities for potential improvements. This work aims to quantify the benefit of new mainstream architectures to the HEP community through practical benchmarking on recent hardware solutions, including the usage of parallelized HEP applications.

Water system hardware and management rehabilitation: Qualitative evidence from Ghana, Kenya, and Zambia.

Science.gov (United States)

Klug, Tori; Shields, Katherine F; Cronk, Ryan; Kelly, Emma; Behnke, Nikki; Lee, Kristen; Bartram, Jamie

2017-05-01

Sufficient, safe, continuously available drinking water is important for human health and development, yet one in three handpumps in sub-Saharan Africa are non-functional at any given time. Community management, coupled with access to external technical expertise and spare parts, is a widely promoted model for rural water supply management. However, there is limited evidence describing how community management can address common hardware and management failures of rural water systems in sub-Saharan Africa. We identified hardware and management rehabilitation pathways using qualitative data from 267 interviews and 57 focus group discussions in Ghana, Kenya, and Zambia. Study participants were water committee members, community members, and local leaders in 18 communities (six in each study country) with water systems managed by a water committee and supported by World Vision (WV), an international non-governmental organization (NGO). Government, WV or private sector employees engaged in supporting the water systems were also interviewed. Inductive analysis was used to allow for pathways to emerge from the data, based on the perspectives and experiences of study participants. Four hardware rehabilitation pathways were identified, based on the types of support used in rehabilitation. Types of support were differentiated as community or external. External support includes financial and/or technical support from government or WV employees. Community actor understanding of who to contact when a hardware breakdown occurs and easy access to technical experts were consistent reasons for rapid rehabilitation for all hardware rehabilitation pathways. Three management rehabilitation pathways were identified. All require the involvement of community leaders and were best carried out when the action was participatory. The rehabilitation pathways show how available resources can be leveraged to restore hardware breakdowns and management failures for rural water systems in sub

Trainable hardware for dynamical computing using error backpropagation through physical media.

Science.gov (United States)

Hermans, Michiel; Burm, Michaël; Van Vaerenbergh, Thomas; Dambre, Joni; Bienstman, Peter

2015-03-24

Neural networks are currently implemented on digital Von Neumann machines, which do not fully leverage their intrinsic parallelism. We demonstrate how to use a novel class of reconfigurable dynamical systems for analogue information processing, mitigating this problem. Our generic hardware platform for dynamic, analogue computing consists of a reciprocal linear dynamical system with nonlinear feedback. Thanks to reciprocity, a ubiquitous property of many physical phenomena like the propagation of light and sound, the error backpropagation-a crucial step for tuning such systems towards a specific task-can happen in hardware. This can potentially speed up the optimization process significantly, offering important benefits for the scalability of neuro-inspired hardware. In this paper, we show, using one experimentally validated and one conceptual example, that such systems may provide a straightforward mechanism for constructing highly scalable, fully dynamical analogue computers.

48 CFR 1812.7000 - Prohibition on guaranteed customer bases for new commercial space hardware or services.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... customer bases for new commercial space hardware or services. 1812.7000 Section 1812.7000 Federal... PLANNING ACQUISITION OF COMMERCIAL ITEMS Commercial Space Hardware or Services 1812.7000 Prohibition on guaranteed customer bases for new commercial space hardware or services. Public Law 102-139, title III...

Particle Transport Simulation on Heterogeneous Hardware

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2014-01-01

CPUs and GPGPUs. About the speaker Vladimir Koylazov is CTO and founder of Chaos Software and one of the original developers of the V-Ray raytracing software. Passionate about 3D graphics and programming, Vlado is the driving force behind Chaos Group's software solutions. He participated in the implementation of algorithms for accurate light simulations and support for different hardware platforms, including CPU and GPGPU, as well as distributed calculat...

High exposure rate hardware ALARA plan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nellesen, A.L.

1996-10-01

This as low as reasonably achievable review provides a description of the engineering and administrative controls used to manage personnel exposure and to control contamination levels and airborne radioactivity concentrations. HERH waste is hardware found in the N-Fuel Storage Basin, which has a contact dose rate greater than 1 R/hr and used filters. This waste will be collected in the fuel baskets at various locations in the basins

Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation for the Automatic Power Control System of Research Reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fikry, R.M.; Shehata, S.A.; Elaraby, S.M.; Mahmoud, M.I.; Elbardini, M.M.

2009-01-01

Designing and testing digital control system for any nuclear research reactor can be costly and time consuming. In this paper, a rapid, low-cost proto typing and testing procedure for digital controller design is proposed using the concept of Hardware-In- The-Loop (HIL). Some of the control loop components are real hardware components and thc others are simulated. First, the whole system is modeled and tested by Real- Time Simulation (RTS) using conventional simulation techniques such as MATLAB / SIMULINK. Second the Hardware-in-the-Ioop simulation is tested using Real-Time Windows Target in MATLAB and Visual C++. The control parts are included as hardware components which are the reactor control rod and its drivers. Two kinds of controllers are studied, Proportional derivative (PD) and Fuzzy controller, An experimental setup for the hardware used in HIL concept for the control of the nuclear research reactor has been realized. Experimental results are obtained and compared with the simulation results. The experimental results indicate the validation of HIL method in this domain

Hardware accuracy counters for application precision and quality feedback

Science.gov (United States)

de Paula Rosa Piga, Leonardo; Majumdar, Abhinandan; Paul, Indrani; Huang, Wei; Arora, Manish; Greathouse, Joseph L.

2018-06-05

Methods, devices, and systems for capturing an accuracy of an instruction executing on a processor. An instruction may be executed on the processor, and the accuracy of the instruction may be captured using a hardware counter circuit. The accuracy of the instruction may be captured by analyzing bits of at least one value of the instruction to determine a minimum or maximum precision datatype for representing the field, and determining whether to adjust a value of the hardware counter circuit accordingly. The representation may be output to a debugger or logfile for use by a developer, or may be output to a runtime or virtual machine to automatically adjust instruction precision or gating of portions of the processor datapath.

Fast and Reliable Mouse Picking Using Graphics Hardware

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hanli Zhao

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Mouse picking is the most commonly used intuitive operation to interact with 3D scenes in a variety of 3D graphics applications. High performance for such operation is necessary in order to provide users with fast responses. This paper proposes a fast and reliable mouse picking algorithm using graphics hardware for 3D triangular scenes. Our approach uses a multi-layer rendering algorithm to perform the picking operation in linear time complexity. The objectspace based ray-triangle intersection test is implemented in a highly parallelized geometry shader. After applying the hardware-supported occlusion queries, only a small number of objects (or sub-objects are rendered in subsequent layers, which accelerates the picking efficiency. Experimental results demonstrate the high performance of our novel approach. Due to its simplicity, our algorithm can be easily integrated into existing real-time rendering systems.

Advances in neuromorphic hardware exploiting emerging nanoscale devices

CERN Document Server

2017-01-01

This book covers all major aspects of cutting-edge research in the field of neuromorphic hardware engineering involving emerging nanoscale devices. Special emphasis is given to leading works in hybrid low-power CMOS-Nanodevice design. The book offers readers a bidirectional (top-down and bottom-up) perspective on designing efficient bio-inspired hardware. At the nanodevice level, it focuses on various flavors of emerging resistive memory (RRAM) technology. At the algorithm level, it addresses optimized implementations of supervised and stochastic learning paradigms such as: spike-time-dependent plasticity (STDP), long-term potentiation (LTP), long-term depression (LTD), extreme learning machines (ELM) and early adoptions of restricted Boltzmann machines (RBM) to name a few. The contributions discuss system-level power/energy/parasitic trade-offs, and complex real-world applications. The book is suited for both advanced researchers and students interested in the field.

Web tools to monitor and debug DAQ hardware

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Desavouret, Eugene; Nogiec, Jerzy M.

2003-01-01

A web-based toolkit to monitor and diagnose data acquisition hardware has been developed. It allows for remote testing, monitoring, and control of VxWorks data acquisition computers and associated instrumentation using the HTTP protocol and a web browser. This solution provides concurrent and platform independent access, supplementary to the standard single-user rlogin mechanism. The toolkit is based on a specialized web server, and allows remote access and execution of select system commands and tasks, execution of test procedures, and provides remote monitoring of computer system resources and connected hardware. Various DAQ components such as multiplexers, digital I/O boards, analog to digital converters, or current sources can be accessed and diagnosed remotely in a uniform and well-organized manner. Additionally, the toolkit application supports user authentication and is able to enforce specified access restrictions

A Hardware Framework for on-Chip FPGA Acceleration

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lomuscio, Andrea; Cardarilli, Gian Carlo; Nannarelli, Alberto

2016-01-01

In this work, we present a new framework to dynamically load hardware accelerators on reconfigurable platforms (FPGAs). Provided a library of application-specific processors, we load on-the-fly the specific processor in the FPGA, and we transfer the execution from the CPU to the FPGA-based accele......In this work, we present a new framework to dynamically load hardware accelerators on reconfigurable platforms (FPGAs). Provided a library of application-specific processors, we load on-the-fly the specific processor in the FPGA, and we transfer the execution from the CPU to the FPGA......-based accelerator. Results show that significant speed-up can be obtained by the proposed acceleration framework on system-on-chips where reconfigurable fabric is placed next to the CPUs. The speed-up is due to both the intrinsic acceleration in the application-specific processors, and to the increased parallelism....

Dynamic modelling and hardware-in-the-loop testing of PEMFC

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vath, Andreas; Soehn, Matthias; Nicoloso, Norbert; Hartkopf, Thomas [Technische Universitaet Darmstadt/Institut fuer Elektrische Energie wand lung, Landgraf-Georg-Str. 4, D-64283 Darmstadt (Germany); Lemes, Zijad; Maencher, Hubert [MAGNUM Automatisierungstechnik GmbH, Bunsenstr. 22, D-64293 Darmstadt (Germany)

2006-07-03

Modelling and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing of fuel cell components and entire systems open new ways for the design and advance development of FCs. In this work proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) are dynamically modelled within MATLAB-Simulink at various operation conditions in order to establish a comprehensive description of their dynamic behaviour as well as to explore the modelling facility as a diagnostic tool. Set-up of a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) system enables real time interaction between the selected hardware and the model. The transport of hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, water vapour and liquid water in the gas diffusion and catalyst layers of the stack are incorporated into the model according to their physical and electrochemical characteristics. Other processes investigated include, e.g., the membrane resistance as a function of the water content during fast load changes. Cells are modelled three-dimensionally and dynamically. In case of system simulations a one-dimensional model is preferred to reduce computation time. The model has been verified by experiments with a water-cooled stack. (author)

Wireless Energy Harvesting Two-Way Relay Networks with Hardware Impairments.

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Chunling; Li, Fangwei; Liu, Huaping

2017-11-13

This paper considers a wireless energy harvesting two-way relay (TWR) network where the relay has energy-harvesting abilities and the effects of practical hardware impairments are taken into consideration. In particular, power splitting (PS) receiver is adopted at relay to harvests the power it needs for relaying the information between the source nodes from the signals transmitted by the source nodes, and hardware impairments is assumed suffered by each node. We analyze the effect of hardware impairments [-20]on both decode-and-forward (DF) relaying and amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying networks. By utilizing the obtained new expressions of signal-to-noise-plus-distortion ratios, the exact analytical expressions of the achievable sum rate and ergodic capacities for both DF and AF relaying protocols are derived. Additionally, the optimal power splitting (OPS) ratio that maximizes the instantaneous achievable sum rate is formulated and solved for both protocols. The performances of DF and AF protocols are evaluated via numerical results, which also show the effects of various network parameters on the system performance and on the OPS ratio design.

Hardware implementation of on -chip learning using re configurable FPGAS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kelash, H.M.; Sorour, H.S; Mahmoud, I.I.; Zaki, M; Haggag, S.S.

2009-01-01

The multilayer perceptron (MLP) is a neural network model that is being widely applied in the solving of diverse problems. A supervised training is necessary before the use of the neural network.A highly popular learning algorithm called back-propagation is used to train this neural network model. Once trained, the MLP can be used to solve classification problems. An interesting method to increase the performance of the model is by using hardware implementations. The hardware can do the arithmetical operations much faster than software. In this paper, a design and implementation of the sequential mode (stochastic mode) of backpropagation algorithm with on-chip learning using field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) is presented, a pipelined adaptation of the on-line back propagation algorithm (BP) is shown.The hardware implementation of forward stage, backward stage and update weight of backpropagation algorithm is also presented. This implementation is based on a SIMD parallel architecture of the forward propagation the diagnosis of the multi-purpose research reactor of Egypt accidents is used to test the proposed system

Evaluation of accelerated iterative x-ray CT image reconstruction using floating point graphics hardware

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kole, J S; Beekman, F J

2006-01-01

Statistical reconstruction methods offer possibilities to improve image quality as compared with analytical methods, but current reconstruction times prohibit routine application in clinical and micro-CT. In particular, for cone-beam x-ray CT, the use of graphics hardware has been proposed to accelerate the forward and back-projection operations, in order to reduce reconstruction times. In the past, wide application of this texture hardware mapping approach was hampered owing to limited intrinsic accuracy. Recently, however, floating point precision has become available in the latest generation commodity graphics cards. In this paper, we utilize this feature to construct a graphics hardware accelerated version of the ordered subset convex reconstruction algorithm. The aims of this paper are (i) to study the impact of using graphics hardware acceleration for statistical reconstruction on the reconstructed image accuracy and (ii) to measure the speed increase one can obtain by using graphics hardware acceleration. We compare the unaccelerated algorithm with the graphics hardware accelerated version, and for the latter we consider two different interpolation techniques. A simulation study of a micro-CT scanner with a mathematical phantom shows that at almost preserved reconstructed image accuracy, speed-ups of a factor 40 to 222 can be achieved, compared with the unaccelerated algorithm, and depending on the phantom and detector sizes. Reconstruction from physical phantom data reconfirms the usability of the accelerated algorithm for practical cases

Synthetic Biology and Microbial Fuel Cells: Towards Self-Sustaining Life Support Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Hogan, John Andrew

2014-01-01

NASA ARC and the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) collaborated to investigate the development of advanced microbial fuels cells (MFCs) for biological wastewater treatment and electricity production (electrogenesis). Synthetic biology techniques and integrated hardware advances were investigated to increase system efficiency and robustness, with the intent of increasing power self-sufficiency and potential product formation from carbon dioxide. MFCs possess numerous advantages for space missions, including rapid processing, reduced biomass and effective removal of organics, nitrogen and phosphorus. Project efforts include developing space-based MFC concepts, integration analyses, increasing energy efficiency, and investigating novel bioelectrochemical system applications

High-performance reconfigurable hardware architecture for restricted Boltzmann machines.

Science.gov (United States)

Ly, Daniel Le; Chow, Paul

2010-11-01

Despite the popularity and success of neural networks in research, the number of resulting commercial or industrial applications has been limited. A primary cause for this lack of adoption is that neural networks are usually implemented as software running on general-purpose processors. Hence, a hardware implementation that can exploit the inherent parallelism in neural networks is desired. This paper investigates how the restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM), which is a popular type of neural network, can be mapped to a high-performance hardware architecture on field-programmable gate array (FPGA) platforms. The proposed modular framework is designed to reduce the time complexity of the computations through heavily customized hardware engines. A method to partition large RBMs into smaller congruent components is also presented, allowing the distribution of one RBM across multiple FPGA resources. The framework is tested on a platform of four Xilinx Virtex II-Pro XC2VP70 FPGAs running at 100 MHz through a variety of different configurations. The maximum performance was obtained by instantiating an RBM of 256 × 256 nodes distributed across four FPGAs, which resulted in a computational speed of 3.13 billion connection-updates-per-second and a speedup of 145-fold over an optimized C program running on a 2.8-GHz Intel processor.

Hardware demonstration of high-speed networks for satellite applications.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Donaldson, Jonathon W.; Lee, David S.

2008-09-01

This report documents the implementation results of a hardware demonstration utilizing the Serial RapidIO{trademark} and SpaceWire protocols that was funded by Sandia National Laboratories (SNL's) Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) office. This demonstration was one of the activities in the Modeling and Design of High-Speed Networks for Satellite Applications LDRD. This effort has demonstrated the transport of application layer packets across both RapidIO and SpaceWire networks to a common downlink destination using small topologies comprised of commercial-off-the-shelf and custom devices. The RapidFET and NEX-SRIO debug and verification tools were instrumental in the successful implementation of the RapidIO hardware demonstration. The SpaceWire hardware demonstration successfully demonstrated the transfer and routing of application data packets between multiple nodes and also was able reprogram remote nodes using configuration bitfiles transmitted over the network, a key feature proposed in node-based architectures (NBAs). Although a much larger network (at least 18 to 27 nodes) would be required to fully verify the design for use in a real-world application, this demonstration has shown that both RapidIO and SpaceWire are capable of routing application packets across a network to a common downlink node, illustrating their potential use in real-world NBAs.

ORELA data acquisition system hardware. Volume 1: introduction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reynolds, J.W.

1977-01-01

The Oak Ridge Electron Linear Accelerator Facility (ORELA) has been specifically designed as a facility for neutron cross-section measurements by the time-of-flight technique. ORELA was designed so that a number of cross-section experiments can be performed simultaneously. This goal of simultaneous operation of several experiments, a maximum of six to date, has been achieved by using the multiple flight paths radiating from the target room, the multiple flight stations on each flight path, the laboratory facilities surrounding the central data area, and a shared data acquisition computer system. The flight stations contain the fast electronics for initial processing of the nuclear detector signals on a time scale of nanoseconds. The laboratories, and in some cases the flight stations, contain the equipment to digitize the nanosecond detector signals on a time scale of a few microseconds. At this point, the data passes into the ORELA Data Acquisition portion of the ORELA Data Handling System. An introduction to the ORELA Data Acquisition System is given, and the component parts of the system are briefly reviewed. Each specifically designed piece of hardware is briefly described with a simplified block diagram. Modifications to standard peripheral devices are reviewed. A list of drawings and programming notes are also included

A Framework for Dynamically-Loaded Hardware Library (HLL) in FPGA Acceleration

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cardarilli, Gian Carlo; Di Carlo, Leonardo; Nannarelli, Alberto

2016-01-01

Hardware acceleration is often used to address the need for speed and computing power in embedded systems. FPGAs always represented a good solution for HW acceleration and, recently, new SoC platforms extended the flexibility of the FPGAs by combining on a single chip both high-performance CPUs...... and FPGA fabric. The aim of this work is the implementation of hardware accelerators for these new SoCs. The innovative feature of these accelerators is the on-the-fly reconfiguration of the hardware to dynamically adapt the accelerator’s functionalities to the current CPU workload. The realization...... of the accelerators preliminarily requires also the profiling of both the SW (ARM CPU + NEON Units) and HW (FPGA) performance, an evaluation of the partial reconfiguration times and the development of an applicationspecific IP-cores library. This paper focuses on the profiling aspect of both the SW and HW...

Efficient Hardware Implementation For Fingerprint Image Enhancement Using Anisotropic Gaussian Filter.

Science.gov (United States)

Khan, Tariq Mahmood; Bailey, Donald G; Khan, Mohammad A U; Kong, Yinan

2017-05-01

A real-time image filtering technique is proposed which could result in faster implementation for fingerprint image enhancement. One major hurdle associated with fingerprint filtering techniques is the expensive nature of their hardware implementations. To circumvent this, a modified anisotropic Gaussian filter is efficiently adopted in hardware by decomposing the filter into two orthogonal Gaussians and an oriented line Gaussian. An architecture is developed for dynamically controlling the orientation of the line Gaussian filter. To further improve the performance of the filter, the input image is homogenized by a local image normalization. In the proposed structure, for a middle-range reconfigurable FPGA, both parallel compute-intensive and real-time demands were achieved. We manage to efficiently speed up the image-processing time and improve the resource utilization of the FPGA. Test results show an improved speed for its hardware architecture while maintaining reasonable enhancement benchmarks.

IDEAS and App Development Internship in Hardware and Software Design

Science.gov (United States)

Alrayes, Rabab D.

2016-01-01

In this report, I will discuss the tasks and projects I have completed while working as an electrical engineering intern during the spring semester of 2016 at NASA Kennedy Space Center. In the field of software development, I completed tasks for the G-O Caching Mobile App and the Asbestos Management Information System (AMIS) Web App. The G-O Caching Mobile App was written in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript on the Cordova framework, while the AMIS Web App is written in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and C# on the AngularJS framework. My goals and objectives on these two projects were to produce an app with an eye-catching and intuitive User Interface (UI), which will attract more employees to participate; to produce a fully-tested, fully functional app which supports workforce engagement and exploration; to produce a fully-tested, fully functional web app that assists technicians working in asbestos management. I also worked in hardware development on the Integrated Display and Environmental Awareness System (IDEAS) wearable technology project. My tasks on this project were focused in PCB design and camera integration. My goals and objectives for this project were to successfully integrate fully functioning custom hardware extenders on the wearable technology headset to minimize the size of hardware on the smart glasses headset for maximum user comfort; to successfully integrate fully functioning camera onto the headset. By the end of this semester, I was able to successfully develop four extender boards to minimize hardware on the headset, and assisted in integrating a fully-functioning camera into the system.

Quantifying Carbon-14 for Biology Using Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy

OpenAIRE

McCartt, A. Daniel; Ognibene, Ted J.; Bench, Graham; Turteltaub, Kenneth W.

2016-01-01

A cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) instrument was developed using mature, robust hardware for the measurement of carbon-14 in biological studies. The system was characterized using carbon-14 elevated glucose samples and returned a linear response up to 387 times contemporary carbon-14 concentrations. Carbon-14 free and contemporary carbon-14 samples with varying carbon-13 concentrations were used to assess the method detection limit of approximately one-third contemporary carbon-14 levels...

American Institute of Biological Sciences

Science.gov (United States)

... Staff Issues AIBS Position Statements Funding for the Biological Sciences Supporting Scientific Collections Advocating for Research Policy ... Public Policy Leadership Award Graduate students in the biological sciences who have demonstrated initiative and leadership in ...

