Aerospace Applications of Microprocessors

An assessment of the state of microprocessor applications is presented. Current and future requirements and associated technological advances which allow effective exploitation in aerospace applications are discussed

RAPID CLOCK RECOVERY ALGORITHMS FOR DIGITAL MAGNETIC RECORDING AND DATA COMMUNICATIONS

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN024293 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

NASA Space Engineering Research Center Symposium on VLSI Design

The NASA Space Engineering Research Center (SERC) is proud to offer, at its second symposium on VLSI design, presentations by an outstanding set of individuals from national laboratories and the electronics industry. These featured speakers share insights into next generation advances that will serve as a basis for future VLSI design. Questions of reliability in the space environment along with new directions in CAD and design are addressed by the featured speakers

The Fifth NASA Symposium on VLSI Design

The fifth annual NASA Symposium on VLSI Design had 13 sessions including Radiation Effects, Architectures, Mixed Signal, Design Techniques, Fault Testing, Synthesis, Signal Processing, and other Featured Presentations. The symposium provides insights into developments in VLSI and digital systems which can be used to increase data systems performance. The presentations share insights into next generation advances that will serve as a basis for future VLSI design

The Design of a System Architecture for Mobile Multimedia Computers

This chapter discusses the system architecture of a portable computer, called Mobile Digital Companion, which provides support for handling multimedia applications energy efficiently. Because battery life is limited and battery weight is an important factor for the size and the weight of the Mobile Digital Companion, energy management plays a crucial role in the architecture. As the Companion must remain usable in a variety of environments, it has to be flexible and adaptable to various operating conditions. The Mobile Digital Companion has an unconventional architecture that saves energy by using system decomposition at different levels of the architecture and exploits locality of reference with dedicated, optimised modules. The approach is based on dedicated functionality and the extensive use of energy reduction techniques at all levels of system design. The system has an architecture with a general-purpose processor accompanied by a set of heterogeneous autonomous programmable modules, each providing an energy efficient implementation of dedicated tasks. A reconfigurable internal communication network switch exploits locality of reference and eliminates wasteful data copies

Fully Monolithic CMOS Nickel Micromechanical Resonator Oscillator for Wireless Communications.

A nickel surface-micromachining technology offering various electrode-to-resonator gap materials is presented that is particularly suitable for high-Q, low impedance MEMS-based vibrating resonators. The low temperature of this nickel fabrication technology makes it amenable to post-processing over finished foundry CMOS wafers, even those using advanced low-k, low temperature dielectrics around metallization to decrease inter-connect capacitance. Such a MEMS-last process technology is used in this work to dem-onstrate a fully monolithic MEMS-based oscillator comprised of a nickel disk resonator array surface-micromachined over foundry CMOS. To achieve resonator motional resistances below 5.8 k with adequate quality factor, a mechanically-coupled array of resonators is used that actually realizes a multi-pole fil-ter structure, from which a single mode can be selected and other modes can be sup-pressed by proper electrode phasing. To attain higher frequencies, a nickel wine-glass mode disk resonator with a nitride capacitive transducer gaps was demonstrated at fre-quencies approaching 60 MHz with Q’s as high as 54,507, which is the highest to date for any micro-scale metal resonator in the VHF range. To boost frequencies to the UHF range, vibrating nickel micromechanical spoke-supported ring resonators were demon-strated at 425.7 MHz with Q’s as high as 2,467. These devices employed an anchor iso-lating spoke-supported ring geometry along with notched support attachments between the ring structure and supporting beams to achieve the highest reported vibrating fre-quency to date for any micro-scale metal resonator. Finally, a fully monolithic oscillator was achieved using MEMS-last integration to fabricate a resonator array of nine nickel flexural-mode disks over foundry CMOS cir-cuitry. The oscillator demonstrated a measured phase noise of -95 dBc/Hz at a 10 kHz offset from its 10.92-MHz carrier frequency, which is adequate for some low-end timing applications. This, together with its low power consumption of 350 μW, and the potential for full integration of integrated circuits and MEMS devices onto a single chip, makes the fully monolithic CMOS nickel micromechanical disk-array resonator oscillator presented here a reasonable on-chip replacement for quartz crystal reference oscillators in low-end applications.Ph.D.Electrical EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/58524/1/wlhuang_1.pd

SPLASSH: Open source software for camera-based high-speed, multispectral in-vivo optical image acquisition

Camera-based in-vivo optical imaging can provide detailed images of living tissue that reveal structure, function, and disease. High-speed, high resolution imaging can reveal dynamic events such as changes in blood flow and responses to stimulation. Despite these benefits, commercially available scientific cameras rarely include software that is suitable for in-vivo imaging applications, making this highly versatile form of optical imaging challenging and time-consuming to implement. To address this issue, we have developed a novel, open-source software package to control high-speed, multispectral optical imaging systems. The software integrates a number of modular functions through a custom graphical user interface (GUI) and provides extensive control over a wide range of inexpensive IEEE 1394 Firewire cameras. Multispectral illumination can be incorporated through the use of off-the-shelf light emitting diodes which the software synchronizes to image acquisition via a programmed microcontroller, allowing arbitrary high-speed illumination sequences. The complete software suite is available for free download. Here we describe the software’s framework and provide details to guide users with development of this and similar software

Space station data system analysis/architecture study. Task 2: Options development DR-5. Volume 1: Technology options

The second task in the Space Station Data System (SSDS) Analysis/Architecture Study is the development of an information base that will support the conduct of trade studies and provide sufficient data to make key design/programmatic decisions. This volume identifies the preferred options in the technology category and characterizes these options with respect to performance attributes, constraints, cost, and risk. The technology category includes advanced materials, processes, and techniques that can be used to enhance the implementation of SSDS design structures. The specific areas discussed are mass storage, including space and round on-line storage and off-line storage; man/machine interface; data processing hardware, including flight computers and advanced/fault tolerant computer architectures; and software, including data compression algorithms, on-board high level languages, and software tools. Also discussed are artificial intelligence applications and hard-wire communications

CCTV Technology Handbook

This CCTV Technology Handbook provides emergency responders, law enforcement security managers, and other security specialists with a reference to aid in planning, designing, and purchasing a CCTV system. This handbook includes a description of the capabilities and limitations of CCTV components used in security applications