6,692 research outputs found
Peptide mass fingerprinting using field-programmable gate arrays
The reconfigurable computing paradigm, which exploits the flexibility and versatility of field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), has emerged as a powerful solution for speeding up time-critical algorithms. This paper describes a reconfigurable computing solution for processing raw mass spectrometric data generated by MALDI-TOF instruments. The hardware-implemented algorithms for denoising, baseline correction, peak identification, and deisotoping, running on a Xilinx Virtex-2 FPGA at 180 MHz, generate a mass fingerprint that is over 100 times faster than an equivalent algorithm written in C, running on a Dual 3-GHz Xeon server. The results obtained using the FPGA implementation are virtually identical to those generated by a commercial software package MassLynx
Walsh function generator for the Electronically Scanned Thinned Array Radiometer (ESTAR) instrument
A prototype Walsh Function Generator (WFG) for the ESTAR (Electronically Scanned Thinned Array Radiometer) instrument has been designed and tested. Implemented in a single Xilinx XC3020PC68-50 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), it generates a user-programmable set of 32 consecutive Walsh Functions for noise cancellation in the analog circuitry of the Front-End Modules (FEM's). It is implemented in a 68-pin plastic leaded chip carrier (PLCC) package, is fully testable, and can be used for noise cancellation periods as small as 2 msec
Fully integrated InGaAs/InP single-photon detector module with gigahertz sine wave gating
InGaAs/InP single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) working in the regime of
GHz clock rates are crucial components for the high-speed quantum key
distribution (QKD). We have developed for the first time a compact, stable and
user-friendly tabletop InGaAs/InP single-photon detector system operating at a
1.25 GHz gate rate that fully integrates functions for controlling and
optimizing SPAD performance. We characterize the key parameters of the detector
system and test the long-term stability of the system for continuous operation
of 75 hours. The detector system can substantially enhance QKD performance and
our present work paves the way for practical high-speed QKD applications.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in Review of Scientific
Instrument
SPH Simulations with Reconfigurable Hardware Accelerator
We present a novel approach to accelerate astrophysical hydrodynamical
simulations. In astrophysical many-body simulations, GRAPE (GRAvity piPE)
system has been widely used by many researchers. However, in the GRAPE systems,
its function is completely fixed because specially developed LSI is used as a
computing engine. Instead of using such LSI, we are developing a special
purpose computing system using Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chips as
the computing engine. Together with our developed programming system, we have
implemented computing pipelines for the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH)
method on our PROGRAPE-3 system. The SPH pipelines running on PROGRAPE-3 system
have the peak speed of 85 GFLOPS and in a realistic setup, the SPH calculation
using one PROGRAPE-3 board is 5-10 times faster than the calculation on the
host computer. Our results clearly shows for the first time that we can
accelerate the speed of the SPH simulations of a simple astrophysical phenomena
using considerable computing power offered by the hardware.Comment: 27 pages, 13 figures, submitted to PAS
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