EXEL : a language for interactive behavioral synthesis

This paper describes a new input language for behavioral synthesis called EXEL. EXEL is a powerful language that permits the user to specify partially designed structures in the language. It employs a mixed graphic/textual user interface to enhance user interactivity. EXEL's design model is comprehensive: it permits specification of synchronous and asynchronous behavior, and allows specification of general timing constraints. A flexible type construct permits the user to define operators and components to be used in the description. Finally, it simplifies compilation by using a small set of constructs for specifying timing and asynchronouos behavior. The compiler for EXEL runs on SUN-3 workstations and is written in C and SUNVIEW

VLSI Implementation of Deep Neural Network Using Integral Stochastic Computing

The hardware implementation of deep neural networks (DNNs) has recently received tremendous attention: many applications in fact require high-speed operations that suit a hardware implementation. However, numerous elements and complex interconnections are usually required, leading to a large area occupation and copious power consumption. Stochastic computing has shown promising results for low-power area-efficient hardware implementations, even though existing stochastic algorithms require long streams that cause long latencies. In this paper, we propose an integer form of stochastic computation and introduce some elementary circuits. We then propose an efficient implementation of a DNN based on integral stochastic computing. The proposed architecture has been implemented on a Virtex7 FPGA, resulting in 45% and 62% average reductions in area and latency compared to the best reported architecture in literature. We also synthesize the circuits in a 65 nm CMOS technology and we show that the proposed integral stochastic architecture results in up to 21% reduction in energy consumption compared to the binary radix implementation at the same misclassification rate. Due to fault-tolerant nature of stochastic architectures, we also consider a quasi-synchronous implementation which yields 33% reduction in energy consumption w.r.t. the binary radix implementation without any compromise on performance.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figure

EXTEND-L : an input language for extensible register transfer compilation

This report discusses the model and input language for EXTEND, a synthesis system that permits extensible register transfer synthesis. EXTEND-L fills the need for a language that bridges the gap between existing behavioral input descriptions, which are too abstract, and structural schematics, which cannot capture the high-level behavior. The report first discusses previous work in behavioral synthesis and summarizes the deficiencies of these behavioral specifications. The report then describes the proposed langauge in detail, and concludes with a few examples that show its utility

From transmission error measurement to Pulley-Belt slip determination in serpentine belt drives: influence of tensioner and belt characteristics

Serpentine belt drives are often used in front end accessory drive of automotive engine. The accessories resistant torques are getting higher within new technological innovations as stater-alternator, and belt transmissions are always asked for higher capacity. Two kind of tensioners are used to maintain minimum tension that insure power transmission and minimize slip: dry friction or hydraulic tensioners. An experimental device and a specific transmission error measurement method have been used to evaluate the performances of a generic transmission by determining the pulley-belt slip for these two kinds of tensioner. A data acquisition technique using optical encoders and based on the angular sampling method is used with success for the first time on a non synchronous belt transmission. Transmission error between pulleys, pulley/belt slip are deduced from pulley rotation angle measurements.Results obtained show that: the use of tensioner limits belt slip on pulleys, pulley-belt slip is reachable from transmission error measurement, belt non uniform characteristics are responsible of low frequency modulations of transmission error

Synchronous Counting and Computational Algorithm Design

Consider a complete communication network on $n$ nodes, each of which is a state machine. In synchronous 2-counting, the nodes receive a common clock pulse and they have to agree on which pulses are "odd" and which are "even". We require that the solution is self-stabilising (reaching the correct operation from any initial state) and it tolerates $f$ Byzantine failures (nodes that send arbitrary misinformation). Prior algorithms are expensive to implement in hardware: they require a source of random bits or a large number of states. This work consists of two parts. In the first part, we use computational techniques (often known as synthesis) to construct very compact deterministic algorithms for the first non-trivial case of $f = 1$. While no algorithm exists for $n < 4$, we show that as few as 3 states per node are sufficient for all values $n \ge 4$. Moreover, the problem cannot be solved with only 2 states per node for $n = 4$, but there is a 2-state solution for all values $n \ge 6$. In the second part, we develop and compare two different approaches for synthesising synchronous counting algorithms. Both approaches are based on casting the synthesis problem as a propositional satisfiability (SAT) problem and employing modern SAT-solvers. The difference lies in how to solve the SAT problem: either in a direct fashion, or incrementally within a counter-example guided abstraction refinement loop. Empirical results suggest that the former technique is more efficient if we want to synthesise time-optimal algorithms, while the latter technique discovers non-optimal algorithms more quickly.Comment: 35 pages, extended and revised versio

From transmission error measurement to Pulley-Belt slip determination in serpentine belt drives : influence of tensioner and belt characteristics

Serpentine belt drives are often used in front end accessory drive of automotive engine. The accessories resistant torques are getting higher within new technological innovations as stater-alternator, and belt transmissions are always asked for higher capacity. Two kind of tensioners are used to maintain minimum tension that insure power transmission and minimize slip : dry friction or hydraulic tensioners. An experimental device and a specific transmission error measurement method have been used to evaluate the performances of a generic transmission by determining the pulley–belt slip for these two kinds of tensioner. Transmission error between pulleys, pulley/belt slip are deduced from pulley rotation angle measurements. Results obtained show that : the use of tensioner limits belt slip on pulleys, pulley–belt slip is reachable from transmission error measurement, belt non uniform characteristics are responsible of low frequency modulations of transmission error

Efficient time synchronized one-time password scheme to provide secure wake-up authentication on wireless sensor networks

In this paper we propose Time Synchronized One-Time-Password scheme to provide secure wake up authentication. The main constraint of wireless sensor networks is their limited power resource that prevents us from using radio transmission over the network to transfer the passwords. On the other hand computation power consumption is insignificant when compared to the costs associated with the power needed for transmitting the right set of keys. In addition to prevent adversaries from reading and following the timeline of the network, we propose to encrypt the tokens using symmetric encryption to prevent replay attacks.Comment: International Journal Of Advanced Smart Sensor Network Systems (IJASSN), Vol 3, No.1, January 2013 http://airccse.org/journal/ijassn/papers/3113ijassn01.pd