Round Girls in Square Computers: Feminist Perspectives on the Aesthetics of Computer Hardware.

Science.gov (United States)

Carr-Chellman, Alison A.; Marra, Rose M.; Roberts, Shari L.

2002-01-01

Considers issues related to computer hardware, aesthetics, and gender. Explores how gender has influenced the design of computer hardware and how these gender-driven aesthetics may have worked to maintain, extend, or alter gender distinctions, roles, and stereotypes; discusses masculine media representations; and presents an alternative model.…

Contamination Examples and Lessons from Low Earth Orbit Experiments and Operational Hardware

Science.gov (United States)

Pippin, Gary; Finckenor, Miria M.

2009-01-01

Flight experiments flown on the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station, Mir, Skylab, and free flyers such as the Long Duration Exposure Facility, the European Retrievable Carrier, and the EFFU, provide multiple opportunities for the investigation of molecular contamination effects. Retrieved hardware from the Solar Maximum Mission satellite, Mir, and the Hubble Space Telescope has also provided the means gaining insight into contamination processes. Images from the above mentioned hardware show contamination effects due to materials processing, hardware storage, pre-flight cleaning, as well as on-orbit events such as outgassing, mechanical failure of hardware in close proximity, impacts from man-made debris, and changes due to natural environment factors.. Contamination effects include significant changes to thermal and electrical properties of thermal control surfaces, optics, and power systems. Data from several flights has been used to develop a rudimentary estimate of asymptotic values for absorptance changes due to long-term solar exposure (4000-6000 Equivalent Sun Hours) of silicone-based molecular contamination deposits of varying thickness. Recommendations and suggestions for processing changes and constraints based on the on-orbit observed results will be presented.

SEnviro: A Sensorized Platform Proposal Using Open Hardware and Open Standards

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sergio Trilles

2015-03-01

Full Text Available The need for constant monitoring of environmental conditions has produced an increase in the development of wireless sensor networks (WSN. The drive towards smart cities has produced the need for smart sensors to be able to monitor what is happening in our cities. This, combined with the decrease in hardware component prices and the increase in the popularity of open hardware, has favored the deployment of sensor networks based on open hardware. The new trends in Internet Protocol (IP communication between sensor nodes allow sensor access via the Internet, turning them into smart objects (Internet of Things and Web of Things. Currently, WSNs provide data in different formats. There is a lack of communication protocol standardization, which turns into interoperability issues when connecting different sensor networks or even when connecting different sensor nodes within the same network. This work presents a sensorized platform proposal that adheres to the principles of the Internet of Things and theWeb of Things. Wireless sensor nodes were built using open hardware solutions, and communications rely on the HTTP/IP Internet protocols. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC SensorThings API candidate standard was used as a neutral format to avoid interoperability issues. An environmental WSN developed following the proposed architecture was built as a proof of concept. Details on how to build each node and a study regarding energy concerns are presented.

SEnviro: a sensorized platform proposal using open hardware and open standards.

Science.gov (United States)

Trilles, Sergio; Luján, Alejandro; Belmonte, Óscar; Montoliu, Raúl; Torres-Sospedra, Joaquín; Huerta, Joaquín

2015-03-06

The need for constant monitoring of environmental conditions has produced an increase in the development of wireless sensor networks (WSN). The drive towards smart cities has produced the need for smart sensors to be able to monitor what is happening in our cities. This, combined with the decrease in hardware component prices and the increase in the popularity of open hardware, has favored the deployment of sensor networks based on open hardware. The new trends in Internet Protocol (IP) communication between sensor nodes allow sensor access via the Internet, turning them into smart objects (Internet of Things and Web of Things). Currently, WSNs provide data in different formats. There is a lack of communication protocol standardization, which turns into interoperability issues when connecting different sensor networks or even when connecting different sensor nodes within the same network. This work presents a sensorized platform proposal that adheres to the principles of the Internet of Things and theWeb of Things. Wireless sensor nodes were built using open hardware solutions, and communications rely on the HTTP/IP Internet protocols. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) SensorThings API candidate standard was used as a neutral format to avoid interoperability issues. An environmental WSN developed following the proposed architecture was built as a proof of concept. Details on how to build each node and a study regarding energy concerns are presented.

Optimization Strategies for Hardware-Based Cofactorization

Science.gov (United States)

Loebenberger, Daniel; Putzka, Jens

We use the specific structure of the inputs to the cofactorization step in the general number field sieve (GNFS) in order to optimize the runtime for the cofactorization step on a hardware cluster. An optimal distribution of bitlength-specific ECM modules is proposed and compared to existing ones. With our optimizations we obtain a speedup between 17% and 33% of the cofactorization step of the GNFS when compared to the runtime of an unoptimized cluster.

Hardware Design of a Smart Meter

OpenAIRE

Ganiyu A. Ajenikoko; Anthony A. Olaomi

2014-01-01

Smart meters are electronic measurement devices used by utilities to communicate information for billing customers and operating their electric systems. This paper presents the hardware design of a smart meter. Sensing and circuit protection circuits are included in the design of the smart meter in which resistors are naturally a fundamental part of the electronic design. Smart meters provides a route for energy savings, real-time pricing, automated data collection and elimina...

An interactive audio-visual installation using ubiquitous hardware and web-based software deployment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tiago Fernandes Tavares

2015-05-01

Full Text Available This paper describes an interactive audio-visual musical installation, namely MOTUS, that aims at being deployed using low-cost hardware and software. This was achieved by writing the software as a web application and using only hardware pieces that are built-in most modern personal computers. This scenario implies in specific technical restrictions, which leads to solutions combining both technical and artistic aspects of the installation. The resulting system is versatile and can be freely used from any computer with Internet access. Spontaneous feedback from the audience has shown that the provided experience is interesting and engaging, regardless of the use of minimal hardware.

Ultrasound gel minimizes third body debris with partial hardware removal in joint arthroplasty

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aidan C. McGrory

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Hundreds of thousands of revision surgeries for hip, knee, and shoulder joint arthroplasties are now performed worldwide annually. Partial removal of hardware during some types of revision surgeries may create significant amounts of third body metal, polymer, or bone cement debris. Retained debris may lead to a variety of negative health effects including damage to the joint replacement. We describe a novel technique for the better containment and easier removal of third body debris during partial hardware removal. We demonstrate hardware removal on a hip joint model in the presence and absence of water-soluble gel to depict the reduction in metal debris volume and area of spread.

Smart Home Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pratt, Annabelle

2017-07-12

This presentation provides a high-level overview of NREL's smart home hardware-in-the-loop testing. It was presented at the Fourth International Workshop on Grid Simulator Testing of Energy Systems and Wind Turbine Powertrains, held April 25-26, 2017, hosted by NREL and Clemson University at the Energy Systems Integration Facility in Golden, Colorado.

Solar cooling in the hardware-in-the-loop test; Solare Kuehlung im Hardware-in-the-Loop-Test

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lohmann, Sandra; Radosavljevic, Rada; Goebel, Johannes; Gottschald, Jonas; Adam, Mario [Fachhochschule Duesseldorf (Germany). Erneuerbare Energien und Energieeffizienz E2

2012-07-01

The first part of the BMBF-funded research project 'Solar cooling in the hardware-in-the-loop test' (SoCool HIL) deals with the simulation of a solar refrigeration system using the simulation environment Matlab / Simulink with the toolboxes Stateflow and Carnot. Dynamic annual simulations and DoE supported parameter variations were used to select meaningful system configurations, control strategies and dimensioning of components. The second part of this project deals with hardware-in-the-loop tests using the 17.5 kW absorption chiller of the company Yazaki Europe Limited (Hertfordshire, United Kingdom). For this, the chiller is operated on a test bench in order to emulate the behavior of other system components (solar circuit with heat storage, recooling, buildings and cooling distribution / transfer). The chiller is controlled by a simulation of the system using MATLAB / Simulink / Carnot. Based on the knowledge on the real dynamic performance of the chiller the simulation model of the chiller can then be validated. Further tests are used to optimize the control of the chiller to the current cooling load. In addition, some changes in system configurations (for example cold backup) are tested with the real machine. The results of these tests and the findings on the dynamic performance of the chiller are presented.

Interfacing Hardware Accelerators to a Time-Division Multiplexing Network-on-Chip

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pezzarossa, Luca; Sørensen, Rasmus Bo; Schoeberl, Martin

2015-01-01

This paper addresses the integration of stateless hardware accelerators into time-predictable multi-core platforms based on time-division multiplexing networks-on-chip. Stateless hardware accelerators, like floating-point units, are typically attached as co-processors to individual processors in ...... implementation. The design evaluation is carried out using the open source T-CREST multi-core platform implemented on an Altera Cyclone IV FPGA. The size of the proposed design, including a floating-point accelerator, is about two-thirds of a processor....

Hardware Descriptive Languages: An Efficient Approach to Device ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Contemporarily, owing to astronomical advancements in the very large scale integration (VLSI) market segments, hardware engineers are now focusing on how to develop their new digital system designs in programmable languages like very high speed integrated circuit hardwaredescription language (VHDL) and Verilog ...

Another way of doing RSA cryptography in hardware

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Batina, L.; Bruin - Muurling, G.; Honary, B.

2001-01-01

In this paper we describe an efficient and secure hardware implementation of the RSA cryptosystem. Modular exponentiation is based on Montgomery’s method without any modular reduction achieving the optimal bound. The presented systolic array architecture is scalable in severalparameters which makes

Hardware-Oblivious Parallelism for In-Memory Column-Stores

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M. Heimel; M. Saecker; H. Pirk (Holger); S. Manegold (Stefan); V. Markl

2013-01-01

htmlabstractThe multi-core architectures of today’s computer systems make parallelism a necessity for performance critical applications. Writing such applications in a generic, hardware-oblivious manner is a challenging problem: Current database systems thus rely on labor-intensive and error-prone

Generalized Distance Transforms and Skeletons in Graphics Hardware

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Strzodka, R.; Telea, A.

2004-01-01

We present a framework for computing generalized distance transforms and skeletons of two-dimensional objects using graphics hardware. Our method is based on the concept of footprint splatting. Combining different splats produces weighted distance transforms for different metrics, as well as the

34 CFR 464.42 - What limit applies to purchasing computer hardware and software?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... software? 464.42 Section 464.42 Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of Education... computer hardware and software? Not more than ten percent of funds received under any grant under this part may be used to purchase computer hardware or software. (Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1208aa(f)) ...

Infected hardware after surgical stabilization of rib fractures: Outcomes and management experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Thiels, Cornelius A; Aho, Johnathon M; Naik, Nimesh D; Zielinski, Martin D; Schiller, Henry J; Morris, David S; Kim, Brian D

2016-05-01

Surgical stabilization of rib fracture (SSRF) is increasingly used for treatment of rib fractures. There are few data on the incidence, risk factors, outcomes, and optimal management strategy for hardware infection in these patients. We aimed to develop and propose a management algorithm to help others treat this potentially morbid complication. We retrospectively searched a prospectively collected rib fracture database for the records of all patients who underwent SSRF from August 2009 through March 2014 at our institution. We then analyzed for the subsequent development of hardware infection among these patients. Standard descriptive analyses were performed. Among 122 patients who underwent SSRF, most (73%) were men; the mean (SD) age was 59.5 (16.4) years, and median (interquartile range [IQR]) Injury Severity Score was 17 (13-22). The median number of rib fractures was 7 (5-9) and 48% of the patients had flail chest. Mortality at 30 days was 0.8%. Five patients (4.1%) had a hardware infection on mean (SD) postoperative day 12.0 (6.6). Median Injury Severity Score (17 [range, 13-42]) and hospital length of stay (9 days [6-37 days]) in these patients were similar to the values for those without infection (17 days [range, 13-22 days] and 9 days [6-12 days], respectively). Patients with infection underwent a median (IQR) of 2 (range, 2-3) additional operations, which included wound debridement (n = 5), negative-pressure wound therapy (n = 3), and antibiotic beads (n = 4). Hardware was removed in 3 patients at 140, 190, and 192 days after index operation. Cultures grew only gram-positive organisms. No patients required reintervention after hardware removal, and all achieved bony union and were taking no narcotics or antibiotics at the latest follow-up. Although uncommon, hardware infection after SSRF carries considerable morbidity. With the use of an aggressive multimodal management strategy, however, bony union and favorable long-term outcomes can be achieved

Computer organization and design the hardware/software interface

CERN Document Server

Patterson, David A

2013-01-01

The 5th edition of Computer Organization and Design moves forward into the post-PC era with new examples, exercises, and material highlighting the emergence of mobile computing and the cloud. This generational change is emphasized and explored with updated content featuring tablet computers, cloud infrastructure, and the ARM (mobile computing devices) and x86 (cloud computing) architectures. Because an understanding of modern hardware is essential to achieving good performance and energy efficiency, this edition adds a new concrete example, "Going Faster," used throughout the text to demonstrate extremely effective optimization techniques. Also new to this edition is discussion of the "Eight Great Ideas" of computer architecture. As with previous editions, a MIPS processor is the core used to present the fundamentals of hardware technologies, assembly language, computer arithmetic, pipelining, memory hierarchies and I/O. Optimization techniques featured throughout the text. It covers parallelism in depth with...

Co-verification of hardware and software for ARM SoC design

CERN Document Server

Andrews, Jason

2004-01-01

Hardware/software co-verification is how to make sure that embedded system software works correctly with the hardware, and that the hardware has been properly designed to run the software successfully -before large sums are spent on prototypes or manufacturing. This is the first book to apply this verification technique to the rapidly growing field of embedded systems-on-a-chip(SoC). As traditional embedded system design evolves into single-chip design, embedded engineers must be armed with the necessary information to make educated decisions about which tools and methodology to deploy. SoC verification requires a mix of expertise from the disciplines of microprocessor and computer architecture, logic design and simulation, and C and Assembly language embedded software. Until now, the relevant information on how it all fits together has not been available. Andrews, a recognized expert, provides in-depth information about how co-verification really works, how to be successful using it, and pitfalls to avoid. H...

Digital Hardware Realization of Forward and Inverse Kinematics for a Five-Axis Articulated Robot Arm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bui Thi Hai Linh

2015-01-01

Full Text Available When robot arm performs a motion control, it needs to calculate a complicated algorithm of forward and inverse kinematics which consumes much CPU time and certainty slows down the motion speed of robot arm. Therefore, to solve this issue, the development of a hardware realization of forward and inverse kinematics for an articulated robot arm is investigated. In this paper, the formulation of the forward and inverse kinematics for a five-axis articulated robot arm is derived firstly. Then, the computations algorithm and its hardware implementation are described. Further, very high speed integrated circuits hardware description language (VHDL is applied to describe the overall hardware behavior of forward and inverse kinematics. Additionally, finite state machine (FSM is applied for reducing the hardware resource usage. Finally, for verifying the correctness of forward and inverse kinematics for the five-axis articulated robot arm, a cosimulation work is constructed by ModelSim and Simulink. The hardware of the forward and inverse kinematics is run by ModelSim and a test bench which generates stimulus to ModelSim and displays the output response is taken in Simulink. Under this design, the forward and inverse kinematics algorithms can be completed within one microsecond.

Using Innovative Techniques for Manufacturing Rocket Engine Hardware

Science.gov (United States)

Betts, Erin M.; Reynolds, David C.; Eddleman, David E.; Hardin, Andy

2011-01-01

Many of the manufacturing techniques that are currently used for rocket engine component production are traditional methods that have been proven through years of experience and historical precedence. As we enter into a new space age where new launch vehicles are being designed and propulsion systems are being improved upon, it is sometimes necessary to adopt new and innovative techniques for manufacturing hardware. With a heavy emphasis on cost reduction and improvements in manufacturing time, manufacturing techniques such as Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) are being adopted and evaluated for their use on J-2X, with hopes of employing this technology on a wide variety of future projects. DMLS has the potential to significantly reduce the processing time and cost of engine hardware, while achieving desirable material properties by using a layered powder metal manufacturing process in order to produce complex part geometries. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has recently hot-fire tested a J-2X gas generator discharge duct that was manufactured using DMLS. The duct was inspected and proof tested prior to the hot-fire test. Using the Workhorse Gas Generator (WHGG) test setup at MSFC?s East Test Area test stand 116, the duct was subject to extreme J-2X gas generator environments and endured a total of 538 seconds of hot-fire time. The duct survived the testing and was inspected after the test. DMLS manufacturing has proven to be a viable option for manufacturing rocket engine hardware, and further development and use of this manufacturing method is recommended.

Feasibility study of a XML-based software environment to manage data acquisition hardware devices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arcidiacono, R.; Brigljevic, V.; Bruno, G.; Cano, E.; Cittolin, S.; Erhan, S.; Gigi, D.; Glege, F.; Gomez-Reino, R.; Gulmini, M.; Gutleber, J.; Jacobs, C.; Kreuzer, P.; Lo Presti, G.; Magrans, I.; Marinelli, N.; Maron, G.; Meijers, F.; Meschi, E.; Murray, S.; Nafria, M.; Oh, A.; Orsini, L.; Pieri, M.; Pollet, L.; Racz, A.; Rosinsky, P.; Schwick, C.; Sphicas, P.; Varela, J.

2005-01-01

A Software environment to describe configuration, control and test systems for data acquisition hardware devices is presented. The design follows a model that enforces a comprehensive use of an extensible markup language (XML) syntax to describe both the code and associated data. A feasibility study of this software, carried out for the CMS experiment at CERN, is also presented. This is based on a number of standalone applications for different hardware modules, and the design of a hardware management system to remotely access to these heterogeneous subsystems through a uniform web service interface

Feasibility study of a XML-based software environment to manage data acquisition hardware devices

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Arcidiacono, R. [Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (United States); Brigljevic, V. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Zagreb (Croatia); Bruno, G. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Cano, E. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Cittolin, S. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Erhan, S. [University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Gigi, D. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Glege, F. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Gomez-Reino, R. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Gulmini, M. [INFN-Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Legnaro (Italy); CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Gutleber, J. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Jacobs, C. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Kreuzer, P. [University of Athens, Athens (Greece); Lo Presti, G. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Magrans, I. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland) and Electronic Engineering Department, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona (Spain)]. E-mail: ildefons.magrans@cern.ch; Marinelli, N. [Institute of Accelerating Systems and Applications, Athens (Greece); Maron, G. [INFN-Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Legnaro (Italy); Meijers, F. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Meschi, E. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Murray, S. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Nafria, M. [Electronic Engineering Department, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona (Spain); Oh, A. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Orsini, L. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Pieri, M. [University of California, San Diago, San Diago, CA (United States); Pollet, L. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Racz, A. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Rosinsky, P. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Schwick, C. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Sphicas, P. [University of Athens, Athens (Greece); CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Varela, J. [LIP, Lisbon (Portugal); CERN, Geneva (Switzerland)

2005-07-01

A Software environment to describe configuration, control and test systems for data acquisition hardware devices is presented. The design follows a model that enforces a comprehensive use of an extensible markup language (XML) syntax to describe both the code and associated data. A feasibility study of this software, carried out for the CMS experiment at CERN, is also presented. This is based on a number of standalone applications for different hardware modules, and the design of a hardware management system to remotely access to these heterogeneous subsystems through a uniform web service interface.

A Brief Introduction to Chinese Biological Abstracts

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

无

2005-01-01

Chinese Biological Abstracts sponsored by the Library, the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, the Biological Documentation and Information Network, all of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, commenced publication in 1987 and was initiated to provide access to the Chinese information in the field of biology.

Combining hardware and simulation for datacenter scaling studies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ruepp, Sarah Renée; Pilimon, Artur; Thrane, Jakob

2017-01-01

and simulation to illustrate the scalability and performance of datacenter networks. We simulate a Datacenter network and interconnect it with real world traffic generation hardware. Analysis of the introduced packet conversion and virtual queueing delays shows that the conversion efficiency is at the order...

Diseño hardware de una tarjeta de control y comunicaciones

OpenAIRE

Sánchez Salvador, David

2017-01-01

En la actualidad convivimos con infinidad de sistemas electrónicos, desde pequeños weareables como las pulseras inteligentes a grandes equipos como radares, pasando por equipos sin ningún tipo de lógica programada como una radio. Estos dispositivos electrónicos se desarrollan en base a un software generalmente, obviando la diferencia de complejidad según la aplicación, pero todos ellos se crean sobre un hardware. Dicho hardware puede ser una PCB sencilla con algunos componentes o un conjunto ...

Performance Estimation for Hardware/Software codesign using Hierarchical Colored Petri Nets

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grode, Jesper Nicolai Riis; Madsen, Jan; Jerraya, Ahmed-Amine

1998-01-01

This paper presents an approach for abstract modeling of the functional behavior of hardware architectures using Hierarchical Colored Petri Nets (HCPNs). Using HCPNs as architectural models has several advantages such as higher estimation accuracy, higher flexibility, and the need for only one...... estimation tool. This makes the approach very useful for designing component models used for performance estimation in Hardware/Software Codesign frameworks such as the LYCOS system. The paper presents the methodology and rules for designing component models using HCPNs. Two examples of architectural models...

