Predicting power scalability in a reconfigurable platform

This thesis focuses on the evolution of digital hardware systems. A reconfigurable platform is proposed and analysed based on thin-body, fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator Schottky-barrier transistors with metal gates and silicide source/drain (TBFDSBSOI). These offer the potential for simplified processing that will allow them to reach ultimate nanoscale gate dimensions. Technology CAD was used to show that the threshold voltage in TBFDSBSOI devices will be controllable by gate potentials that scale down with the channel dimensions while remaining within appropriate gate reliability limits. SPICE simulations determined that the magnitude of the threshold shift predicted by TCAD software would be sufficient to control the logic configuration of a simple, regular array of these TBFDSBSOI transistors as well as to constrain its overall subthreshold power growth. Using these devices, a reconfigurable platform is proposed based on a regular 6-input, 6-output NOR LUT block in which the logic and configuration functions of the array are mapped onto separate gates of the double-gate device. A new analytic model of the relationship between power (P), area (A) and performance (T) has been developed based on a simple VLSI complexity metric of the form ATσ = constant. As σ defines the performance “return” gained as a result of an increase in area, it also represents a bound on the architectural options available in power-scalable digital systems. This analytic model was used to determine that simple computing functions mapped to the reconfigurable platform will exhibit continuous power-area-performance scaling behavior. A number of simple arithmetic circuits were mapped to the array and their delay and subthreshold leakage analysed over a representative range of supply and threshold voltages, thus determining a worse-case range for the device/circuit-level parameters of the model. Finally, an architectural simulation was built in VHDL-AMS. The frequency scaling described by σ, combined with the device/circuit-level parameters predicts the overall power and performance scaling of parallel architectures mapped to the array

Professional English. Fundamentals of Software Engineering

Посібник містить оригінальні тексти фахового змісту, які супроводжуються термінологічним тематичним вокабуляром та вправами різного методичного спрямування. Для студентів, які навчаються за напрямами підготовки: «Програмна інженерія», «Комп’ютерні науки» «Комп’ютерна інженерія»

Research and development of accounting system in grid environment

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The Grid has been recognised as the next-generation distributed computing paradigm by seamlessly integrating heterogeneous resources across administrative domains as a single virtual system. There are an increasing number of scientific and business projects that employ Grid computing technologies for large-scale resource sharing and collaborations. Early adoptions of Grid computing technologies have custom middleware implemented to bridge gaps between heterogeneous computing backbones. These custom solutions form the basis to the emerging Open Grid Service Architecture (OGSA), which aims at addressing common concerns of Grid systems by defining a set of interoperable and reusable Grid services. One of common concerns as defined in OGSA is the Grid accounting service. The main objective of the Grid accounting service is to ensure resources to be shared within a Grid environment in an accountable manner by metering and logging accurate resource usage information. This thesis discusses the origins and fundamentals of Grid computing and accounting service in the context of OGSA profile. A prototype was developed and evaluated based on OGSA accounting-related standards enabling sharing accounting data in a multi-Grid environment, the World-wide Large Hadron Collider Grid (WLCG). Based on this prototype and lessons learned, a generic middleware solution was also implemented as a toolkit that eases migration of existing accounting system to be standard compatible.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Stanford Universit

Research and development of accounting system in grid environment

The Grid has been recognised as the next-generation distributed computing paradigm by seamlessly integrating heterogeneous resources across administrative domains as a single virtual system. There are an increasing number of scientific and business projects that employ Grid computing technologies for large-scale resource sharing and collaborations. Early adoptions of Grid computing technologies have custom middleware implemented to bridge gaps between heterogeneous computing backbones. These custom solutions form the basis to the emerging Open Grid Service Architecture (OGSA), which aims at addressing common concerns of Grid systems by defining a set of interoperable and reusable Grid services. One of common concerns as defined in OGSA is the Grid accounting service. The main objective of the Grid accounting service is to ensure resources to be shared within a Grid environment in an accountable manner by metering and logging accurate resource usage information. This thesis discusses the origins and fundamentals of Grid computing and accounting service in the context of OGSA profile. A prototype was developed and evaluated based on OGSA accounting-related standards enabling sharing accounting data in a multi-Grid environment, the World-wide Large Hadron Collider Grid (WLCG). Based on this prototype and lessons learned, a generic middleware solution was also implemented as a toolkit that eases migration of existing accounting system to be standard compatible.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)Stanford UniversityGBUnited Kingdo

Bio-inspired cellular machines:towards a new electronic paper architecture

Information technology has only been around for about fifty years. Although the beginnings of automatic calculation date from as early as the 17th century (W. Schickard built the first mechanical calculator in 1623), it took the invention of the transistor by W. Shockley, J. Bardeen and W. Brattain in 1947 to catapult calculators out of the laboratory and produce the omnipresence of information and communication systems in today's world. Computers not only boast very high performance, capable of carrying out billions of operations per second, they are taking over our world, working their way into every last corner of our environment. Microprocessors are in everything, from the quartz watch to the PC via the mobile phone, the television and the credit card. Their continuing spread is very probable, and they will even be able to get into our clothes and newspapers. The incessant search for increasingly powerful, robust and intelligent systems is not only based on the improvement of technologies for the manufacture of electronic chips, but also on finding new computer architectures. One important source of inspiration for the research of new architectures is the biological world. Nature is fascinating for an engineer: what could be more robust, intelligent and able to adapt and evolve than a living organism? Out of a simple cell, equipped with its own blueprint in the form of DNA, develops a complete multi-cellular organism. The characteristics of the natural world have often been studied and imitated in the design of adaptive, robust and fault-tolerant artificial systems. The POE model resumes the three major sources of bio-inspiration: the evolution of species (P: phylogeny), the development of a multi-cellular organism by division and differentiation (O: ontogeny) and learning by interaction with the environment (E: epigenesis). This thesis aims to contribute to the ontogenetic branch of the POE model, through the study of three completely original cellular machines for which the basic element respects the six following characteristics: it is (1) reconfigurable, (2) of minimal complexity, (3) present in large numbers, (4) interconnected locally with its neighboring elements, (5) equipped with a display capacity and (6) with sensor allowing minimal interaction. Our first realization, the BioWall, is made up of a surface of 4,000 basic elements or molecules, capable of creating all cellular systems with a maximum of 160 × 25 elements. The second realization, the BioCube, transposes the two-dimensional architecture of the BioWall into a two-dimensional space, limited to 4 × 4 × 4 = 64 basic elements or spheres. It prefigures a three-dimensional computer built using nanotechnologies. The third machine, named BioTissue, uses the same hypothesis as the BioWall while pushing its performance to the limits of current technical possibilities and offering the benefits of an autonomous system. The convergence of these three realizations, studied in the context of emerging technologies, has allowed us to propose and define the computer architecture of the future: the electronic paper

Vision 21: Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in the Era of Cyberspace

The symposium Vision-21: Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in the Era of Cyberspace was held at the NASA Lewis Research Center on March 30-31, 1993. The purpose of the symposium was to simulate interdisciplinary thinking in the sciences and technologies which will be required for exploration and development of space over the next thousand years. The keynote speakers were Hans Moravec, Vernor Vinge, Carol Stoker, and Myron Krueger. The proceedings consist of transcripts of the invited talks and the panel discussion by the invited speakers, summaries of workshop sessions, and contributed papers by the attendees