Trustworthy reconfigurable systems enhancing the security capabilities of reconfigurable hardware architectures

CERN Document Server

Feller, Thomas

2014-01-01

?Thomas Feller sheds some light on trust anchor architectures fortrustworthy reconfigurable systems. He is presenting novel concepts enhancing the security capabilities of reconfigurable hardware.Almost invisible to the user, many computer systems are embedded into everyday artifacts, such as cars, ATMs, and pacemakers. The significant growth of this market segment within the recent years enforced a rethinking with respect to the security properties and the trustworthiness of these systems. The trustworthiness of a system in general equates to the integrity of its system components. Hardware-b

Hardware Accelerators Targeting a Novel Group Based Packet Classification Algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

O. Ahmed

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Packet classification is a ubiquitous and key building block for many critical network devices. However, it remains as one of the main bottlenecks faced when designing fast network devices. In this paper, we propose a novel Group Based Search packet classification Algorithm (GBSA that is scalable, fast, and efficient. GBSA consumes an average of 0.4 megabytes of memory for a 10 k rule set. The worst-case classification time per packet is 2 microseconds, and the preprocessing speed is 3 M rules/second based on an Xeon processor operating at 3.4 GHz. When compared with other state-of-the-art classification techniques, the results showed that GBSA outperforms the competition with respect to speed, memory usage, and processing time. Moreover, GBSA is amenable to implementation in hardware. Three different hardware implementations are also presented in this paper including an Application Specific Instruction Set Processor (ASIP implementation and two pure Register-Transfer Level (RTL implementations based on Impulse-C and Handel-C flows, respectively. Speedups achieved with these hardware accelerators ranged from 9x to 18x compared with a pure software implementation running on an Xeon processor.

Ultra-low noise miniaturized neural amplifier with hardware averaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Dweiri, Yazan M; Eggers, Thomas; McCallum, Grant; Durand, Dominique M

2015-08-01

Peripheral nerves carry neural signals that could be used to control hybrid bionic systems. Cuff electrodes provide a robust and stable interface but the recorded signal amplitude is small (concept of hardware averaging to nerve recordings obtained with cuff electrodes. An optimization procedure is developed to minimize noise and power simultaneously. The novel design was based on existing neural amplifiers (Intan Technologies, LLC) and is validated with signals obtained from the FINE in chronic dog experiments. We showed that hardware averaging leads to a reduction in the total recording noise by a factor of 1/√N or less depending on the source resistance. Chronic recording of physiological activity with FINE using the presented design showed significant improvement on the recorded baseline noise with at least two parallel operation transconductance amplifiers leading to a 46.1% reduction at N = 8. The functionality of these recordings was quantified by the SNR improvement and shown to be significant for N = 3 or more. The present design was shown to be capable of generating hardware averaging on noise improvement for neural recording with cuff electrodes, and can accommodate the presence of high source impedances that are associated with the miniaturized contacts and the high channel count in electrode arrays. This technique can be adopted for other applications where miniaturized and implantable multichannel acquisition systems with ultra-low noise and low power are required.

Hardware Evaluation of the Horizontal Exercise Fixture with Weight Stack

Science.gov (United States)

Newby, Nate; Leach, Mark; Fincke, Renita; Sharp, Carwyn

2009-01-01

HEF with weight stack seems to be a very sturdy and reliable exercise device that should function well in a bed rest training setting. A few improvements should be made to both the hardware and software to improve usage efficiency, but largely, this evaluation has demonstrated HEF's robustness. The hardware offers loading to muscles, bones, and joints, potentially sufficient to mitigate the loss of muscle mass and bone mineral density during long-duration bed rest campaigns. With some minor modifications, the HEF with weight stack equipment provides the best currently available means of performing squat, heel raise, prone row, bench press, and hip flexion/extension exercise in a supine orientation.

The fast Amsterdam multiprocessor (FAMP) system hardware

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hertzberger, L.O.; Kieft, G.; Kisielewski, B.; Wiggers, L.W.; Engster, C.; Koningsveld, L. van

1981-01-01

The architecture of a multiprocessor system is described that will be used for on-line filter and second stage trigger applications. The system is based on the MC 68000 microprocessor from Motorola. Emphasis is paid to hardware aspects, in particular the modularity, processor communication and interfacing, whereas the system software and the applications will be described in separate articles. (orig.)

Monitoring and Hardware Management for Critical Fusion Plasma Instrumentation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carvalho Paulo F.

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Controlled nuclear fusion aims to obtain energy by particles collision confined inside a nuclear reactor (Tokamak. These ionized particles, heavier isotopes of hydrogen, are the main elements inside of plasma that is kept at high temperatures (millions of Celsius degrees. Due to high temperatures and magnetic confinement, plasma is exposed to several sources of instabilities which require a set of procedures by the control and data acquisition systems throughout fusion experiments processes. Control and data acquisition systems often used in nuclear fusion experiments are based on the Advanced Telecommunication Computer Architecture (AdvancedTCA® standard introduced by the Peripheral Component Interconnect Industrial Manufacturers Group (PICMG®, to meet the demands of telecommunications that require large amount of data (TB transportation at high transfer rates (Gb/s, to ensure high availability including features such as reliability, serviceability and redundancy. For efficient plasma control, systems are required to collect large amounts of data, process it, store for later analysis, make critical decisions in real time and provide status reports either from the experience itself or the electronic instrumentation involved. Moreover, systems should also ensure the correct handling of detected anomalies and identified faults, notify the system operator of occurred events, decisions taken to acknowledge and implemented changes. Therefore, for everything to work in compliance with specifications it is required that the instrumentation includes hardware management and monitoring mechanisms for both hardware and software. These mechanisms should check the system status by reading sensors, manage events, update inventory databases with hardware system components in use and maintenance, store collected information, update firmware and installed software modules, configure and handle alarms to detect possible system failures and prevent emergency

Monitoring and Hardware Management for Critical Fusion Plasma Instrumentation

Science.gov (United States)

Carvalho, Paulo F.; Santos, Bruno; Correia, Miguel; Combo, Álvaro M.; Rodrigues, AntÓnio P.; Pereira, Rita C.; Fernandes, Ana; Cruz, Nuno; Sousa, Jorge; Carvalho, Bernardo B.; Batista, AntÓnio J. N.; Correia, Carlos M. B. A.; Gonçalves, Bruno

2018-01-01

Controlled nuclear fusion aims to obtain energy by particles collision confined inside a nuclear reactor (Tokamak). These ionized particles, heavier isotopes of hydrogen, are the main elements inside of plasma that is kept at high temperatures (millions of Celsius degrees). Due to high temperatures and magnetic confinement, plasma is exposed to several sources of instabilities which require a set of procedures by the control and data acquisition systems throughout fusion experiments processes. Control and data acquisition systems often used in nuclear fusion experiments are based on the Advanced Telecommunication Computer Architecture (AdvancedTCA®) standard introduced by the Peripheral Component Interconnect Industrial Manufacturers Group (PICMG®), to meet the demands of telecommunications that require large amount of data (TB) transportation at high transfer rates (Gb/s), to ensure high availability including features such as reliability, serviceability and redundancy. For efficient plasma control, systems are required to collect large amounts of data, process it, store for later analysis, make critical decisions in real time and provide status reports either from the experience itself or the electronic instrumentation involved. Moreover, systems should also ensure the correct handling of detected anomalies and identified faults, notify the system operator of occurred events, decisions taken to acknowledge and implemented changes. Therefore, for everything to work in compliance with specifications it is required that the instrumentation includes hardware management and monitoring mechanisms for both hardware and software. These mechanisms should check the system status by reading sensors, manage events, update inventory databases with hardware system components in use and maintenance, store collected information, update firmware and installed software modules, configure and handle alarms to detect possible system failures and prevent emergency scenarios

HiCAT Software Infrastructure: Safe hardware control with object oriented Python

Science.gov (United States)

Moriarty, Christopher; Brooks, Keira; Soummer, Remi

2018-01-01

High contrast imaging for Complex Aperture Telescopes (HiCAT) is a testbed designed to demonstrate coronagraphy and wavefront control for segmented on-axis space telescopes such as envisioned for LUVOIR. To limit the air movements in the testbed room, software interfaces for several different hardware components were developed to completely automate operations. When developing software interfaces for many different pieces of hardware, unhandled errors are commonplace and can prevent the software from properly closing a hardware resource. Some fragile components (e.g. deformable mirrors) can be permanently damaged because of this. We present an object oriented Python-based infrastructure to safely automate hardware control and optical experiments. Specifically, conducting high-contrast imaging experiments while monitoring humidity and power status along with graceful shutdown processes even for unexpected errors. Python contains a construct called a “context manager” that allows you define code to run when a resource is opened or closed. Context managers ensure that a resource is properly closed, even when unhandled errors occur. Harnessing the context manager design, we also use Python’s multiprocessing library to monitor humidity and power status without interrupting the experiment. Upon detecting a safety problem, the master process sends an event to the child process that triggers the context managers to gracefully close any open resources. This infrastructure allows us to queue up several experiments and safely operate the testbed without a human in the loop.

Test Hardware Design for Flight-Like Operation of Advanced Stirling Convertors

Science.gov (United States)

Oriti, Salvatore M.

2012-01-01

NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) has been supporting development of the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) since 2006. A key element of the ASRG project is providing life, reliability, and performance testing of the Advanced Stirling Convertor (ASC). For this purpose, the Thermal Energy Conversion branch at GRC has been conducting extended operation of a multitude of free-piston Stirling convertors. The goal of this effort is to generate long-term performance data (tens of thousands of hours) simultaneously on multiple units to build a life and reliability database. The test hardware for operation of these convertors was designed to permit in-air investigative testing, such as performance mapping over a range of environmental conditions. With this, there was no requirement to accurately emulate the flight hardware. For the upcoming ASC-E3 units, the decision has been made to assemble the convertors into a flight-like configuration. This means the convertors will be arranged in the dual-opposed configuration in a housing that represents the fit, form, and thermal function of the ASRG. The goal of this effort is to enable system level tests that could not be performed with the traditional test hardware at GRC. This offers the opportunity to perform these system-level tests much earlier in the ASRG flight development, as they would normally not be performed until fabrication of the qualification unit. This paper discusses the requirements, process, and results of this flight-like hardware design activity.

Hardware Algorithms For Tile-Based Real-Time Rendering

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Crisu, D.

2012-01-01

In this dissertation, we present the GRAphics AcceLerator (GRAAL) framework for developing embedded tile-based rasterization hardware for mobile devices, meant to accelerate real-time 3-D graphics (OpenGL compliant) applications. The goal of the framework is a low-cost, low-power, high-performance

Chip-Multiprocessor Hardware Locks for Safety-Critical Java

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Strøm, Torur Biskopstø; Puffitsch, Wolfgang; Schoeberl, Martin

2013-01-01

and may void a task set's schedulability. In this paper we present a hardware locking mechanism to reduce the synchronization overhead. The solution is implemented for the chip-multiprocessor version of the Java Optimized Processor in the context of safety-critical Java. The implementation is compared...

CASIS Fact Sheet: Hardware and Facilities

Science.gov (United States)

Solomon, Michael R.; Romero, Vergel

2016-01-01

Vencore is a proven information solutions, engineering, and analytics company that helps our customers solve their most complex challenges. For more than 40 years, we have designed, developed and delivered mission-critical solutions as our customers' trusted partner. The Engineering Services Contract, or ESC, provides engineering and design services to the NASA organizations engaged in development of new technologies at the Kennedy Space Center. Vencore is the ESC prime contractor, with teammates that include Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies, Sierra Lobo, Nelson Engineering, EASi, and Craig Technologies. The Vencore team designs and develops systems and equipment to be used for the processing of space launch vehicles, spacecraft, and payloads. We perform flight systems engineering for spaceflight hardware and software; develop technologies that serve NASA's mission requirements and operations needs for the future. Our Flight Payload Support (FPS) team at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) provides engineering, development, and certification services as well as payload integration and management services to NASA and commercial customers. Our main objective is to assist principal investigators (PIs) integrate their science experiments into payload hardware for research aboard the International Space Station (ISS), commercial spacecraft, suborbital vehicles, parabolic flight aircrafts, and ground-based studies. Vencore's FPS team is AS9100 certified and a recognized implementation partner for the Center for Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS

Recycling Flight Hardware Components and Systems to Reduce Next Generation Research Costs

Science.gov (United States)

Turner, Wlat

2011-01-01

With the recent 'new direction' put forth by President Obama identifying NASA's new focus in research rather than continuing on a path to return to the Moon and Mars, the focus of work at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) may be changing dramatically. Research opportunities within the micro-gravity community potentially stands at the threshold of resurgence when the new direction of the agency takes hold for the next generation of experimenters. This presentation defines a strategy for recycling flight experiment components or part numbers, in order to reduce research project costs, not just in component selection and fabrication, but in expediting qualification of hardware for flight. A key component of the strategy is effective communication of relevant flight hardware information and available flight hardware components to researchers, with the goal of 'short circuiting' the design process for flight experiments

Parallel random number generator for inexpensive configurable hardware cells

Science.gov (United States)

Ackermann, J.; Tangen, U.; Bödekker, B.; Breyer, J.; Stoll, E.; McCaskill, J. S.

2001-11-01

A new random number generator ( RNG) adapted to parallel processors has been created. This RNG can be implemented with inexpensive hardware cells. The correlation between neighboring cells is suppressed with smart connections. With such connection structures, sequences of pseudo-random numbers are produced. Numerical tests including a self-avoiding random walk test and the simulation of the order parameter and energy of the 2D Ising model give no evidence for correlation in the pseudo-random sequences. Because the new random number generator has suppressed the correlation between neighboring cells which is usually observed in cellular automaton implementations, it is applicable for extended time simulations. It gives an immense speed-up factor if implemented directly in configurable hardware, and has recently been used for long time simulations of spatially resolved molecular evolution.

AER synthetic generation in hardware for bio-inspired spiking systems

Science.gov (United States)

Linares-Barranco, Alejandro; Linares-Barranco, Bernabe; Jimenez-Moreno, Gabriel; Civit-Balcells, Anton

2005-06-01

Address Event Representation (AER) is an emergent neuromorphic interchip communication protocol that allows for real-time virtual massive connectivity between huge number neurons located on different chips. By exploiting high speed digital communication circuits (with nano-seconds timings), synaptic neural connections can be time multiplexed, while neural activity signals (with mili-seconds timings) are sampled at low frequencies. Also, neurons generate 'events' according to their activity levels. More active neurons generate more events per unit time, and access the interchip communication channel more frequently, while neurons with low activity consume less communication bandwidth. When building multi-chip muti-layered AER systems it is absolutely necessary to have a computer interface that allows (a) to read AER interchip traffic into the computer and visualize it on screen, and (b) convert conventional frame-based video stream in the computer into AER and inject it at some point of the AER structure. This is necessary for test and debugging of complex AER systems. This paper addresses the problem of converting, in a computer, a conventional frame-based video stream into the spike event based representation AER. There exist several proposed software methods for synthetic generation of AER for bio-inspired systems. This paper presents a hardware implementation for one method, which is based on Linear-Feedback-Shift-Register (LFSR) pseudo-random number generation. The sequence of events generated by this hardware, which follows a Poisson distribution like a biological neuron, has been reconstructed using two AER integrator cells. The error of reconstruction for a set of images that produces different traffic loads of event in the AER bus is used as evaluation criteria. A VHDL description of the method, that includes the Xilinx PCI Core, has been implemented and tested using a general purpose PCI-AER board. This PCI-AER board has been developed by authors, and uses

Hardware-in-the-loop vehicle system including dynamic fuel cell model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lemes, Z.; Lenhart, T.; Braun, M.; Maencher, H. [MAGNUM Automatisierungstechnik GmbH, Darmstadt (Germany)

2005-07-01

In order to reduce costs and accelerate the development of fuel cells and systems the usage of hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing and dynamic modelling opens new possibilities. The dynamic model of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) together with a vehicle model is used to carry out a comprehensive system investigation, which allows designing and optimising the behaviour of the components and the entire fuel cell system. The set-up of a HIL system enables real time interaction between the selected hardware and the model. (orig.)

Hardware Locks with Priority Ceiling Emulation for a Java Chip-Multiprocessor

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Strøm, Torur Biskopstø; Schoeberl, Martin

2015-01-01

According to the safety-critical Java specification, priority ceiling emulation is a requirement for implementations, as it has preferable properties, such as avoiding priority inversion and being deadlock free on uni-core systems. In this paper we explore our hardware supported implementation...... of priority ceiling emulation on the multicore Java optimized processor, and compare it to the existing hardware locks on the Java optimized processor. We find that the additional overhead for priority ceiling emulation on a multicore processor is several times higher than simpler, non-premptive locks, mainly...

Accelerating the Non-equispaced Fast Fourier Transform on Commodity Graphics Hardware

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Thomas Sangild; Schaeffter, Tobias; Noe, Karsten Østergaard

2008-01-01

We present a fast parallel algorithm to compute the Non-equispaced fast Fourier transform on commodity graphics hardware (the GPU). We focus particularly on a novel implementation of the convolution step in the transform, which was previously its most time consuming part. We describe the performa......We present a fast parallel algorithm to compute the Non-equispaced fast Fourier transform on commodity graphics hardware (the GPU). We focus particularly on a novel implementation of the convolution step in the transform, which was previously its most time consuming part. We describe...

Environmental Friendly Coatings and Corrosion Prevention For Flight Hardware Project

Science.gov (United States)

Calle, Luz

2014-01-01

Identify, test and develop qualification criteria for environmentally friendly corrosion protective coatings and corrosion preventative compounds (CPC's) for flight hardware an ground support equipment.

Hardware and Software Integration in Project Development of Automated Controller System Using LABVIEW FPGA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mohd Khairulezwan Abd Manan; Mohd Sabri Minhat; Izhar Abu Hussin

2014-01-01

The Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is a semiconductor device that can be programmed after manufacturing. Instead of being restricted to any predetermined hardware function, an FPGA allows user to program product features and functions, adapt to new standards, and reconfigure hardware for specific applications even after the product has been installed in the field, hence the name field-programmable. This project developed a control system using LabVIEW FPGA. LabVIEW FPGA is easier where it is programmed by using drag and drop icon. Then it will be integrated with the hardware input and output. (author)

Surgical Critical Care Initiative

Data.gov (United States)

Federal Laboratory Consortium — The Surgical Critical Care Initiative (SC2i) is a USU research program established in October 2013 to develop, translate, and validate biology-driven critical care....

Hiding State in CλaSH Hardware Descriptions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gerards, Marco Egbertus Theodorus; Baaij, C.P.R.; Kuper, Jan; Kooijman, Matthijs

Synchronous hardware can be modelled as a mapping from input and state to output and a new state, such mappings are referred to as transition functions. It is natural to use a functional language to implement transition functions. The CaSH compiler is capable of translating transition functions to

Towards automated construction of dependable software/hardware systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yakhnis, A.; Yakhnis, V. [Pioneer Technologies & Rockwell Science Center, Albuquerque, NM (United States)

1997-11-01

This report contains viewgraphs on the automated construction of dependable computer architecture systems. The outline of this report is: examples of software/hardware systems; dependable systems; partial delivery of dependability; proposed approach; removing obstacles; advantages of the approach; criteria for success; current progress of the approach; and references.

Ecological-biological Aspects of Stipa krylovii Roshev Adaptation at the Initial Stages of Ontogenesis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N.S. Chistyakova

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Xerophytic cereal Stipa krylovii Roshev is interesting as a relic with extensive capabilities to adapt to severe climatic conditions of Eastern Zabaikal’ye, which allows it to occupy a vast areal. The species under study is characterized by distinctive ecological-biological peculiarities, which are underpinned by not only distribution, but historical establishment of the species. The primary goal of the research was to study ecological-biological peculiarities of adaptation of wild cereal Stipa krylovii to the habitat in Eastern Zabaikal’ye. According to the observations, Stipa krylovii is characterized by late development rate coinciding with the period of optimal heat and moisture availability. Seed embryos have a well-developed scutellum, distinct structures and well differentiated embryo axis. The studies identified no lateral or secondary roots in the cereal. In nature, seeds of S. krylovii are characterized by profound organic peace period, which persists in the course of sprouting under optimal conditions. Peace period of S. krylovii caryopses is likely to be due to the presence of sprouting inhibitors and is overcome in moist autumn period. Seed viability was determined under various soil moisture parameters up to its complete water capacity; the impact of moisture content on seed sprouting rate was studied. The results of the tests on caryopses sprouting with various moisture content demonstrated that at minimum moisture content (10% S. krylovii forms epidermal hairs on coleorhiza; 30% of soil water content is enough for growth activation, viability and sprouting rate of this cereal, which is due to its xerophytic nature. This morphological peculiarity is likely to ensure in nature sprouting of these species in early spring, when soil contain minimum water. Intensity of the initial growth was determined by a number of parameters: rate of change in linear growth of trunk and root parts of the embryo, growth of dry substance of

Beyond Open Source Software: Solving Common Library Problems Using the Open Source Hardware Arduino Platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jonathan Younker

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Using open source hardware platforms like the Arduino, libraries have the ability to quickly and inexpensively prototype custom hardware solutions to common library problems. The authors present the Arduino environment, what it is, what it does, and how it was used at the James A. Gibson Library at Brock University to create a production portable barcode-scanning utility for in-house use statistics collection as well as a prototype for a service desk statistics tabulation program’s hardware interface.

Using Innovative Technologies for Manufacturing Rocket Engine Hardware

Science.gov (United States)

Betts, E. M.; Eddleman, D. E.; Reynolds, D. C.; Hardin, N. A.

2011-01-01

Many of the manufacturing techniques that are currently used for rocket engine component production are traditional methods that have been proven through years of experience and historical precedence. As the United States enters into the next space age where new launch vehicles are being designed and propulsion systems are being improved upon, it is sometimes necessary to adopt innovative techniques for manufacturing hardware. With a heavy emphasis on cost reduction and improvements in manufacturing time, rapid manufacturing techniques such as Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) are being adopted and evaluated for their use on NASA s Space Launch System (SLS) upper stage engine, J-2X, with hopes of employing this technology on a wide variety of future projects. DMLS has the potential to significantly reduce the processing time and cost of engine hardware, while achieving desirable material properties by using a layered powder metal manufacturing process in order to produce complex part geometries. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has recently hot-fire tested a J-2X gas generator (GG) discharge duct that was manufactured using DMLS. The duct was inspected and proof tested prior to the hot-fire test. Using a workhorse gas generator (WHGG) test fixture at MSFC's East Test Area, the duct was subjected to extreme J-2X hot gas environments during 7 tests for a total of 537 seconds of hot-fire time. The duct underwent extensive post-test evaluation and showed no signs of degradation. DMLS manufacturing has proven to be a viable option for manufacturing rocket engine hardware, and further development and use of this manufacturing method is recommended.

Opportunities in plant synthetic biology.

Science.gov (United States)

Cook, Charis; Martin, Lisa; Bastow, Ruth

2014-05-01

Synthetic biology is an emerging field uniting scientists from all disciplines with the aim of designing or re-designing biological processes. Initially, synthetic biology breakthroughs came from microbiology, chemistry, physics, computer science, materials science, mathematics, and engineering disciplines. A transition to multicellular systems is the next logical step for synthetic biologists and plants will provide an ideal platform for this new phase of research. This meeting report highlights some of the exciting plant synthetic biology projects, and tools and resources, presented and discussed at the 2013 GARNet workshop on plant synthetic biology.

High-precision optical systems with inexpensive hardware: a unified alignment and structural design approach

Science.gov (United States)

Winrow, Edward G.; Chavez, Victor H.

2011-09-01

High-precision opto-mechanical structures have historically been plagued by high costs for both hardware and the associated alignment and assembly process. This problem is especially true for space applications where only a few production units are produced. A methodology for optical alignment and optical structure design is presented which shifts the mechanism of maintaining precision from tightly toleranced, machined flight hardware to reusable, modular tooling. Using the proposed methodology, optical alignment error sources are reduced by the direct alignment of optics through their surface retroreflections (pips) as seen through a theodolite. Optical alignment adjustments are actualized through motorized, sub-micron precision actuators in 5 degrees of freedom. Optical structure hardware costs are reduced through the use of simple shapes (tubes, plates) and repeated components. This approach produces significantly cheaper hardware and more efficient assembly without sacrificing alignment precision or optical structure stability. The design, alignment plan and assembly of a 4" aperture, carbon fiber composite, Schmidt-Cassegrain concept telescope is presented.

Detecting System of Nested Hardware Virtual Machine Monitor

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Artem Vladimirovich Iuzbashev

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Method of nested hardware virtual machine monitor detection was proposed in this work. The method is based on HVM timing attack. In case of HVM presence in system, the number of different instruction sequences execution time values will increase. We used this property as indicator in our detection.

Projeto e desenvolvimento de um hardware reconfigurável de criptografia para a transmissão segura de dados

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Otávio Souza Martins Gomes

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Neste trabalho serão mostradas algumas conclusões prévias e escolhas realizadas para o desenvolvimento de uma interface de criptografia simétrica, utilizando hardware reconfigurável para a transmissão segura de dados. Os dispositivos reconfiguráveis permitem o desenvolvimento deste hardware de maneira segura e com uma grande flexibilidade, além da possibilidade de realizar algumas alterações com um mínimo de custo e tempo adicionais. Até o momento foram desenvolvidos os modelos para a implementação. O próximo passo será iniciar o desenvolvimento do hardware, que utilizará linguagens de descrição de hardware e Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs.Palavras-chave: Segurança. FPGA. PSoC. 3DES. VHDL. Design and development of an cryptography reconfigurable hardware for secure data trasmissionABSTRACTThis paper presents some conclusions and choices about the development of a symmetric cryptography reconfigurable hardware interface to allow a safe data communication. Reconfigurable hardwares allow the development of this kind of device with safety and flexibility, and offer the possibility to change some features with low cost and in a fast way. So far, the hardware models and functionalities were developed. The next step is to start the hardware implementation, which will use hardware description languages and FPGAs.Keywords: Security. FPGA. PSoC. 3DES. VHDL.

Quantum-Assisted Learning of Hardware-Embedded Probabilistic Graphical Models

Science.gov (United States)

Benedetti, Marcello; Realpe-Gómez, John; Biswas, Rupak; Perdomo-Ortiz, Alejandro

2017-10-01

Mainstream machine-learning techniques such as deep learning and probabilistic programming rely heavily on sampling from generally intractable probability distributions. There is increasing interest in the potential advantages of using quantum computing technologies as sampling engines to speed up these tasks or to make them more effective. However, some pressing challenges in state-of-the-art quantum annealers have to be overcome before we can assess their actual performance. The sparse connectivity, resulting from the local interaction between quantum bits in physical hardware implementations, is considered the most severe limitation to the quality of constructing powerful generative unsupervised machine-learning models. Here, we use embedding techniques to add redundancy to data sets, allowing us to increase the modeling capacity of quantum annealers. We illustrate our findings by training hardware-embedded graphical models on a binarized data set of handwritten digits and two synthetic data sets in experiments with up to 940 quantum bits. Our model can be trained in quantum hardware without full knowledge of the effective parameters specifying the corresponding quantum Gibbs-like distribution; therefore, this approach avoids the need to infer the effective temperature at each iteration, speeding up learning; it also mitigates the effect of noise in the control parameters, making it robust to deviations from the reference Gibbs distribution. Our approach demonstrates the feasibility of using quantum annealers for implementing generative models, and it provides a suitable framework for benchmarking these quantum technologies on machine-learning-related tasks.

Quantum-Assisted Learning of Hardware-Embedded Probabilistic Graphical Models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcello Benedetti

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Mainstream machine-learning techniques such as deep learning and probabilistic programming rely heavily on sampling from generally intractable probability distributions. There is increasing interest in the potential advantages of using quantum computing technologies as sampling engines to speed up these tasks or to make them more effective. However, some pressing challenges in state-of-the-art quantum annealers have to be overcome before we can assess their actual performance. The sparse connectivity, resulting from the local interaction between quantum bits in physical hardware implementations, is considered the most severe limitation to the quality of constructing powerful generative unsupervised machine-learning models. Here, we use embedding techniques to add redundancy to data sets, allowing us to increase the modeling capacity of quantum annealers. We illustrate our findings by training hardware-embedded graphical models on a binarized data set of handwritten digits and two synthetic data sets in experiments with up to 940 quantum bits. Our model can be trained in quantum hardware without full knowledge of the effective parameters specifying the corresponding quantum Gibbs-like distribution; therefore, this approach avoids the need to infer the effective temperature at each iteration, speeding up learning; it also mitigates the effect of noise in the control parameters, making it robust to deviations from the reference Gibbs distribution. Our approach demonstrates the feasibility of using quantum annealers for implementing generative models, and it provides a suitable framework for benchmarking these quantum technologies on machine-learning-related tasks.

Using Innovative Technologies for Manufacturing and Evaluating Rocket Engine Hardware

Science.gov (United States)

Betts, Erin M.; Hardin, Andy

2011-01-01

Many of the manufacturing and evaluation techniques that are currently used for rocket engine component production are traditional methods that have been proven through years of experience and historical precedence. As we enter into a new space age where new launch vehicles are being designed and propulsion systems are being improved upon, it is sometimes necessary to adopt new and innovative techniques for manufacturing and evaluating hardware. With a heavy emphasis on cost reduction and improvements in manufacturing time, manufacturing techniques such as Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) and white light scanning are being adopted and evaluated for their use on J-2X, with hopes of employing both technologies on a wide variety of future projects. DMLS has the potential to significantly reduce the processing time and cost of engine hardware, while achieving desirable material properties by using a layered powdered metal manufacturing process in order to produce complex part geometries. The white light technique is a non-invasive method that can be used to inspect for geometric feature alignment. Both the DMLS manufacturing method and the white light scanning technique have proven to be viable options for manufacturing and evaluating rocket engine hardware, and further development and use of these techniques is recommended.

Fundamental plant biology enabled by the space shuttle.

Science.gov (United States)

Paul, Anna-Lisa; Wheeler, Ray M; Levine, Howard G; Ferl, Robert J

2013-01-01

The relationship between fundamental plant biology and space biology was especially synergistic in the era of the Space Shuttle. While all terrestrial organisms are influenced by gravity, the impact of gravity as a tropic stimulus in plants has been a topic of formal study for more than a century. And while plants were parts of early space biology payloads, it was not until the advent of the Space Shuttle that the science of plant space biology enjoyed expansion that truly enabled controlled, fundamental experiments that removed gravity from the equation. The Space Shuttle presented a science platform that provided regular science flights with dedicated plant growth hardware and crew trained in inflight plant manipulations. Part of the impetus for plant biology experiments in space was the realization that plants could be important parts of bioregenerative life support on long missions, recycling water, air, and nutrients for the human crew. However, a large part of the impetus was that the Space Shuttle enabled fundamental plant science essentially in a microgravity environment. Experiments during the Space Shuttle era produced key science insights on biological adaptation to spaceflight and especially plant growth and tropisms. In this review, we present an overview of plant science in the Space Shuttle era with an emphasis on experiments dealing with fundamental plant growth in microgravity. This review discusses general conclusions from the study of plant spaceflight biology enabled by the Space Shuttle by providing historical context and reviews of select experiments that exemplify plant space biology science.

Verification of OpenSSL version via hardware performance counters

Science.gov (United States)

Bruska, James; Blasingame, Zander; Liu, Chen

2017-05-01

Many forms of malware and security breaches exist today. One type of breach downgrades a cryptographic program by employing a man-in-the-middle attack. In this work, we explore the utilization of hardware events in conjunction with machine learning algorithms to detect which version of OpenSSL is being run during the encryption process. This allows for the immediate detection of any unknown downgrade attacks in real time. Our experimental results indicated this detection method is both feasible and practical. When trained with normal TLS and SSL data, our classifier was able to detect which protocol was being used with 99.995% accuracy. After the scope of the hardware event recording was enlarged, the accuracy diminished greatly, but to 53.244%. Upon removal of TLS 1.1 from the data set, the accuracy returned to 99.905%.

Hardware support for CSP on a Java chip multiprocessor

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gruian, Flavius; Schoeberl, Martin

2013-01-01

Due to memory bandwidth limitations, chip multiprocessors (CMPs) adopting the convenient shared memory model for their main memory architecture scale poorly. On-chip core-to-core communication is a solution to this problem, that can lead to further performance increase for a number of multithreaded...... applications. Programmatically, the Communicating Sequential Processes (CSPs) paradigm provides a sound computational model for such an architecture with message based communication. In this paper we explore hardware support for CSP in the context of an embedded Java CMP. The hardware support for CSP are on......-chip communication channels, implemented by a ring-based network-on-chip (NoC), to reduce the memory bandwidth pressure on the shared memory.The presented solution is scalable and also specific for our limited resources and real-time predictability requirements. CMP architectures of three to eight processors were...

Design of embedded hardware platform in intelligent γ-spectrometry instrument based on ARM9

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hong Tianqi; Fang Fang

2008-01-01

This paper described the design of embedded hardware platform based on ARM9 S3C2410A, emphases are focused on analyzing the methods of design the circuits of memory, LCD and keyboard ports. It presented a new solution of hardware platform in intelligent portable instrument for γ measurement. (authors)

Mission Management Computer and Sequencing Hardware for RLV-TD HEX-01 Mission

Science.gov (United States)

Gupta, Sukrat; Raj, Remya; Mathew, Asha Mary; Koshy, Anna Priya; Paramasivam, R.; Mookiah, T.

2017-12-01

Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstrator Hypersonic Experiment (RLV-TD HEX-01) mission posed some unique challenges in the design and development of avionics hardware. This work presents the details of mission critical avionics hardware mainly Mission Management Computer (MMC) and sequencing hardware. The Navigation, Guidance and Control (NGC) chain for RLV-TD is dual redundant with cross-strapped Remote Terminals (RTs) interfaced through MIL-STD-1553B bus. MMC is Bus Controller on the 1553 bus, which does the function of GPS aided navigation, guidance, digital autopilot and sequencing for the RLV-TD launch vehicle in different periodicities (10, 20, 500 ms). Digital autopilot execution in MMC with a periodicity of 10 ms (in ascent phase) is introduced for the first time and successfully demonstrated in the flight. MMC is built around Intel i960 processor and has inbuilt fault tolerance features like ECC for memories. Fault Detection and Isolation schemes are implemented to isolate the failed MMC. The sequencing hardware comprises Stage Processing System (SPS) and Command Execution Module (CEM). SPS is `RT' on the 1553 bus which receives the sequencing and control related commands from MMCs and posts to downstream modules after proper error handling for final execution. SPS is designed as a high reliability system by incorporating various fault tolerance and fault detection features. CEM is a relay based module for sequence command execution.

Hardware prototype with component specification and usage description

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Azam, Tre; Aswat, Soyeb; Klemke, Roland; Sharma, Puneet; Wild, Fridolin

2017-01-01

Following on from D3.1 and the final selection of sensors, in this D3.2 report we present the first version of the experience capturing hardware prototype design and API architecture taking into account the current limitations of the Hololens not being available until early next month in time for

Detection of hardware backdoor through microcontroller read time ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The objective of this work, christened “HABA” (Hardware Backdoor Aware) is to collect data samples of series of read time of microcontroller embedded on military grade equipments and correlate it with previously stored expected behavior read time samples so as to detect abnormality or otherwise. I was motivated by the ...

Fine-grain reconfigurable platform: FPGA hardware design and software toolset development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pappas, I; Kalenteridis, V; Vassiliadis, N; Pournara, H; Siozios, K; Koutroumpezis, G; Tatas, K; Nikolaidis, S; Siskos, S; Soudris, D J; Thanailakis, A

2005-01-01

A complete system for the implementation of digital logic in a fine-grain reconfigurable platform is introduced. The system is composed of two parts. The fine-grain reconfigurable hardware platform (FPGA) on which the logic is implemented and the set of CAD tools for mapping logic to the FPGA platform. A novel energy-efficient FPGA architecture is presented (CLB, interconnect network, configuration hardware) and simulated in STM 0.18 μm CMOS technology. Concerning the tool flow, each tool can operate as a standalone program as well as part of a complete design framework, composed by existing and new tools

Fine-grain reconfigurable platform: FPGA hardware design and software toolset development

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pappas, I [Electronics and Computers Div., Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54006 Thessaloniki (Greece); Kalenteridis, V [Electronics and Computers Div., Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54006 Thessaloniki (Greece); Vassiliadis, N [Electronics and Computers Div., Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54006 Thessaloniki (Greece); Pournara, H [Electronics and Computers Div., Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54006 Thessaloniki (Greece); Siozios, K [VLSI Design and Testing Center, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, 67100 Xanthi (Greece); Koutroumpezis, G [VLSI Design and Testing Center, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, 67100 Xanthi (Greece); Tatas, K [VLSI Design and Testing Center, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, 67100 Xanthi (Greece); Nikolaidis, S [Electronics and Computers Div., Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54006 Thessaloniki (Greece); Siskos, S [Electronics and Computers Div., Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54006 Thessaloniki (Greece); Soudris, D J [VLSI Design and Testing Center, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, 67100 Xanthi (Greece); Thanailakis, A [Electronics and Computers Div., Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54006 Thessaloniki (Greece)

2005-01-01

A complete system for the implementation of digital logic in a fine-grain reconfigurable platform is introduced. The system is composed of two parts. The fine-grain reconfigurable hardware platform (FPGA) on which the logic is implemented and the set of CAD tools for mapping logic to the FPGA platform. A novel energy-efficient FPGA architecture is presented (CLB, interconnect network, configuration hardware) and simulated in STM 0.18 {mu}m CMOS technology. Concerning the tool flow, each tool can operate as a standalone program as well as part of a complete design framework, composed by existing and new tools.

Comparison Of Hybrid Sorting Algorithms Implemented On Different Parallel Hardware Platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dominik Zurek

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Sorting is a common problem in computer science. There are lot of well-known sorting algorithms created for sequential execution on a single processor. Recently, hardware platforms enable to create wide parallel algorithms. We have standard processors consist of multiple cores and hardware accelerators like GPU. The graphic cards with their parallel architecture give new possibility to speed up many algorithms. In this paper we describe results of implementation of a few different sorting algorithms on GPU cards and multicore processors. Then hybrid algorithm will be presented which consists of parts executed on both platforms, standard CPU and GPU.

Implementation of the Lattice Boltzmann Method on Heterogeneous Hardware and Platforms using OpenCL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

TEKIC, P. M.

2012-02-01

Full Text Available The Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM has become an alternative method for computational fluid dynamics with a wide range of applications. Besides its numerical stability and accuracy, one of the major advantages of LBM is its relatively easy parallelization and, hence, it is especially well fitted to many-core hardware as graphics processing units (GPU. The majority of work concerning LBM implementation on GPU's has used the CUDA programming model, supported exclusively by NVIDIA. Recently, the open standard for parallel programming of heterogeneous systems (OpenCL has been introduced. OpenCL standard matures and is supported on processors from most vendors. In this paper, we make use of the OpenCL framework for the lattice Boltzmann method simulation, using hardware accelerators - AMD ATI Radeon GPU, AMD Dual-Core CPU and NVIDIA GeForce GPU's. Application has been developed using a combination of Java and OpenCL programming languages. Java bindings for OpenCL have been utilized. This approach offers the benefits of hardware and operating system independence, as well as speeding up of lattice Boltzmann algorithm. It has been showed that the developed lattice Boltzmann source code can be executed without modification on all of the used hardware accelerators. Performance results have been presented and compared for the hardware accelerators that have been utilized.

Low-power hardware implementation of movement decoding for brain computer interface with reduced-resolution discrete cosine transform.

Science.gov (United States)

Minho Won; Albalawi, Hassan; Xin Li; Thomas, Donald E

2014-01-01

This paper describes a low-power hardware implementation for movement decoding of brain computer interface. Our proposed hardware design is facilitated by two novel ideas: (i) an efficient feature extraction method based on reduced-resolution discrete cosine transform (DCT), and (ii) a new hardware architecture of dual look-up table to perform discrete cosine transform without explicit multiplication. The proposed hardware implementation has been validated for movement decoding of electrocorticography (ECoG) signal by using a Xilinx FPGA Zynq-7000 board. It achieves more than 56× energy reduction over a reference design using band-pass filters for feature extraction.

Hardware in the Loop Testing of an Iodine-Fed Hall Thruster

Science.gov (United States)

Polzin, Kurt A.; Peeples, Steven R.; Cecil, Jim; Lewis, Brandon L.; Molina Fraticelli, Jose C.; Clark, James P.

2015-01-01

initiated from an operator's workstation outside the vacuum chamber and passed through the Cortex 160 to exercise portions of the flight avionics. Two custom-designed pieces of electronics hardware have been designed to operate the propellant feed system. One piece of hardware is an auxiliary board that controls a latch valve, proportional flow control valves (PFCVs) and valve heaters as well as measuring pressures, temperatures and PFCV feedback voltage. An onboard FPGA provides a serial link for issuing commands and manages all lower level input-output functions. The other piece of hardware is a power distribution board, which accepts a standard bus voltage input and converts this voltage into all the different current-voltage types required to operate the auxiliary board. These electronics boards are located in the vacuum chamber near the thruster, exposing this hardware to both the vacuum and plasma environments they would encounter during a mission, with these components communicating to the flight computer through an RS-422 interface. The auxiliary board FPGA provides a 28V MOSFET switch circuit with a 20ms pulse to open or close the iodine propellant feed system latch valve. The FPGA provides a pulse width modulation (PWM) signal to a DC/DC boost converter to produce the 12-120V needed for control of the proportional flow control valve. There are eight MOSFET-switched heating circuits in the system. Heaters are 28V and located in the latch valve, PFCV, propellant tank and propellant feed lines. Both the latch valve and PFCV have thermistors built into them for temperature monitoring. There are also seven resistance temperature device (RTD) circuits on the auxiliary board that can be used to measure the propellant tank and feedline temperatures. The signals are conditioned and sent to an analog to digital converter (ADC), which is directly commanded and controlled by the FPGA.

A Dynamic Reconfigurable Hardware/Software Architecture for Object Tracking in Video Streams

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christophe Bobda

2006-10-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the design and implementation of a feature tracker on an embedded reconfigurable hardware system. Contrary to other works, the focus here is on the efficient hardware/software partitioning of the feature tracker algorithm, a viable data flow management, as well as an efficient use of memory and processor features. The implementation is done on a Xilinx Spartan 3 evaluation board and the results provided show the superiority of our implementation compared to the other works.

A Dynamic Reconfigurable Hardware/Software Architecture for Object Tracking in Video Streams

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mühlbauer Felix

2006-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the design and implementation of a feature tracker on an embedded reconfigurable hardware system. Contrary to other works, the focus here is on the efficient hardware/software partitioning of the feature tracker algorithm, a viable data flow management, as well as an efficient use of memory and processor features. The implementation is done on a Xilinx Spartan 3 evaluation board and the results provided show the superiority of our implementation compared to the other works.

A Scalable Approach for Hardware Semiformal Verification

OpenAIRE

Grimm, Tomas; Lettnin, Djones; Hübner, Michael

2018-01-01

The current verification flow of complex systems uses different engines synergistically: virtual prototyping, formal verification, simulation, emulation and FPGA prototyping. However, none is able to verify a complete architecture. Furthermore, hybrid approaches aiming at complete verification use techniques that lower the overall complexity by increasing the abstraction level. This work focuses on the verification of complex systems at the RT level to handle the hardware peculiarities. Our r...

A Heterogeneous Multi-core Architecture with a Hardware Kernel for Control Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li, Gang; Guan, Wei; Sierszecki, Krzysztof

2012-01-01

Rapid industrialisation has resulted in a demand for improved embedded control systems with features such as predictability, high processing performance and low power consumption. Software kernel implementation on a single processor is becoming more difficult to satisfy those constraints. This pa......Rapid industrialisation has resulted in a demand for improved embedded control systems with features such as predictability, high processing performance and low power consumption. Software kernel implementation on a single processor is becoming more difficult to satisfy those constraints......). Second, a heterogeneous multi-core architecture is investigated, focusing on its performance in relation to hard real-time constraints and predictable behavior. Third, the hardware implementation of HARTEX is designated to support the heterogeneous multi-core architecture. This hardware kernel has...... several advantages over a similar kernel implemented in software: higher-speed processing capability, parallel computation, and separation between the kernel itself and the applications being run. A microbenchmark has been used to compare the hardware kernel with the software kernel, and compare...

Fast Gridding on Commodity Graphics Hardware

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Thomas Sangild; Schaeffter, Tobias; Noe, Karsten Østergaard

2007-01-01

is the far most time consuming of the three steps (Table 1). Modern graphics cards (GPUs) can be utilised as a fast parallel processor provided that algorithms are reformulated in a parallel solution. The purpose of this work is to test the hypothesis, that a non-cartesian reconstruction can be efficiently...... implemented on graphics hardware giving a significant speedup compared to CPU based alternatives. We present a novel GPU implementation of the convolution step that overcomes the problems of memory bandwidth that has limited the speed of previous GPU gridding algorithms [2]....

List search hardware for interpretive software

CERN Document Server

Altaber, Jacques; Mears, B; Rausch, R

1979-01-01

Interpreted languages, e.g. BASIC, are simple to learn, easy to use, quick to modify and in general 'user-friendly'. However, a critically time consuming process during interpretation is that of list searching. A special microprogrammed device for fast list searching has therefore been developed at the SPS Division of CERN. It uses bit- sliced hardware. Fast algorithms perform search, insert and delete of a six-character name and its value in a list of up to 1000 pairs. The prototype shows retrieval times of the order of 10-30 microseconds. (11 refs).

Design of the ATLAS Phase-II hardware-based tracking processor

CERN Document Server

Poggi, Riccardo; The ATLAS collaboration

2018-01-01

The expected increase in peak luminosity of the upgraded high-luminosity LHC will force the ATLAS experiment to increase early stage trigger selection power. The agreed strategy is to implement precise hardware track reconstruction, through which sharper trigger turn-on curves can be achieved for primary single-lepton selections, while contributing to b-tagging and tau-tagging techniques as well as multi-jet rejection. The hardware-based tracking for the trigger (HTT) will use a combination of Associative Memory ASICs and FPGAs to provide the software-based trigger system with access to tracking information. In this poster, we present the requirements, architecture and projected performance of the system in terms of tracking capability, and trigger selection, based on detailed simulations.

New Directions for Hardware-assisted Trusted Computing Policies (Position Paper)

Science.gov (United States)

Bratus, Sergey; Locasto, Michael E.; Ramaswamy, Ashwin; Smith, Sean W.

The basic technological building blocks of the TCG architecture seem to be stabilizing. As a result, we believe that the focus of the Trusted Computing (TC) discipline must naturally shift from the design and implementation of the hardware root of trust (and the subsequent trust chain) to the higher-level application policies. Such policies must build on these primitives to express new sets of security goals. We highlight the relationship between enforcing these types of policies and debugging, since both activities establish the link between expected and actual application behavior. We argue that this new class of policies better fits developers' mental models of expected application behaviors, and we suggest a hardware design direction for enabling the efficient interpretation of such policies.

ISS Logistics Hardware Disposition and Metrics Validation

Science.gov (United States)

Rogers, Toneka R.

2010-01-01

I was assigned to the Logistics Division of the International Space Station (ISS)/Spacecraft Processing Directorate. The Division consists of eight NASA engineers and specialists that oversee the logistics portion of the Checkout, Assembly, and Payload Processing Services (CAPPS) contract. Boeing, their sub-contractors and the Boeing Prime contract out of Johnson Space Center, provide the Integrated Logistics Support for the ISS activities at Kennedy Space Center. Essentially they ensure that spares are available to support flight hardware processing and the associated ground support equipment (GSE). Boeing maintains a Depot for electrical, mechanical and structural modifications and/or repair capability as required. My assigned task was to learn project management techniques utilized by NASA and its' contractors to provide an efficient and effective logistics support infrastructure to the ISS program. Within the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) I was exposed to Logistics support components, such as, the NASA Spacecraft Services Depot (NSSD) capabilities, Mission Processing tools, techniques and Warehouse support issues, required for integrating Space Station elements at the Kennedy Space Center. I also supported the identification of near-term ISS Hardware and Ground Support Equipment (GSE) candidates for excessing/disposition prior to October 2010; and the validation of several Logistics Metrics used by the contractor to measure logistics support effectiveness.

PACE: A dynamic programming algorithm for hardware/software partitioning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knudsen, Peter Voigt; Madsen, Jan

1996-01-01

This paper presents the PACE partitioning algorithm which is used in the LYCOS co-synthesis system for partitioning control/dataflow graphs into hardware and software parts. The algorithm is a dynamic programming algorithm which solves both the problem of minimizing system execution time...

Digital Controller Development Methodology Based on Real-Time Simulations with LabVIEW FPGA Hardware-Software Toolset

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tommaso Caldognetto

2013-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we exemplify the use of NI Lab-VIEW FPGA as a rapid prototyping environment for digital controllers. In our power electronics laboratory, it has been successfully employed in the development, debugging, and test of different power converter controllers for microgrid applications.The paper shows how this high level programming language,together with its target hardware platforms, including CompactRIO and Single Board RIO systems, allows researchers and students to develop even complex applications in reasonable times. The availability of efficient drivers for the considered hardware platforms frees the users from the burden of low level programming. At the same time, the high level programming approach facilitates software re-utilization, allowing the laboratory know-how to steadily grow along time. Furthermore, it allows hardware-in-the-loop real-time simulation, that proved to be effective, and safe, in debugging even complex hardware and software co-designed controllers. To illustrate the effectiveness of these hardware-software toolsets and of the methodology based upon them, two case studies are

The design of a hardware testing system for the D Zero Detector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Angstadt, R.; Johnson, M.; Martin, M.; Matulik, M.; Utes, M.

1991-11-01

Testing a system as large as the D Zero data acquisition system is difficult. This paper describes the use of IBM compatible personal computers in a hardware test system that can run on any size system from an engineer's test bench to the entire subsystem in the D Zero Detector. The test system uses a PC to VME bus interface for the local testing and the Token Ring network for more global testing. This system has been implemented for several different hardware systems in D Zero

A Heterogeneous Multi-core Architecture with a Hardware Kernel for Control Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li, Gang; Guan, Wei; Sierszecki, Krzysztof

2012-01-01

Rapid industrialisation has resulted in a demand for improved embedded control systems with features such as predictability, high processing performance and low power consumption. Software kernel implementation on a single processor is becoming more difficult to satisfy those constraints....... This paper presents a multi-core architecture incorporating a hardware kernel on FPGAs, intended for high performance applications in control engineering domain. First, the hardware kernel is investigated on the basis of a component-based real-time kernel HARTEX (Hard Real-Time Executive for Control Systems...

Integration of Hardware-in-the-loop Facilities Over the Internet

Science.gov (United States)

2009-04-15

This briefing discusses a hardware in loop vehicle simulator in Warren, Michigan that provides the driver with realistic power response from the Power and Energy Systems Integration Lab over the internet.

Hardware emulation of Memristor based Ternary Content Addressable Memory

KAUST Repository

Bahloul, Mohamed A.

2017-12-13

MTCAM (Memristor Ternary Content Addressable Memory) is a special purpose storage medium in which data could be retrieved based on the stored content. Using Memristors as the main storage element provides the potential of achieving higher density and more efficient solutions than conventional methods. A key missing item in the validation of such approaches is the wide spread availability of hardware emulation platforms that can provide reliable and repeatable performance statistics. In this paper, we present a hardware MTCAM emulation based on 2-Transistors-2Memristors (2T2M) bit-cell. It builds on a bipolar memristor model with storing and fetching capabilities based on the actual current-voltage behaviour. The proposed design offers a flexible verification environment with quick design revisions, high execution speeds and powerful debugging techniques. The proposed design is modeled using VHDL and prototyped on Xilinx Virtex® FPGA.

Hardware emulation of Memristor based Ternary Content Addressable Memory

KAUST Repository

Bahloul, Mohamed A.; Naous, Rawan; Masmoudi, M.

2017-01-01

MTCAM (Memristor Ternary Content Addressable Memory) is a special purpose storage medium in which data could be retrieved based on the stored content. Using Memristors as the main storage element provides the potential of achieving higher density and more efficient solutions than conventional methods. A key missing item in the validation of such approaches is the wide spread availability of hardware emulation platforms that can provide reliable and repeatable performance statistics. In this paper, we present a hardware MTCAM emulation based on 2-Transistors-2Memristors (2T2M) bit-cell. It builds on a bipolar memristor model with storing and fetching capabilities based on the actual current-voltage behaviour. The proposed design offers a flexible verification environment with quick design revisions, high execution speeds and powerful debugging techniques. The proposed design is modeled using VHDL and prototyped on Xilinx Virtex® FPGA.

Development of Hardware and Software for Automated Ultrasonic Testing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, Sung Nam; Lee, Hee Jong; Yang, Seung Ok

2012-01-01

Nondestructive testing (NDT) for the construction and operating of NPPs plays an important role in confirming the integrity of the NPPs. Especially, Automated ultrasonic testing (AUT) is one of the primary nondestructive examination methods for in-service inspection of the welding parts in major components in NPPs. AUT is a reliable nondestructive testing because the data of AUT are saved and reviewed with other examiners. Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power-Central Research Institute (KHNP-CRI) has developed an automated ultrasonic testing (AUT) system based on a high speed pulser-receiver. In combination with the designed software and hardware architecture, this new system permits user configurations for a wide range of user-specific applications through fully automated inspections using compact portable systems with up to eight channels. This paper gives an overview of hardware (H/W) and software (S/W) for the AUT system to inspect welds in NPPs

Design Tools for Reconfigurable Hardware in Orbit (RHinO)

Science.gov (United States)

French, Mathew; Graham, Paul; Wirthlin, Michael; Larchev, Gregory; Bellows, Peter; Schott, Brian

2004-01-01

The Reconfigurable Hardware in Orbit (RHinO) project is focused on creating a set of design tools that facilitate and automate design techniques for reconfigurable computing in space, using SRAM-based field-programmable-gate-array (FPGA) technology. These tools leverage an established FPGA design environment and focus primarily on space effects mitigation and power optimization. The project is creating software to automatically test and evaluate the single-event-upsets (SEUs) sensitivities of an FPGA design and insert mitigation techniques. Extensions into the tool suite will also allow evolvable algorithm techniques to reconfigure around single-event-latchup (SEL) events. In the power domain, tools are being created for dynamic power visualiization and optimization. Thus, this technology seeks to enable the use of Reconfigurable Hardware in Orbit, via an integrated design tool-suite aiming to reduce risk, cost, and design time of multimission reconfigurable space processors using SRAM-based FPGAs.

Handbook of hardware/software codesign

CERN Document Server

Teich, Jürgen

2017-01-01

This handbook presents fundamental knowledge on the hardware/software (HW/SW) codesign methodology. Contributing expert authors look at key techniques in the design flow as well as selected codesign tools and design environments, building on basic knowledge to consider the latest techniques. The book enables readers to gain real benefits from the HW/SW codesign methodology through explanations and case studies which demonstrate its usefulness. Readers are invited to follow the progress of design techniques through this work, which assists readers in following current research directions and learning about state-of-the-art techniques. Students and researchers will appreciate the wide spectrum of subjects that belong to the design methodology from this handbook. .

Hardware Support for Dynamic Languages

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schleuniger, Pascal; Karlsson, Sven; Probst, Christian W.

2011-01-01

In recent years, dynamic programming languages have enjoyed increasing popularity. For example, JavaScript has become one of the most popular programming languages on the web. As the complexity of web applications is growing, compute-intensive workloads are increasingly handed off to the client...... side. While a lot of effort is put in increasing the performance of web browsers, we aim for multicore systems with dedicated cores to effectively support dynamic languages. We have designed Tinuso, a highly flexible core for experimentation that is optimized for high performance when implemented...... on FPGA. We composed a scalable multicore configuration where we study how hardware support for software speculation can be used to increase the performance of dynamic languages....

Spectral-element Seismic Wave Propagation on CUDA/OpenCL Hardware Accelerators

Science.gov (United States)

Peter, D. B.; Videau, B.; Pouget, K.; Komatitsch, D.

2015-12-01

Seismic wave propagation codes are essential tools to investigate a variety of wave phenomena in the Earth. Furthermore, they can now be used for seismic full-waveform inversions in regional- and global-scale adjoint tomography. Although these seismic wave propagation solvers are crucial ingredients to improve the resolution of tomographic images to answer important questions about the nature of Earth's internal processes and subsurface structure, their practical application is often limited due to high computational costs. They thus need high-performance computing (HPC) facilities to improving the current state of knowledge. At present, numerous large HPC systems embed many-core architectures such as graphics processing units (GPUs) to enhance numerical performance. Such hardware accelerators can be programmed using either the CUDA programming environment or the OpenCL language standard. CUDA software development targets NVIDIA graphic cards while OpenCL was adopted by additional hardware accelerators, like e.g. AMD graphic cards, ARM-based processors as well as Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors. For seismic wave propagation simulations using the open-source spectral-element code package SPECFEM3D_GLOBE, we incorporated an automatic source-to-source code generation tool (BOAST) which allows us to use meta-programming of all computational kernels for forward and adjoint runs. Using our BOAST kernels, we generate optimized source code for both CUDA and OpenCL languages within the source code package. Thus, seismic wave simulations are able now to fully utilize CUDA and OpenCL hardware accelerators. We show benchmarks of forward seismic wave propagation simulations using SPECFEM3D_GLOBE on CUDA/OpenCL GPUs, validating results and comparing performances for different simulations and hardware usages.

Reconfigurable ATCA hardware for plasma control and data acquisition

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Carvalho, B.B., E-mail: bernardo@ipfn.ist.utl.p [Associacao EURATOM/IST Instituto de Plasmas e Fusao Nuclear, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa (Portugal); Batista, A.J.N.; Correia, M.; Neto, A.; Fernandes, H.; Goncalves, B.; Sousa, J. [Associacao EURATOM/IST Instituto de Plasmas e Fusao Nuclear, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa (Portugal)

2010-07-15

The IST/EURATOM Association is developing a new generation of control and data acquisition hardware for fusion experiments based on the ATCA architecture. This emerging open standard offers a significantly higher data throughput over a reliable High Availability (HA) mechanical and electrical platform. One of this ATCA boards has 32 galvanically isolated ADC channels (18 bit) each mounted on a swappable plug-in card, 8 DAC channels (16 bit), 8 digital I/O channels and embeds a high performance XILINX Virtex 4 family field programmable gate array (FPGA). The specific modular and configurable hardware design enables adaptable utilization of the board in dissimilar applications. The first configuration, specially developed for tokamak plasma Vertical Stabilization, consists of a Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) controller that is capable of feedback loops faster than 1 ms using a multitude of input signals fed from different boards communicating through the Aurora{sup TM} point-to-point protocol. Massive parallel algorithms can be implemented on the FPGA either with programmed digital logic, using a HDL hardware description language, or within its internal silicon PowerPC{sup TM} running a full fledged real-time operating system. The second board configuration is dedicated for transient recording of the entire 32 channels at 2 MSamples/s to the on-board 512 MB DDR2 memory. Signal data retrieval is accelerated by a DMA-driven PCI Express{sup TM} x1 Interface to the ATCA system controller, providing an overall throughput in excess of 100 MB/s. This paper illustrates these developments and discusses possible configurations for foreseen applications.

Synchronous ultrasonic Doppler imaging of magnetic microparticles in biological tissues

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pyshnyi, Michael Ph. [Institute of Biochemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Kosygin St. 4, Moscow 119991 (Russian Federation); Kuznetsov, Oleg A. [Institute of Biochemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Kosygin St. 4, Moscow 119991 (Russian Federation)], E-mail: kuznetsov_oa@yahoo.com; Pyshnaya, Svetlana V.; Nechitailo, Galina S.; Kuznetsov, Anatoly A. [Institute of Biochemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Kosygin St. 4, Moscow 119991 (Russian Federation)

2009-05-15

We considered applicability of acoustic imaging technology for the detection of magnetic microparticles and nanoparticles inside soft biological tissues. Such particles are widely used for magnetically targeted drug delivery and magnetic hyperthermia. We developed a new method of ultrasonic synchronous tissue Doppler imaging with magnetic modulation for in vitro and in vivo detection and visualization of magnetic ultradisperse objects in soft tissues. Prototype hardware with appropriate software was produced and the method was successfully tested on magnetic microparticles injected into an excised pig liver.

Synchronous ultrasonic Doppler imaging of magnetic microparticles in biological tissues

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pyshnyi, Michael Ph.; Kuznetsov, Oleg A.; Pyshnaya, Svetlana V.; Nechitailo, Galina S.; Kuznetsov, Anatoly A.

2009-01-01

We considered applicability of acoustic imaging technology for the detection of magnetic microparticles and nanoparticles inside soft biological tissues. Such particles are widely used for magnetically targeted drug delivery and magnetic hyperthermia. We developed a new method of ultrasonic synchronous tissue Doppler imaging with magnetic modulation for in vitro and in vivo detection and visualization of magnetic ultradisperse objects in soft tissues. Prototype hardware with appropriate software was produced and the method was successfully tested on magnetic microparticles injected into an excised pig liver.

Hardware Implementation of Lossless Adaptive and Scalable Hyperspectral Data Compression for Space

Science.gov (United States)

Aranki, Nazeeh; Keymeulen, Didier; Bakhshi, Alireza; Klimesh, Matthew

2009-01-01

On-board lossless hyperspectral data compression reduces data volume in order to meet NASA and DoD limited downlink capabilities. The technique also improves signature extraction, object recognition and feature classification capabilities by providing exact reconstructed data on constrained downlink resources. At JPL a novel, adaptive and predictive technique for lossless compression of hyperspectral data was recently developed. This technique uses an adaptive filtering method and achieves a combination of low complexity and compression effectiveness that far exceeds state-of-the-art techniques currently in use. The JPL-developed 'Fast Lossless' algorithm requires no training data or other specific information about the nature of the spectral bands for a fixed instrument dynamic range. It is of low computational complexity and thus well-suited for implementation in hardware. A modified form of the algorithm that is better suited for data from pushbroom instruments is generally appropriate for flight implementation. A scalable field programmable gate array (FPGA) hardware implementation was developed. The FPGA implementation achieves a throughput performance of 58 Msamples/sec, which can be increased to over 100 Msamples/sec in a parallel implementation that uses twice the hardware resources This paper describes the hardware implementation of the 'Modified Fast Lossless' compression algorithm on an FPGA. The FPGA implementation targets the current state-of-the-art FPGAs (Xilinx Virtex IV and V families) and compresses one sample every clock cycle to provide a fast and practical real-time solution for space applications.

Fundamental Space Biology-1: HHR and Incubator for ISS Space Life Sciences

Science.gov (United States)

Kirven-Brooks, M.; Fahlen, T.; Sato, K.; Reiss-Bubenheim, D.

The Space Station Biological Research Project (SSBRP) is developing an Incubator and a Habitat Holding Rack (HHR) to support life science experiments aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The HHR provides for cooling and power needs, and supports data transfer (including telemetry, commanding, video processing, Ethernet), video compression, and data and command storage). The Incubator is a habitat that provides for controlled temperature between +4 C and +45 C and air circulation. It has a set of connector ports for power, analog and digital sensors, and video pass-through to support experiment-unique hardware within the Incubator specimen chamber. The Incubator exchanges air with the ISS cabin. The Fundamental Space Biology-1 (FSB-1) Project will be delivering, the HHR and two Incubators to ISS. The two inaugural experiments to be conducted on ISS using this hardware will investigate the biological effects of the space environment on two model organisms, Saccharomyces cerevisiae (S. cerevisiae; yeast) and Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans; nematode). The {M}odel {Y}east {C}ultures {o}n {S}tation (MYCOS) experiment will support examination of the effect of microgravity and cosmic radiation on yeast biology. In the second series of experiments during the same increment, the effects of microgravity and space environment radiation on C. elegans will be examined. The {F}undamental Space Biology {I}ncubator {E}xperiment {R}esearch using {C}. {e}legans (FIERCE) study is designed to support a long duration, multi-generational study of nematodes. FIERCE on-orbit science operations will include video monitoring, sub-culturing and periodic fixation and freezing of samples. For both experiments, investigators will be solicited via an International Space Life Sciences Research Announcement. In the near future, the Centrifuge Accommodation Module will be delivered to ISS, which will house the SSBRP 2.5 m Centrifuge Rotor. The Incubator can be placed onto the Centrifuge

Biological anti-TNF drugs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Prado, Mônica Simon; Bendtzen, Klaus; Andrade, Luis Eduardo Coelho

2017-01-01

practice shows a significant percentage of individuals who do not exhibit the desired response. Loss of therapeutic benefit after initial successful response is designated secondary failure. Immune-biological agents are not self-antigens and are therefore potentially immunogenic. Secondary failure...... is frequently caused by antibodies against immune-biologicals, known as anti-drug antibodies (ADA). ADA that neutralize circulating immune-biologicals and/or promote their clearance can reduce treatment efficacy. Furthermore, ADA can induce adverse events by diverse immunological mechanisms. This review...... provides a comprehensive overview of ADA in rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with anti-TNF immune-biologicals, and explores the concept of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) as an effective strategy to improve therapeutic management. Expert opinion: Monitoring circulating ADA and therapeutic immune-biological...

Optimized design of embedded DSP system hardware supporting complex algorithms

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yanhua; Wang, Xiangjun; Zhou, Xinling

2003-09-01

The paper presents an optimized design method for a flexible and economical embedded DSP system that can implement complex processing algorithms as biometric recognition, real-time image processing, etc. It consists of a floating-point DSP, 512 Kbytes data RAM, 1 Mbytes FLASH program memory, a CPLD for achieving flexible logic control of input channel and a RS-485 transceiver for local network communication. Because of employing a high performance-price ratio DSP TMS320C6712 and a large FLASH in the design, this system permits loading and performing complex algorithms with little algorithm optimization and code reduction. The CPLD provides flexible logic control for the whole DSP board, especially in input channel, and allows convenient interface between different sensors and DSP system. The transceiver circuit can transfer data between DSP and host computer. In the paper, some key technologies are also introduced which make the whole system work efficiently. Because of the characters referred above, the hardware is a perfect flat for multi-channel data collection, image processing, and other signal processing with high performance and adaptability. The application section of this paper presents how this hardware is adapted for the biometric identification system with high identification precision. The result reveals that this hardware is easy to interface with a CMOS imager and is capable of carrying out complex biometric identification algorithms, which require real-time process.

Intrinsic Hardware Evolution for the Design and Reconfiguration of Analog Speed Controllers for a DC Motor

Science.gov (United States)

Gwaltney, David A.; Ferguson, Michael I.

2003-01-01

Evolvable hardware provides the capability to evolve analog circuits to produce amplifier and filter functions. Conventional analog controller designs employ these same functions. Analog controllers for the control of the shaft speed of a DC motor are evolved on an evolvable hardware platform utilizing a second generation Field Programmable Transistor Array (FPTA2). The performance of an evolved controller is compared to that of a conventional proportional-integral (PI) controller. It is shown that hardware evolution is able to create a compact design that provides good performance, while using considerably less functional electronic components than the conventional design. Additionally, the use of hardware evolution to provide fault tolerance by reconfiguring the design is explored. Experimental results are presented showing that significant recovery of capability can be made in the face of damaging induced faults.

Hardware design for the production of NTD silicon in the Advanced Test Reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schell, M.J.

1984-01-01

The Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) is a 250-MW(t) materials testing and nuclear research facility operated for EG and G Idaho, Inc. The unique capabilities of the ATR can be readily adapted via hardware to produce large quantitities of large-diameter (20 cm plus) doped silicon crystals. Conservative estimates place the production capability in excess of 15 metric tons per year. The proposed hardware is based upon a closed-loop, hydraulic-shuttle tube system

Hardware in the loop simulation test platform of fuel cell backup system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ma Tiancai

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Based on an analysis of voltage mechanistic model, a real-time simulation model of the proton exchange membrane (PEM fuel cell backup system is developed, and verified by the measurable experiment data. The method of online parameters identification for the model is also improved. Based on the software LabVIEW/VeriStand real-time environment and the PXI Express hardware system, the PEM fuel cell system controller hardware in the loop (HIL simulation plat-form is established. Controller simulation test results showed the accuracy of HIL simulation platform.

Information technologies in optimization process of monitoring of software and hardware status

Science.gov (United States)

Nikitin, P. V.; Savinov, A. N.; Bazhenov, R. I.; Ryabov, I. V.

2018-05-01

The article describes a model of a hardware and software monitoring system for a large company that provides customers with software as a service (SaaS solution) using information technology. The main functions of the monitoring system are: provision of up-todate data for analyzing the state of the IT infrastructure, rapid detection of the fault and its effective elimination. The main risks associated with the provision of these services are described; the comparative characteristics of the software are given; author's methods of monitoring the status of software and hardware are proposed.

[A novel biologic electricity signal measurement based on neuron chip].

Science.gov (United States)

Lei, Yinsheng; Wang, Mingshi; Sun, Tongjing; Zhu, Qiang; Qin, Ran

2006-06-01

Neuron chip is a multiprocessor with three pipeline CPU; its communication protocol and control processor are integrated in effect to carry out the function of communication, control, attemper, I/O, etc. A novel biologic electronic signal measurement network system is composed of intelligent measurement nodes with neuron chip at the core. In this study, the electronic signals such as ECG, EEG, EMG and BOS can be synthetically measured by those intelligent nodes, and some valuable diagnostic messages are found. Wavelet transform is employed in this system to analyze various biologic electronic signals due to its strong time-frequency ability of decomposing signal local character. Better effect is gained. This paper introduces the hardware structure of network and intelligent measurement node, the measurement theory and the signal figure of data acquisition and processing.

Hardware Commissioning of the LHC Quality Assurance, follow-up and storing of the test results

CERN Document Server

Barbero, E

2005-01-01

During the commissioning of the LHC technical systems [1] (the so-called Hardware Commissioning) a large number of test sequences and procedures will be applied to the different systems and components of the accelerator. All the information related to the coordination of the Hardware Commissioning will be structured and managed towards the final objective of integrating all the data produced in the Manufacturing and Test Folders (MTF) [2] at both equipment level (i.e. individual system tests) and commissioning level (i.e.Hardware Commissioning). The MTF for Hardware Commissioning will be mainly used to archive the results of the tests (i.e. status, parameters and waveforms) which will be used later as reference during the operation with beam. Also it is an indispensable tool for monitoring the progress of the different tests and ensuring the proper follow-up of the procedures described in the engineering specifications; in this way, the Quality Assurance process will be completed. This paper describes the spe...

Towards Shop Floor Hardware Reconfiguration for Industrial Collaborative Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schou, Casper; Madsen, Ole

2016-01-01

In this paper we propose a roadmap for hardware reconfiguration of industrial collaborative robots. As a flexible resource, the collaborative robot will often need transitioning to a new task. Our goal is, that this transitioning should be done by the shop floor operators, not highly specialized...

Hardware Transactional Memory Optimization Guidelines, Applied to Ordered Maps

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bonnichsen, Lars Frydendal; Probst, Christian W.; Karlsson, Sven

2015-01-01

efficiently requires reasoning about those differences. In this paper we present 5 guidelines for applying hardware transactional memory efficiently, and apply the guidelines to BT-trees, a concurrent ordered map. Evaluating BT-trees on standard benchmarks shows that they are up to 5.3 times faster than...

APRON: A Cellular Processor Array Simulation and Hardware Design Tool

Science.gov (United States)

Barr, David R. W.; Dudek, Piotr

2009-12-01

We present a software environment for the efficient simulation of cellular processor arrays (CPAs). This software (APRON) is used to explore algorithms that are designed for massively parallel fine-grained processor arrays, topographic multilayer neural networks, vision chips with SIMD processor arrays, and related architectures. The software uses a highly optimised core combined with a flexible compiler to provide the user with tools for the design of new processor array hardware architectures and the emulation of existing devices. We present performance benchmarks for the software processor array implemented on standard commodity microprocessors. APRON can be configured to use additional processing hardware if necessary and can be used as a complete graphical user interface and development environment for new or existing CPA systems, allowing more users to develop algorithms for CPA systems.

APRON: A Cellular Processor Array Simulation and Hardware Design Tool

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David R. W. Barr

2009-01-01

Full Text Available We present a software environment for the efficient simulation of cellular processor arrays (CPAs. This software (APRON is used to explore algorithms that are designed for massively parallel fine-grained processor arrays, topographic multilayer neural networks, vision chips with SIMD processor arrays, and related architectures. The software uses a highly optimised core combined with a flexible compiler to provide the user with tools for the design of new processor array hardware architectures and the emulation of existing devices. We present performance benchmarks for the software processor array implemented on standard commodity microprocessors. APRON can be configured to use additional processing hardware if necessary and can be used as a complete graphical user interface and development environment for new or existing CPA systems, allowing more users to develop algorithms for CPA systems.

Fast image interpolation for motion estimation using graphics hardware

Science.gov (United States)

Kelly, Francis; Kokaram, Anil

2004-05-01

Motion estimation and compensation is the key to high quality video coding. Block matching motion estimation is used in most video codecs, including MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.263 and H.26L. Motion estimation is also a key component in the digital restoration of archived video and for post-production and special effects in the movie industry. Sub-pixel accurate motion vectors can improve the quality of the vector field and lead to more efficient video coding. However sub-pixel accuracy requires interpolation of the image data. Image interpolation is a key requirement of many image processing algorithms. Often interpolation can be a bottleneck in these applications, especially in motion estimation due to the large number pixels involved. In this paper we propose using commodity computer graphics hardware for fast image interpolation. We use the full search block matching algorithm to illustrate the problems and limitations of using graphics hardware in this way.

Proposed hardware architectures of particle filter for object tracking

Science.gov (United States)

Abd El-Halym, Howida A.; Mahmoud, Imbaby Ismail; Habib, SED

2012-12-01

In this article, efficient hardware architectures for particle filter (PF) are presented. We propose three different architectures for Sequential Importance Resampling Filter (SIRF) implementation. The first architecture is a two-step sequential PF machine, where particle sampling, weight, and output calculations are carried out in parallel during the first step followed by sequential resampling in the second step. For the weight computation step, a piecewise linear function is used instead of the classical exponential function. This decreases the complexity of the architecture without degrading the results. The second architecture speeds up the resampling step via a parallel, rather than a serial, architecture. This second architecture targets a balance between hardware resources and the speed of operation. The third architecture implements the SIRF as a distributed PF composed of several processing elements and central unit. All the proposed architectures are captured using VHDL synthesized using Xilinx environment, and verified using the ModelSim simulator. Synthesis results confirmed the resource reduction and speed up advantages of our architectures.

Optimizing memory-bound SYMV kernel on GPU hardware accelerators

KAUST Repository

Abdelfattah, Ahmad

2013-01-01

Hardware accelerators are becoming ubiquitous high performance scientific computing. They are capable of delivering an unprecedented level of concurrent execution contexts. High-level programming language extensions (e.g., CUDA), profiling tools (e.g., PAPI-CUDA, CUDA Profiler) are paramount to improve productivity, while effectively exploiting the underlying hardware. We present an optimized numerical kernel for computing the symmetric matrix-vector product on nVidia Fermi GPUs. Due to its inherent memory-bound nature, this kernel is very critical in the tridiagonalization of a symmetric dense matrix, which is a preprocessing step to calculate the eigenpairs. Using a novel design to address the irregular memory accesses by hiding latency and increasing bandwidth, our preliminary asymptotic results show 3.5x and 2.5x fold speedups over the similar CUBLAS 4.0 kernel, and 7-8% and 30% fold improvement over the Matrix Algebra on GPU and Multicore Architectures (MAGMA) library in single and double precision arithmetics, respectively. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.

Exploiting current-generation graphics hardware for synthetic-scene generation

Science.gov (United States)

Tanner, Michael A.; Keen, Wayne A.

2010-04-01

Increasing seeker frame rate and pixel count, as well as the demand for higher levels of scene fidelity, have driven scene generation software for hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) and software-in-the-loop (SWIL) testing to higher levels of parallelization. Because modern PC graphics cards provide multiple computational cores (240 shader cores for a current NVIDIA Corporation GeForce and Quadro cards), implementation of phenomenology codes on graphics processing units (GPUs) offers significant potential for simultaneous enhancement of simulation frame rate and fidelity. To take advantage of this potential requires algorithm implementation that is structured to minimize data transfers between the central processing unit (CPU) and the GPU. In this paper, preliminary methodologies developed at the Kinetic Hardware In-The-Loop Simulator (KHILS) will be presented. Included in this paper will be various language tradeoffs between conventional shader programming, Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) and Open Computing Language (OpenCL), including performance trades and possible pathways for future tool development.

Treatment alternatives for non-fuel-bearing hardware

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ross, W.A.; Clark, L.L.; Oma, K.H.

1987-01-01

This evaluation compared four alternatives for the treatment or processing of non-fuel bearing hardware (NFBH) to reduce its volume and prepare it for disposal. These treatment alternatives are: shredding; shredding and low pressure compaction; shredding and supercompaction; and melting. These alternatives are compared on the basis of system costs, waste form characteristics, and process considerations. The study recommends that melting and supercompaction alternatives be further considered and that additional testing be conducted for these two alternatives

Development of the Biology Card Sorting Task to Measure Conceptual Expertise in Biology

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Julia I.; Combs, Elijah D.; Nagami, Paul H.; Alto, Valerie M.; Goh, Henry G.; Gourdet, Muryam A. A.; Hough, Christina M.; Nickell, Ashley E.; Peer, Adrian G.; Coley, John D.; Tanner, Kimberly D.

2013-01-01

There are widespread aspirations to focus undergraduate biology education on teaching students to think conceptually like biologists; however, there is a dearth of assessment tools designed to measure progress from novice to expert biological conceptual thinking. We present the development of a novel assessment tool, the Biology Card Sorting Task, designed to probe how individuals organize their conceptual knowledge of biology. While modeled on tasks from cognitive psychology, this task is unique in its design to test two hypothesized conceptual frameworks for the organization of biological knowledge: 1) a surface feature organization focused on organism type and 2) a deep feature organization focused on fundamental biological concepts. In this initial investigation of the Biology Card Sorting Task, each of six analytical measures showed statistically significant differences when used to compare the card sorting results of putative biological experts (biology faculty) and novices (non–biology major undergraduates). Consistently, biology faculty appeared to sort based on hypothesized deep features, while non–biology majors appeared to sort based on either surface features or nonhypothesized organizational frameworks. Results suggest that this novel task is robust in distinguishing populations of biology experts and biology novices and may be an adaptable tool for tracking emerging biology conceptual expertise. PMID:24297290

Control theory meets synthetic biology.

Science.gov (United States)

Del Vecchio, Domitilla; Dy, Aaron J; Qian, Yili

2016-07-01

The past several years have witnessed an increased presence of control theoretic concepts in synthetic biology. This review presents an organized summary of how these control design concepts have been applied to tackle a variety of problems faced when building synthetic biomolecular circuits in living cells. In particular, we describe success stories that demonstrate how simple or more elaborate control design methods can be used to make the behaviour of synthetic genetic circuits within a single cell or across a cell population more reliable, predictable and robust to perturbations. The description especially highlights technical challenges that uniquely arise from the need to implement control designs within a new hardware setting, along with implemented or proposed solutions. Some engineering solutions employing complex feedback control schemes are also described, which, however, still require a deeper theoretical analysis of stability, performance and robustness properties. Overall, this paper should help synthetic biologists become familiar with feedback control concepts as they can be used in their application area. At the same time, it should provide some domain knowledge to control theorists who wish to enter the rising and exciting field of synthetic biology. © 2016 The Author(s).

An assessment of the transportation costs of shipping non-fuel assembly hardware to FWMS facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shappert, L.B.; Joy, D.S.; Johnson, P.E.; Danese, F.L.; Best, R.E.

1991-01-01

This study examines the cost of using Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) Initiative I casks for transporting 62,700 MTU of spent fuel plus associated non-fuel assembly hardware (NFAH) between reactor sites and either a monitored retrievable storage (MRS) or a repository facility. The study further considers the benefits of increasing the cell size of the Initiative I BWR cask baskets to accommodate the fuel plus channels (which also would decrease the capacity of the cask to carry BWR fuel without channels) and the use of a commercial, non-spent-fuel cask to carry compacted NFAH that could not be shipped integrally. Costs that are developed involve transportation charges, capital costs for casks, and canning costs of NFAH that have been separated from the fuel. The results indicate that significant cost savings are possible if NFAH is accepted into the Federal Waste Management System (FWMS) that is either integral with the spent fuel, or consolidated if it has been separated. Shipment of unconsolidated NFAH is very expensive. Transportation costs for shipping to a western repository are approximately 50 to 75% higher than the costs for shipping to an eastern MRS

Adaptive Learning Rule for Hardware-based Deep Neural Networks Using Electronic Synapse Devices

OpenAIRE

Lim, Suhwan; Bae, Jong-Ho; Eum, Jai-Ho; Lee, Sungtae; Kim, Chul-Heung; Kwon, Dongseok; Park, Byung-Gook; Lee, Jong-Ho

2017-01-01

In this paper, we propose a learning rule based on a back-propagation (BP) algorithm that can be applied to a hardware-based deep neural network (HW-DNN) using electronic devices that exhibit discrete and limited conductance characteristics. This adaptive learning rule, which enables forward, backward propagation, as well as weight updates in hardware, is helpful during the implementation of power-efficient and high-speed deep neural networks. In simulations using a three-layer perceptron net...

Modelling and hardware-in-the-loop simulation of the blowout tract components for passenger compartment air conditioning of motor vehicles; Modellierung und Hardware-in-the-Loop-Simulation der Komponenten des Ausblastraktes zur Kraftfahrzeuginnenraumklimatisierung

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Michalek, David

2009-07-01

The author investigated the modelling and hardware-in-the-loop simulation of components of the blowout tract of motor car air conditioning systems. The control systems and air conditioning systems are gone into, from the air entering the car to the control systems and sensors for monitoring state variables. The function of the control equipment hardware and software was to be analyzed reproducibly in order to save time and cost. The models were verified using available data. Validation criteria were established for the hardware-in-the-loop simulator. On the basis of selected operating conditions, the performance of the air conditioning control unit inside the vehicle was compared with the simulation results and was evaluated on the basis of the established criteria. (orig.)

Open source hard- and software: Using Arduino boards to keep old hardware running

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Faugel, Helmut; Bobkov, Volodymyr

2013-01-01

The ASDEX Upgrade tokamak went into operation in 1991 with a proposed lifetime of 10 years. Due to major modifications ASDEX Upgrade is still in operation. Infrastructure like data acquisition, workstations, etc. is being modernized, interfaces like RS-232 are vanishing and new interfaces are being introduced. This leads to the necessity to adapt old hardware. Most of the microcontrollers used in the old hardware do not offer any support of the new interfaces and have to be replaced. A simple and efficient way is to replace them with open hardware microcontroller boards like the Arduino. These boards are based on 8-bit RISC microcontrollers and offer a software development environment with a large number of libraries. In this paper the use of Arduino boards for replacing the position unit, the stub tuner interface and its use controlling a direct digital synthesizer (DDS) with phase control capability are shown

Open source hard- and software: Using Arduino boards to keep old hardware running

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Faugel, Helmut [Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, EURATOM Association, Garching (Germany); Bobkov, Volodymyr [Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, EURATOM Association, Garching (Germany)

2013-10-15

The ASDEX Upgrade tokamak went into operation in 1991 with a proposed lifetime of 10 years. Due to major modifications ASDEX Upgrade is still in operation. Infrastructure like data acquisition, workstations, etc. is being modernized, interfaces like RS-232 are vanishing and new interfaces are being introduced. This leads to the necessity to adapt old hardware. Most of the microcontrollers used in the old hardware do not offer any support of the new interfaces and have to be replaced. A simple and efficient way is to replace them with open hardware microcontroller boards like the Arduino. These boards are based on 8-bit RISC microcontrollers and offer a software development environment with a large number of libraries. In this paper the use of Arduino boards for replacing the position unit, the stub tuner interface and its use controlling a direct digital synthesizer (DDS) with phase control capability are shown.

Hardware for computing the integral image

OpenAIRE

Fernández-Berni, J.; Rodríguez-Vázquez, Ángel; Río, Rocío del; Carmona-Galán, R.

2015-01-01

La presente invención, según se expresa en el enunciado de esta memoria descriptiva, consiste en hardware de señal mixta para cómputo de la imagen integral en el plano focal mediante una agrupación de celdas básicas de sensado-procesamiento cuya interconexión puede ser reconfigurada mediante circuitería periférica que hace posible una implementación muy eficiente de una tarea de procesamiento muy útil en visión artificial como es el cálculo de la imagen integral en escenarios tales como monit...

Hardware-Efficient Design of Real-Time Profile Shape Matching Stereo Vision Algorithm on FPGA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Beau Tippetts

2014-01-01

Full Text Available A variety of platforms, such as micro-unmanned vehicles, are limited in the amount of computational hardware they can support due to weight and power constraints. An efficient stereo vision algorithm implemented on an FPGA would be able to minimize payload and power consumption in microunmanned vehicles, while providing 3D information and still leaving computational resources available for other processing tasks. This work presents a hardware design of the efficient profile shape matching stereo vision algorithm. Hardware resource usage is presented for the targeted micro-UV platform, Helio-copter, that uses the Xilinx Virtex 4 FX60 FPGA. Less than a fifth of the resources on this FGPA were used to produce dense disparity maps for image sizes up to 450 × 375, with the ability to scale up easily by increasing BRAM usage. A comparison is given of accuracy, speed performance, and resource usage of a census transform-based stereo vision FPGA implementation by Jin et al. Results show that the profile shape matching algorithm is an efficient real-time stereo vision algorithm for hardware implementation for resource limited systems such as microunmanned vehicles.

Hardware design and implementation of the closed-orbit feedback system at APS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barr, D.; Chung, Youngjoo.

1996-01-01

The Advanced Photon Source (APS) storage ring will utilize a closed-orbit feedback system in order to produce a more stable beam. The specified orbit measurement resolution is 25 microns for global feedback and 1 micron for local feedback. The system will sample at 4 kHz and provide a correction bandwidth of 100 Hz. At this bandwidth, standard rf BPMs will provide a resolution of 0.7 micron, while specialized miniature BPMs positioned on either side of the insertion devices for local feedback will provide a resolution of 0.2 micron (1). The measured BPM noise floor for standard BPMs is 0.06 micron per root hertz mA. Such a system has been designed, simulated, and tested on a small scale (2). This paper covers the actual hardware design and layout of the entire closed-loop system. This includes commercial hardware components, in addition to many components designed and built in-house. The paper will investigate the large-scale workings of all these devices, as well as an overall view of each piece of hardware used

Bioregenerative Life Support System Research as part of the DLR EDEN Initiative

Science.gov (United States)

Bamsey, Matthew; Schubert, Daniel; Zabel, Paul; Poulet, Lucie; Zeidler, Conrad

In 2011, the DLR Institute of Space Systems launched a research initiative called EDEN - Evolution and Design of Environmentally-closed Nutrition-Sources. The research initiative focuses on bioregenerative life support systems, especially greenhouse modules, and technologies for future crewed vehicles. The EDEN initiative comprises several projects with respect to space research, ground testing and spin-offs. In 2014, EDEN’s new laboratory officially opened. This new biological cleanroom laboratory comprises several plant growth chambers incorporating a number of novel controlled environment agriculture technologies. This laboratory will be the nucleus for a variety of plant cultivation experiments within closed environments. The utilized technologies are being advanced using the pull of space technology and include such items as stacked growth systems, PAR-specific LEDs, intracanopy lighting, aeroponic nutrient delivery systems and ion-selective nutrient sensors. The driver of maximizing biomass output per unit volume and energy has much application in future bioregenerative life support systems but can also provide benefit terrestrially. The EDEN laboratory also includes several specially constructed chambers for advancing models addressing the interaction between bioregenerative and physical-chemical life support systems. The EDEN team is presently developing designs for containerized greenhouse modules. One module is planned for deployment to the German Antarctic Station, Neumayer III. The shipping container based system will provide supplementation to the overwintering crew’s diet, provide psychological benefit while at the same time advancing the technology and operational readiness of harsh environment plant production systems. In addition to hardware development, the EDEN team has participated in several early phase designs such as for the ESA Greenhouse Module for Space System and for large-scale vertical farming. These studies often utilize the

Highlights of contractor initiatives in quality enhancement and productivity improvement

Science.gov (United States)

1986-01-01

The NASA/Contractor Team efforts are presented as part of NASA's continuing effort to facilitate the sharing of quality and productivity improvement ideas among its contractors. This complilation is not meant to be a comprehensive review of contractor initiative nor does it necessarily express NASA's views. The submissions represent samples from a general survey, and were not edited by NASA. The efforts are examples of quality and productivity programs in private industry, and as such, highlight company efforts in individual areas. Topics range from modernization of equipment, hardware, and technology to management of human resources. Of particular interest are contractor initiatives which deal with measurement and evaluation data pertaining to quality and productivity performance.

Transform coding for hardware-accelerated volume rendering.

Science.gov (United States)

Fout, Nathaniel; Ma, Kwan-Liu

2007-01-01

Hardware-accelerated volume rendering using the GPU is now the standard approach for real-time volume rendering, although limited graphics memory can present a problem when rendering large volume data sets. Volumetric compression in which the decompression is coupled to rendering has been shown to be an effective solution to this problem; however, most existing techniques were developed in the context of software volume rendering, and all but the simplest approaches are prohibitive in a real-time hardware-accelerated volume rendering context. In this paper we present a novel block-based transform coding scheme designed specifically with real-time volume rendering in mind, such that the decompression is fast without sacrificing compression quality. This is made possible by consolidating the inverse transform with dequantization in such a way as to allow most of the reprojection to be precomputed. Furthermore, we take advantage of the freedom afforded by off-line compression in order to optimize the encoding as much as possible while hiding this complexity from the decoder. In this context we develop a new block classification scheme which allows us to preserve perceptually important features in the compression. The result of this work is an asymmetric transform coding scheme that allows very large volumes to be compressed and then decompressed in real-time while rendering on the GPU.

Radioisotope thermoelectric generator licensed hardware package and certification tests

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goldmann, L.H.; Averette, H.S.

1994-01-01

This paper presents the Licensed Hardware package and the Certification Test portions of the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator Transportation System. This package has been designed to meet those portions of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR 71) relating to ''Type B'' shipments of radioactive materials. The detailed information for the anticipated license is presented in the safety analysis report for packaging, which is now in process and undergoing necessary reviews. As part of the licensing process, a full-size Certification Test Article unit, which has modifications slightly different than the Licensed Hardware or production shipping units, is used for testing. Dimensional checks of the Certification Test Article were made at the manufacturing facility. Leak testing and drop testing were done at the 300 Area of the US Department of Energy's Hanford Site near Richland, Washington. The hardware includes independent double containments to prevent the environmental spread of 238 Pu, impact limiting devices to protect portions of the package from impacts, and thermal insulation to protect the seal areas from excess heat during accident conditions. The package also features electronic feed-throughs to monitor the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator's temperature inside the containment during the shipment cycle. This package is designed to safely dissipate the typical 4500 thermal watts produced in the largest Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators. The package also contains provisions to ensure leak tightness when radioactive materials, such as a Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator for the Cassini Mission, planned for 1997 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, are being prepared for shipment. These provisions include test ports used in conjunction with helium mass spectrometers to determine seal leakage rates of each containment during the assembly process

A Systematic Hardware Sharing Method for Unified Architecture Design of H.264 Transforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Po-Hung Chen

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Multitransform techniques have been widely used in modern video coding and have better compression efficiency than the single transform technique that is used conventionally. However, every transform needs a corresponding hardware implementation, which results in a high hardware cost for multiple transforms. A novel method that includes a five-step operation sharing synthesis and architecture-unification techniques is proposed to systematically share the hardware and reduce the cost of multitransform coding. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method, a unified architecture is designed using the method for all of the six transforms involved in the H.264 video codec: 2D 4 × 4 forward and inverse integer transforms, 2D 4 × 4 and 2 × 2 Hadamard transforms, and 1D 8 × 8 forward and inverse integer transforms. Firstly, the six H.264 transform architectures are designed at a low cost using the proposed five-step operation sharing synthesis technique. Secondly, the proposed architecture-unification technique further unifies these six transform architectures into a low cost hardware-unified architecture. The unified architecture requires only 28 adders, 16 subtractors, 40 shifters, and a proposed mux-based routing network, and the gate count is only 16308. The unified architecture processes 8 pixels/clock-cycle, up to 275 MHz, which is equal to 707 Full-HD 1080 p frames/second.

[The hardware techniques for the restoration of the gait stereotype in the patients following total hip replacement: the personalized approach].

Science.gov (United States)

Koneva, E S; Lyadov, K V; Shapovalenko, T V; Zhukova, E V; Polushkin, V G

2018-04-09

total hip replacement has long ago become the «golden standard» for the treatment of dysplastic coxarthrosis in thousands of the patients receiving it every year. In the meantime, the analysis of the specialized literature gives evidence of the lack of a systematic and personified approach to the rehabilitation treatment. The objective of the present study was to improve medical rehabilitation of the patients following the total hip replacement and to develop the personalized programs for walking modality reconstruction taking into consideration the age and the body weight of the patients. A total of 240 patients were available for the observation including 184 women and 56 men. They were divided into three study groups and one control group, with the differentiation into the following three subgroups: one comprised of the patients of moderate acerage age and body weight, the other containing the obese patients (BMI>35), and the third one involving the elderly patients (age >70 years); each subgroup consisted of 20 patients. All the patients received the early basic rehabilitation treatment, those in the study groups had to perform in addition the robotic training based on the use of hardware techniques supplemented by passive mechanotherapy and electromyostimulation designed to restore the walking stereotype with three types of devices: body weight unloading, video-reconstruction associated with biological feedback and robototherapy. The comparative analysis of the effectiveness of various methods of gait reconstruction has demonstrated the high effectiveness of the application of the hardware technique in the patients of moderate acerage age and body weight. At the same time, the elderly patients had a significantly higher rate of successful walking reconstruction efficiency under the influence of the video-associated training with biological feedback (3 times that achieved with training using the device for unloading the body weight and 4 times compared with

An Open Hardware seismic data recorder - a solid basis for citizen science

Science.gov (United States)

Mertl, Stefan

2015-04-01

"Ruwai" is a 24-Bit Open Hardware seismic data recorder. It is built up of four stackable printed circuit boards fitting the Arduino Mega 2560 microcontroller prototyping platform. An interface to the BeagleBone Black single-board computer enables extensive data storage, -processing and networking capabilities. The four printed circuit boards provide a uBlox Lea-6T GPS module and real-time clock (GPS Timing shield), an Texas Instruments ADS1274 24-Bit analog to digital converter (ADC main shield), an analog input section with a Texas Instruments PGA281 programmable gain amplifier and an analog anti-aliasing filter (ADC analog interface pga) and the power conditioning based on 9-36V DC input (power supply shield). The Arduino Mega 2560 is used for controlling the hardware components, timestamping sampled data using the GPS timing information and transmitting the data to the BeagleBone Black single-board computer. The BeagleBone Black provides local data storage, wireless mesh networking using the optimized link state routing daemon and differential GNSS positioning using the RTKLIB software. The complete hardware and software is published under free software - or open hardware licenses and only free software (e.g. KiCad) was used for the development to facilitate the reusability of the design and increases the sustainability of the project. "Ruwai" was developed within the framework of the "Community Environmental Observation Network (CEON)" (http://www.mertl-research.at/ceon/) which was supported by the Internet Foundation Austria (IPA) within the NetIdee 2013 call.

A Power Hardware-in-the-Loop Platform with Remote Distribution Circuit Cosimulation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Palmintier, Bryan; Lundstrom, Blake; Chakraborty, Sudipta; Williams, Tess L.; Schneider, Kevin P.; Chassin, David P.

2015-04-01

This paper demonstrates the use of a novel cosimulation architecture that integrates hardware testing using Power Hardware-in-the-Loop (PHIL) with larger-scale electric grid models using off-the-shelf, non-PHIL software tools. This architecture enables utilities to study the impacts of emerging energy technologies on their system and manufacturers to explore the interactions of new devices with existing and emerging devices on the power system, both without the need to convert existing grid models to a new platform or to conduct in-field trials. The paper describes an implementation of this architecture for testing two residential-scale advanced solar inverters at separate points of common coupling. The same hardware setup is tested with two different distribution feeders (IEEE 123 and 8500 node test systems) modeled using GridLAB-D. In addition to simplifying testing with multiple feeders, the architecture demonstrates additional flexibility with hardware testing in one location linked via the Internet to software modeling in a remote location. In testing, inverter current, real and reactive power, and PCC voltage are well captured by the co-simulation platform. Testing of the inverter advanced control features is currently somewhat limited by the software model time step (1 sec) and tested communication latency (24 msec). Overshoot induced oscillations are observed with volt/VAR control delays of 0 and 1.5 sec, while 3.4 sec and 5.5 sec delays produced little or no oscillation. These limitations could be overcome using faster modeling and communication within the same co-simulation architecture.

A hardware fast tracker for the ATLAS trigger

Science.gov (United States)

Asbah, Nedaa

2016-09-01

The trigger system of the ATLAS experiment is designed to reduce the event rate from the LHC nominal bunch crossing at 40 MHz to about 1 kHz, at the design luminosity of 1034 cm-2 s-1. After a successful period of data taking from 2010 to early 2013, the LHC already started with much higher instantaneous luminosity. This will increase the load on High Level Trigger system, the second stage of the selection based on software algorithms. More sophisticated algorithms will be needed to achieve higher background rejection while maintaining good efficiency for interesting physics signals. The Fast TracKer (FTK) is part of the ATLAS trigger upgrade project. It is a hardware processor that will provide, at every Level-1 accepted event (100 kHz) and within 100 microseconds, full tracking information for tracks with momentum as low as 1 GeV. Providing fast, extensive access to tracking information, with resolution comparable to the offline reconstruction, FTK will help in precise detection of the primary and secondary vertices to ensure robust selections and improve the trigger performance. FTK exploits hardware technologies with massive parallelism, combining Associative Memory ASICs, FPGAs and high-speed communication links.

PCI hardware support in LIA-2 control system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bolkhovityanov, D.; Cheblakov, P.

2012-01-01

The control system of the LIA-2 accelerator is built on cPCI crates with *86- compatible processor boards running Linux. Slow electronics is connected via CAN-bus, while fast electronics (4 MHz and 200 MHz fast ADCs and 200 MHz timers) are implemented as cPCI/PMC modules. Several ways to drive PCI control electronics in Linux were examined. Finally a user-space drivers approach was chosen. These drivers communicate with hardware via a small kernel module, which provides access to PCI BARs and to interrupt handling. This module was named USPCI (User-Space PCI access). This approach dramatically simplifies creation of drivers, as opposed to kernel drivers, and provides high reliability (because only a tiny and thoroughly-debugged piece of code runs in kernel). LIA-2 accelerator was successfully commissioned, and the solution chosen has proven adequate and very easy to use. Besides, USPCI turned out to be a handy tool for examination and debugging of PCI devices direct from command-line. In this paper available approaches to work with PCI control hardware in Linux are considered, and USPCI architecture is described. (authors)

Synthetic hardware performance analysis in virtualized cloud environment for healthcare organization.

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, Chee-Heng; Teh, Ying-Wah

2013-08-01

The main obstacles in mass adoption of cloud computing for database operations in healthcare organization are the data security and privacy issues. In this paper, it is shown that IT services particularly in hardware performance evaluation in virtual machine can be accomplished effectively without IT personnel gaining access to actual data for diagnostic and remediation purposes. The proposed mechanisms utilized the hypothetical data from TPC-H benchmark, to achieve 2 objectives. First, the underlying hardware performance and consistency is monitored via a control system, which is constructed using TPC-H queries. Second, the mechanism to construct stress-testing scenario is envisaged in the host, using a single or combination of TPC-H queries, so that the resource threshold point can be verified, if the virtual machine is still capable of serving critical transactions at this constraining juncture. This threshold point uses server run queue size as input parameter, and it serves 2 purposes: It provides the boundary threshold to the control system, so that periodic learning of the synthetic data sets for performance evaluation does not reach the host's constraint level. Secondly, when the host undergoes hardware change, stress-testing scenarios are simulated in the host by loading up to this resource threshold level, for subsequent response time verification from real and critical transactions.

An Interview with Joe McMann: Lessons Learned from Fifty Years of Observing Hardware and Human Behavior

Science.gov (United States)

McMann, Joe

2011-01-01

Pica Kahn conducted "An Interview with Joe McMann: Lessons Learned in Human and Hardware Behavior" on August 16, 2011. With more than 40 years of experience in the aerospace industry, McMann has gained a wealth of knowledge. This presentation focused on lessons learned in human and hardware behavior. During his many years in the industry, McMann observed that the hardware development process was intertwined with human influences, which impacted the outcome of the product.

A Near-Lossless Image Compression Algorithm Suitable for Hardware Design in Wireless Endoscopy System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xie Xiang

2007-01-01

Full Text Available In order to decrease the communication bandwidth and save the transmitting power in the wireless endoscopy capsule, this paper presents a new near-lossless image compression algorithm based on the Bayer format image suitable for hardware design. This algorithm can provide low average compression rate ( bits/pixel with high image quality (larger than dB for endoscopic images. Especially, it has low complexity hardware overhead (only two line buffers and supports real-time compressing. In addition, the algorithm can provide lossless compression for the region of interest (ROI and high-quality compression for other regions. The ROI can be selected arbitrarily by varying ROI parameters. In addition, the VLSI architecture of this compression algorithm is also given out. Its hardware design has been implemented in m CMOS process.

OpenMM 4: A Reusable, Extensible, Hardware Independent Library for High Performance Molecular Simulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Eastman, Peter; Friedrichs, Mark S; Chodera, John D; Radmer, Randall J; Bruns, Christopher M; Ku, Joy P; Beauchamp, Kyle A; Lane, Thomas J; Wang, Lee-Ping; Shukla, Diwakar; Tye, Tony; Houston, Mike; Stich, Timo; Klein, Christoph; Shirts, Michael R; Pande, Vijay S

2013-01-08

OpenMM is a software toolkit for performing molecular simulations on a range of high performance computing architectures. It is based on a layered architecture: the lower layers function as a reusable library that can be invoked by any application, while the upper layers form a complete environment for running molecular simulations. The library API hides all hardware-specific dependencies and optimizations from the users and developers of simulation programs: they can be run without modification on any hardware on which the API has been implemented. The current implementations of OpenMM include support for graphics processing units using the OpenCL and CUDA frameworks. In addition, OpenMM was designed to be extensible, so new hardware architectures can be accommodated and new functionality (e.g., energy terms and integrators) can be easily added.

SYNTHESIS OF INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR SMART HOUSE HARDWARE MANAGEMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vikentyeva Olga Leonidovna

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Subject: smart house maintenance requires taking into account a number of factors: resource-saving, reduction of operational expenditures, safety enhancement, providing comfortable working and leisure conditions. Automation of the corresponding engineering systems of illumination, climate control, security as well as communication systems and networks via utilization of contemporary technologies (e.g., IoT - Internet of Things poses a significant challenge related to storage and processing of the overwhelmingly massive volume of data whose utilization extent is extremely low nowadays. Since a building’s lifespan is large enough and exceeds the lifespan of codes and standards that take into account the requirements of safety, comfort, energy saving, etc., it is necessary to consider management aspects in the context of rational use of large data at the stage of information modeling. Research objectives: increase the efficiency of managing the subsystems of smart buildings hardware on the basis of a web-based information system that has a flexible multi-level architecture with several control loops and an adaptation model. Materials and methods: since a smart house belongs to man-machine systems, the cybernetic approach is considered as the basic method for design and research of information management system. Instrumental research methods are represented by set-theoretical modelling, automata theory and architectural principles of organization of information management systems. Results: a flexible architecture of information system for management of smart house hardware subsystems has been synthesized. This architecture encompasses several levels: client level, application level and data level as well as three layers: presentation level, actuating device layer and analytics layer. The problem of growing volumes of information processed by realtime message controller is attended by employment of sensors and actuating mechanisms with configurable

Optimizing main-memory join on modern hardware

OpenAIRE

Boncz, Peter; Manegold, Stefan; Kersten, Martin

2002-01-01

textabstractIn the past decade, the exponential growth in commodity CPUs speed has far outpaced advances in memory latency. A second trend is that CPU performance advances are not only brought by increased clock rate, but also by increasing parallelism inside the CPU. Current database systems have not yet adapted to these trends, and show poor utilization of both CPU and memory resources on current hardware. In this article, we show how these resources can be optimized for large joins and tra...

Standard biological parts knowledgebase.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michal Galdzicki

2011-02-01

Full Text Available We have created the Knowledgebase of Standard Biological Parts (SBPkb as a publically accessible Semantic Web resource for synthetic biology (sbolstandard.org. The SBPkb allows researchers to query and retrieve standard biological parts for research and use in synthetic biology. Its initial version includes all of the information about parts stored in the Registry of Standard Biological Parts (partsregistry.org. SBPkb transforms this information so that it is computable, using our semantic framework for synthetic biology parts. This framework, known as SBOL-semantic, was built as part of the Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL, a project of the Synthetic Biology Data Exchange Group. SBOL-semantic represents commonly used synthetic biology entities, and its purpose is to improve the distribution and exchange of descriptions of biological parts. In this paper, we describe the data, our methods for transformation to SBPkb, and finally, we demonstrate the value of our knowledgebase with a set of sample queries. We use RDF technology and SPARQL queries to retrieve candidate "promoter" parts that are known to be both negatively and positively regulated. This method provides new web based data access to perform searches for parts that are not currently possible.

Standard Biological Parts Knowledgebase

Science.gov (United States)

Galdzicki, Michal; Rodriguez, Cesar; Chandran, Deepak; Sauro, Herbert M.; Gennari, John H.

2011-01-01

We have created the Knowledgebase of Standard Biological Parts (SBPkb) as a publically accessible Semantic Web resource for synthetic biology (sbolstandard.org). The SBPkb allows researchers to query and retrieve standard biological parts for research and use in synthetic biology. Its initial version includes all of the information about parts stored in the Registry of Standard Biological Parts (partsregistry.org). SBPkb transforms this information so that it is computable, using our semantic framework for synthetic biology parts. This framework, known as SBOL-semantic, was built as part of the Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL), a project of the Synthetic Biology Data Exchange Group. SBOL-semantic represents commonly used synthetic biology entities, and its purpose is to improve the distribution and exchange of descriptions of biological parts. In this paper, we describe the data, our methods for transformation to SBPkb, and finally, we demonstrate the value of our knowledgebase with a set of sample queries. We use RDF technology and SPARQL queries to retrieve candidate “promoter” parts that are known to be both negatively and positively regulated. This method provides new web based data access to perform searches for parts that are not currently possible. PMID:21390321

Standard biological parts knowledgebase.

Science.gov (United States)

Galdzicki, Michal; Rodriguez, Cesar; Chandran, Deepak; Sauro, Herbert M; Gennari, John H

2011-02-24

We have created the Knowledgebase of Standard Biological Parts (SBPkb) as a publically accessible Semantic Web resource for synthetic biology (sbolstandard.org). The SBPkb allows researchers to query and retrieve standard biological parts for research and use in synthetic biology. Its initial version includes all of the information about parts stored in the Registry of Standard Biological Parts (partsregistry.org). SBPkb transforms this information so that it is computable, using our semantic framework for synthetic biology parts. This framework, known as SBOL-semantic, was built as part of the Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL), a project of the Synthetic Biology Data Exchange Group. SBOL-semantic represents commonly used synthetic biology entities, and its purpose is to improve the distribution and exchange of descriptions of biological parts. In this paper, we describe the data, our methods for transformation to SBPkb, and finally, we demonstrate the value of our knowledgebase with a set of sample queries. We use RDF technology and SPARQL queries to retrieve candidate "promoter" parts that are known to be both negatively and positively regulated. This method provides new web based data access to perform searches for parts that are not currently possible.

Object and Facial Recognition in Augmented and Virtual Reality: Investigation into Software, Hardware and Potential Uses

Science.gov (United States)

Schulte, Erin

2017-01-01

As augmented and virtual reality grows in popularity, and more researchers focus on its development, other fields of technology have grown in the hopes of integrating with the up-and-coming hardware currently on the market. Namely, there has been a focus on how to make an intuitive, hands-free human-computer interaction (HCI) utilizing AR and VR that allows users to control their technology with little to no physical interaction with hardware. Computer vision, which is utilized in devices such as the Microsoft Kinect, webcams and other similar hardware has shown potential in assisting with the development of a HCI system that requires next to no human interaction with computing hardware and software. Object and facial recognition are two subsets of computer vision, both of which can be applied to HCI systems in the fields of medicine, security, industrial development and other similar areas.

Design and hardware alternatives for a Safety-Parameter Display System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Honeycutt, F.; Merten, W.T.; Roy, G.M.; Segraves, E.; Stone, G.P.

1981-05-01

The SPDS is a dedicated control room operator aid and is viewed as an important safety improvement within the context of other post-TMI fixes. Hardware configurations and components to implement the NSAC display format of a Safety Parameter Display System (SPDS) are evaluated. The evaluation was made on the basis of five alternative hardware configurations which use commercially available components. Four of the alternatives use computer/video display architecture. The fifth alternative is a simple hardwired system which uses strip chart recorders. SPDS regulatory requirements are defined by NUREG 0696. Overall feasibility of the NSAC concept was evaluated in terms of performance, reliability, cost, licensability, and flexibility. The flexibility evaluation relates to the ability to handle other display formats, the data acquisition needs of the other emergency facilities and the impact of expected future NRC requirements

Data Applicability of Heritage and New Hardware for Launch Vehicle System Reliability Models

Science.gov (United States)

Al Hassan Mohammad; Novack, Steven

2015-01-01

Many launch vehicle systems are designed and developed using heritage and new hardware. In most cases, the heritage hardware undergoes modifications to fit new functional system requirements, impacting the failure rates and, ultimately, the reliability data. New hardware, which lacks historical data, is often compared to like systems when estimating failure rates. Some qualification of applicability for the data source to the current system should be made. Accurately characterizing the reliability data applicability and quality under these circumstances is crucial to developing model estimations that support confident decisions on design changes and trade studies. This presentation will demonstrate a data-source classification method that ranks reliability data according to applicability and quality criteria to a new launch vehicle. This method accounts for similarities/dissimilarities in source and applicability, as well as operating environments like vibrations, acoustic regime, and shock. This classification approach will be followed by uncertainty-importance routines to assess the need for additional data to reduce uncertainty.

FPGA based hardware optimized implementation of signal processing system for LFM pulsed radar

Science.gov (United States)

Azim, Noor ul; Jun, Wang

2016-11-01

Signal processing is one of the main parts of any radar system. Different signal processing algorithms are used to extract information about different parameters like range, speed, direction etc, of a target in the field of radar communication. This paper presents LFM (Linear Frequency Modulation) pulsed radar signal processing algorithms which are used to improve target detection, range resolution and to estimate the speed of a target. Firstly, these algorithms are simulated in MATLAB to verify the concept and theory. After the conceptual verification in MATLAB, the simulation is converted into implementation on hardware using Xilinx FPGA. Chosen FPGA is Xilinx Virtex-6 (XC6LVX75T). For hardware implementation pipeline optimization is adopted and also other factors are considered for resources optimization in the process of implementation. Focusing algorithms in this work for improving target detection, range resolution and speed estimation are hardware optimized fast convolution processing based pulse compression and pulse Doppler processing.

Superior Generalization Capability of Hardware-Learing Algorithm Developed for Self-Learning Neuron-MOS Neural Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Kondo, Shuhei; Shibata, Tadashi; Ohmi, Tadahiro

1995-02-01

We have investigated the learning performance of the hardware backpropagation (HBP) algorithm, a hardware-oriented learning algorithm developed for the self-learning architecture of neural networks constructed using neuron MOS (metal-oxide-semiconductor) transistors. The solution to finding a mirror symmetry axis in a 4×4 binary pixel array was tested by computer simulation based on the HBP algorithm. Despite the inherent restrictions imposed on the hardware-learning algorithm, HBP exhibits equivalent learning performance to that of the original backpropagation (BP) algorithm when all the pertinent parameters are optimized. Very importantly, we have found that HBP has a superior generalization capability over BP; namely, HBP exhibits higher performance in solving problems that the network has not yet learnt.

Radiation biology using synchrotron radiation. In relation to radiation chemistry as an initial process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kobayashi, Katsumi

1995-01-01

Radiation biology using synchrotron radiation have been investigated, focusing on the mechanism of the formation of molecular damage. This paper introduces recent outcome of these studies. First, the process from imparted energy to the formation of molecular damage is outlined. The previous studies can be largely categorized as dealing with (1) biological effects of inner-shell ionization on elements composing the living body and (2) X-ray energy dependence of biological effects. Bromine and phosphorus are used as elements for the study of inner-cell ionization. In the study on lethal effects of monochromatic soft X-rays on the BrdUMP-incorporated yeast cells, Auger enhancement was found to occur. The first report on the effects of K-shell absorption of cellular phosphorus atoms has revealed that biological effects on cellular lethality and genetic changes was enhanced by 40%. Plasmid DNA and oligonucleotide have been used to study biological effects of vacuum ultraviolet rays to monochromatic soft X-ray, which makes it possible to study strand breaks. Because experimental production of energy required for the formation of double strand breaks has become possible, synchrotron radiation plays a very important role in radiation biological studies. Finally, future issues are presented. (N.K.)

A selective logging mechanism for hardware transactional memory systems

OpenAIRE

Lupon Navazo, Marc; Magklis, Grigorios; González Colás, Antonio María

2011-01-01

Log-based Hardware Transactional Memory (HTM) systems offer an elegant solution to handle speculative data that overflow transactional L1 caches. By keeping the pre-transactional values on a software-resident log, speculative values can be safely moved across the memory hierarchy, without requiring expensive searches on L1 misses or commits.

3D IBFV : Hardware-Accelerated 3D Flow Visualization

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Telea, Alexandru; Wijk, Jarke J. van

2003-01-01

We present a hardware-accelerated method for visualizing 3D flow fields. The method is based on insertion, advection, and decay of dye. To this aim, we extend the texture-based IBFV technique for 2D flow visualization in two main directions. First, we decompose the 3D flow visualization problem in a

Enabling Self-Organization in Embedded Systems with Reconfigurable Hardware

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christophe Bobda

2009-01-01

Full Text Available We present a methodology based on self-organization to manage resources in networked embedded systems based on reconfigurable hardware. Two points are detailed in this paper, the monitoring system used to analyse the system and the Local Marketplaces Global Symbiosis (LMGS concept defined for self-organization of dynamically reconfigurable nodes.

3D IBFV : hardware-accelerated 3D flow visualization

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Telea, A.C.; Wijk, van J.J.

2003-01-01

We present a hardware-accelerated method for visualizing 3D flow fields. The method is based on insertion, advection, and decay of dye. To this aim, we extend the texture-based IBFV technique presented by van Wijk (2001) for 2D flow visualization in two main directions. First, we decompose the 3D

Increased risk for complications following removal of hardware in patients with liver disease, pilon or pelvic fractures: A regression analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Bryan D; Steinert, Justin N; Stelzer, John W; Yoon, Richard S; Langford, Joshua R; Koval, Kenneth J

2017-12-01

Indications for removing orthopedic hardware on an elective basis varies widely. Although viewed as a relatively benign procedure, there is a lack of data regarding overall complication rates after fracture fixation. The purpose of this study is to determine the overall short-term complication rate for elective removal of orthopedic hardware after fracture fixation and to identify associated risk factors. Adult patients indicated for elective hardware removal after fracture fixation between July 2012 and July 2016 were screened for inclusion. Inclusion criteria included patients with hardware related pain and/or impaired cosmesis with complete medical and radiographic records and at least 3-month follow-up. Exclusion criteria were those patients indicated for hardware removal for a diagnosis of malunion, non-union, and/or infection. Data collected included patient age, gender, anatomic location of hardware removed, body mass index, ASA score, and comorbidities. Overall complications, as well as complications requiring revision surgery were recorded. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS 20.0, and included univariate and multivariate regression analysis. 391 patients (418 procedures) were included for analysis. Overall complication rates were 8.4%, with a 3.6% revision surgery rate. Univariate regression analysis revealed that patients who had liver disease were at significant risk for complication (p=0.001) and revision surgery (p=0.036). Multivariate regression analysis showed that: 1) patients who had liver disease were at significant risk of overall complication (p=0.001) and revision surgery (p=0.039); 2) Removal of hardware following fixation for a pilon had significantly increased risk for complication (p=0.012), but not revision surgery (p=0.43); and 3) Removal of hardware for pelvic fixation had a significantly increased risk for revision surgery (p=0.017). Removal of hardware following fracture fixation is not a risk-free procedure. Patients with

Actions, Observations, and Decision-Making: Biologically Inspired Strategies for Autonomous Aerial Vehicles

Science.gov (United States)

Pisanich, Greg; Ippolito, Corey; Plice, Laura; Young, Larry A.; Lau, Benton

2003-01-01

This paper details the development and demonstration of an autonomous aerial vehicle embodying search and find mission planning and execution srrategies inspired by foraging behaviors found in biology. It begins by describing key characteristics required by an aeria! explorer to support science and planetary exploration goals, and illustrates these through a hypothetical mission profile. It next outlines a conceptual bio- inspired search and find autonomy architecture that implements observations, decisions, and actions through an "ecology" of producer, consumer, and decomposer agents. Moving from concepts to development activities, it then presents the results of mission representative UAV aerial surveys at a Mars analog site. It next describes hardware and software enhancements made to a commercial small fixed-wing UAV system, which inc!nde a ncw dpvelopnent architecture that also provides hardware in the loop simulation capability. After presenting the results of simulated and actual flights of bioinspired flight algorithms, it concludes with a discussion of future development to include an expansion of system capabilities and field science support.

Hardware stream cipher with controllable chaos generator for colour image encryption

KAUST Repository

Barakat, Mohamed L.

2014-01-01

This study presents hardware realisation of chaos-based stream cipher utilised for image encryption applications. A third-order chaotic system with signum non-linearity is implemented and a new post processing technique is proposed to eliminate the bias from the original chaotic sequence. The proposed stream cipher utilises the processed chaotic output to mask and diffuse input pixels through several stages of XORing and bit permutations. The performance of the cipher is tested with several input images and compared with previously reported systems showing superior security and higher hardware efficiency. The system is experimentally verified on XilinxVirtex 4 field programmable gate array (FPGA) achieving small area utilisation and a throughput of 3.62 Gb/s. © The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2013.

Hardware security and trust design and deployment of integrated circuits in a threatened environment

CERN Document Server

Chaves, Ricardo; Natale, Giorgio; Regazzoni, Francesco

2017-01-01

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to hardware security, from specification to implementation. Applications discussed include embedded systems ranging from small RFID tags to satellites orbiting the earth. The authors describe a design and synthesis flow, which will transform a given circuit into a secure design incorporating counter-measures against fault attacks. In order to address the conflict between testability and security, the authors describe innovative design-for-testability (DFT) computer-aided design (CAD) tools that support security challenges, engineered for compliance with existing, commercial tools. Secure protocols are discussed, which protect access to necessary test infrastructures and enable the design of secure access controllers. Covers all aspects of hardware security including design, manufacturing, testing, reliability, validation and utilization; Describes new methods and algorithms for the identification/detection of hardware trojans; Defines new architectures capable o...

Conceptual Design Approach to Implementing Hardware-based Security Controls in Data Communication Systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ibrahim, Ahmad Salah; Jung, Jaecheon

2016-01-01

In the Korean Advanced Power Reactor (APR1400), safety control systems network is electrically isolated and physically separated from non-safety systems data network. Unidirectional gateways, include data diode fiber-optic cabling and computer-based servers, transmit the plant safety critical parameters to the main control room (MCR) for control and monitoring processes. The data transmission is only one-way from safety to non-safety. Reverse communication is blocked so that safety systems network is protected from potential cyberattacks or intrusions from non-safety side. Most of commercials off-the-shelf (COTS) security devices are software-based solutions that require operating systems and processors to perform its functions. Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) offer digital hardware solutions to implement security controls such as data packet filtering and deep data packet inspection. This paper presents a conceptual design to implement hardware-based network security controls for maintaining the availability of gateway servers. A conceptual design of hardware-based network security controls was discussed in this paper. The proposed design is aiming at utilizing the hardware-based capabilities of FPGAs together with filtering and DPI functions of COTS software-based firewalls and intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS). The proposed design implemented a network security perimeter between the DCN-I zone and gateway servers zone. Security control functions are to protect the gateway servers from potential DoS attacks that could affect the data availability and integrity

Conceptual Design Approach to Implementing Hardware-based Security Controls in Data Communication Systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ibrahim, Ahmad Salah; Jung, Jaecheon [KEPCO International Nuclear Graduate School, Ulsan (Korea, Republic of)

2016-10-15

In the Korean Advanced Power Reactor (APR1400), safety control systems network is electrically isolated and physically separated from non-safety systems data network. Unidirectional gateways, include data diode fiber-optic cabling and computer-based servers, transmit the plant safety critical parameters to the main control room (MCR) for control and monitoring processes. The data transmission is only one-way from safety to non-safety. Reverse communication is blocked so that safety systems network is protected from potential cyberattacks or intrusions from non-safety side. Most of commercials off-the-shelf (COTS) security devices are software-based solutions that require operating systems and processors to perform its functions. Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) offer digital hardware solutions to implement security controls such as data packet filtering and deep data packet inspection. This paper presents a conceptual design to implement hardware-based network security controls for maintaining the availability of gateway servers. A conceptual design of hardware-based network security controls was discussed in this paper. The proposed design is aiming at utilizing the hardware-based capabilities of FPGAs together with filtering and DPI functions of COTS software-based firewalls and intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS). The proposed design implemented a network security perimeter between the DCN-I zone and gateway servers zone. Security control functions are to protect the gateway servers from potential DoS attacks that could affect the data availability and integrity.

Test Hardware Design for Flightlike Operation of Advanced Stirling Convertors (ASC-E3)

Science.gov (United States)

Oriti, Salvatore M.

2012-01-01

NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) has been supporting development of the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) since 2006. A key element of the ASRG project is providing life, reliability, and performance testing of the Advanced Stirling Convertor (ASC). For this purpose, the Thermal Energy Conversion branch at GRC has been conducting extended operation of a multitude of free-piston Stirling convertors. The goal of this effort is to generate long-term performance data (tens of thousands of hours) simultaneously on multiple units to build a life and reliability database. The test hardware for operation of these convertors was designed to permit in-air investigative testing, such as performance mapping over a range of environmental conditions. With this, there was no requirement to accurately emulate the flight hardware. For the upcoming ASC-E3 units, the decision has been made to assemble the convertors into a flight-like configuration. This means the convertors will be arranged in the dual-opposed configuration in a housing that represents the fit, form, and thermal function of the ASRG. The goal of this effort is to enable system level tests that could not be performed with the traditional test hardware at GRC. This offers the opportunity to perform these system-level tests much earlier in the ASRG flight development, as they would normally not be performed until fabrication of the qualification unit. This paper discusses the requirements, process, and results of this flight-like hardware design activity.

Hardware and software techniques for boiler operation and management

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kobayashi, Hiroshi (Hirakawa Iron Works, Ltd., Osaka (Japan))

1989-04-01

A study was conducted on the requirements for easy-operable boiler from the view points of hardware and software technologies. Relation among efficiency, energy-saving, and economics, and control of total emission regarding low NOx operation, were explained, with suggestion of orientation to developed necessary hard- and soft- ware for the realization. 8 figs.

Integrating communication protocol selection with partitioning in hardware/software codesign

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knudsen, Peter Voigt; Madsen, Jan

1998-01-01

frequencies of system components such as buses, CPU's, ASIC's, software code size, hardware area, and component prices. A distinct feature of the model is the modeling of driver processing of data (packing, splitting, compression, etc.) and its impact on communication throughput. The integration...

Multi-Disciplinary Design Support using Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Visser, P.M.; Groothuis, M.A.; Broenink, Johannes F.

2004-01-01

This paper describes a method using Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation as a means for multidisciplinary design support. The method presented here, aims at supporting the design of heterogeneous embedded control systems. The method considers the implementation process as a stepwise refinement from

Development of the Sixty Watt Heat-Source hardware components

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McNeil, D.C.; Wyder, W.C.

1995-01-01

The Sixty Watt Heat Source is a nonvented heat source designed to provide 60 thermal watts of power. The unit incorporates a plutonium-238 fuel pellet encapsulated in a hot isostatically pressed General Purpose Heat Source (GPHS) iridium clad vent set. A molybdenum liner sleeve and support components isolate the fueled iridium clad from the T-111 strength member. This strength member serves as the pressure vessel and fulfills the impact and hydrostatic strength requirements. The shell is manufactured from Hastelloy S which prevents the internal components from being oxidized. Conventional drawing operations were used to simplify processing and utilize existing equipment. The deep drawing reqirements for the molybdenum, T-111, and Hastelloy S were developed from past heat source hardware fabrication experiences. This resulted in multiple step drawing processes with intermediate heat treatments between forming steps. The molybdenum processing included warm forming operations. This paper describes the fabrication of these components and the multiple draw tooling developed to produce hardware to the desired specifications. copyright 1995 American Institute of Physics

Deterrence of device counterfeiting, cloning, and subversion by substitution using hardware fingerprinting

Science.gov (United States)

Hamlet, Jason R; Bauer, Todd M; Pierson, Lyndon G

2014-09-30

Deterrence of device subversion by substitution may be achieved by including a cryptographic fingerprint unit within a computing device for authenticating a hardware platform of the computing device. The cryptographic fingerprint unit includes a physically unclonable function ("PUF") circuit disposed in or on the hardware platform. The PUF circuit is used to generate a PUF value. A key generator is coupled to generate a private key and a public key based on the PUF value while a decryptor is coupled to receive an authentication challenge posed to the computing device and encrypted with the public key and coupled to output a response to the authentication challenge decrypted with the private key.

A data acquisition computer for high energy physics applications DAFNE:- hardware manual

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barlow, J.; Seller, P.; De-An, W.

1983-07-01

A high performance stand alone computer system based on the Motorola 68000 micro processor has been built at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. Although the design was strongly influenced by the requirement to provide a compact data acquisition computer for the high energy physics environment, the system is sufficiently general to find applications in a wider area. It provides colour graphics and tape and disc storage together with access to CAMAC systems. This report is the hardware manual of the data acquisition computer, DAFNE (Data Acquisition For Nuclear Experiments), and as such contains a full description of the hardware structure of the computer system. (author)

Nearest Neighborhood Grayscale Operator for Hardware-Efficient Microscale Texture Extraction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andreas König

2007-01-01

Full Text Available First-stage feature computation and data rate reduction play a crucial role in an efficient visual information processing system. Hardware-based first stages usually win out where power consumption, dynamic range, and speed are the issue, but have severe limitations with regard to flexibility. In this paper, the local orientation coding (LOC, a nearest neighborhood grayscale operator, is investigated and enhanced for hardware implementation. The features produced by this operator are easy and fast to compute, compress the salient information contained in an image, and lend themselves naturally to various medium-to-high-level postprocessing methods such as texture segmentation, image decomposition, and feature tracking. An image sensor architecture based on the LOC has been elaborated, that combines high dynamic range (HDR image aquisition, feature computation, and inherent pixel-level ADC in the pixel cells. The mixed-signal design allows for simple readout as digital memory.

Design of microprocessor-based hardware for number theoretic transform implementation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Anwar Ahmed Shamim

1985-01-01

The Winograd (1976) Fourier Transform algorithm (WFTA) was implemented on a TMS9900 microprocessor to compute NTTs. Since multiplication conducted modulo m is very time consuming a special purpose external hardware modular multiplier was designed, constructed and interfaced with the TMS9900 microprocessor. This external hardware modular multiplier allowed an improvement in the transform execution time. Computation time may further be reduced by employing several microprocessors. Taking advantage of the inherent parallelism of the WFTA, a dedicated parallel microprocessor system was designed and constructed to implement a 15-point WFTA in parallel. Benchmark programs were written to choose a suitable microprocessor for the parallel microprocessor system. A master or a host microprocessor is used to control the parallel microprocessor system and provides an interface to the outside world. An analogue to digital (a/d) and a digital to analogue (d/a) converter allows real time digital signal processing.

Binary Associative Memories as a Benchmark for Spiking Neuromorphic Hardware

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andreas Stöckel

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Large-scale neuromorphic hardware platforms, specialized computer systems for energy efficient simulation of spiking neural networks, are being developed around the world, for example as part of the European Human Brain Project (HBP. Due to conceptual differences, a universal performance analysis of these systems in terms of runtime, accuracy and energy efficiency is non-trivial, yet indispensable for further hard- and software development. In this paper we describe a scalable benchmark based on a spiking neural network implementation of the binary neural associative memory. We treat neuromorphic hardware and software simulators as black-boxes and execute exactly the same network description across all devices. Experiments on the HBP platforms under varying configurations of the associative memory show that the presented method allows to test the quality of the neuron model implementation, and to explain significant deviations from the expected reference output.

The rise of developmental genetics - a historical account of the fusion of embryology and cell biology with human genetics and the emergence of the Stem Cell Initiative.

Science.gov (United States)

Kidson, S H; Ballo, R; Greenberg, L J

2016-05-25

Genetics and cell biology are very prominent areas of biological research with rapid advances being driven by a flood of theoretical, technological and informational knowledge. Big biology and small biology continue to feed off each other. In this paper, we provide a brief overview of the productive interactions that have taken place between human geneticists and cell biologists at UCT, and credit is given to the enabling environment created led by Prof. Peter Beighton. The growth of new disciplines and disciplinary mergers that have swept away division of the past to make new exciting syntheses are discussed. We show how our joint research has benefitted from worldwide advances in developmental genetics, cloning and stem cell technologies, genomics, bioinformatics and imaging. We conclude by describing the role of the UCT Stem Cell Initiative and show how we are using induced pluripotent cells to carry out disease-in-the- dish studies on retinal degeneration and fibrosis.

The evolving marriage of hardware and software, as seen from the openlab perspective

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2014-01-01

This talk will give an overview of the activities of the openlab Platform Competence Center, collaborating with Intel. The problem of making hardware and software talk to each other efficiently has been around since the concept of computers ever came up, and current times are no different. We will report on the related R&D activities of the openlab PCC, touching on topics ranging from hardware platforms, through compilers, to next-generation physics software. We will also relate to relevant practice in the industry, which made significant progress in the last decade.

Autonomous distributed self-organizing and self-healing hardware architecture - The eDNA concept

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Boesen, Michael Reibel; Madsen, Jan; Keymeulen, Didier

2011-01-01

This paper presents the current state of the autonomous distributed self-organizing and self-healing electronic DNA (eDNA) hardware architecture (patent pending). In its current prototype state, the eDNA architecture is capable of responding to multiple injected faults by autonomously reconfiguring...... itself to accommodate the fault and keep the application running. This paper will also disclose advanced features currently available in the simulation model only. These features are future work and will soon be implemented in hardware. Finally we will describe step-by-step how an application...