Renewables 2005: Global Status Report

The Global Status Report provides an assessment of several renewables technologies -- small hydro, modern biomass, wind, solar, geothermal, and biofuels -- that are now competing with conventional fuels in four distinct markets: power generation, hot water and space heating, transportation fuels, and rural (off-grid) energy supplies. The report finds that government support for renewable energy is growing rapidly. At least 48 countries now have some type of renewable energy promotion policy, including 14 developing countries. Most targets are for shares of electricity production, typically 5-30 percent, by the 2010-2012 timeframe. Mandates for blending biofuels into vehicle fuels have been enacted in at least 20 states and provinces worldwide as well as in three key countries -- Brazil, China and India. Government leadership provides the key to market success, according to the report. The market leaders in renewable energy in 2004 were Brazil in biofuels, China in solar hot water, Germany in solar electricity, and Spain in wind power. The Global Status Report fills a gap in the international energy reporting arena, which has tended to neglect the emerging renewable energy technologies. Regular updates will be produced in the future. The report was produced and published by the Worldwatch Institute and released today at the Beijing International Renewable Energy Conference 2005, sponsored by the Government of China. This Conference brings together government and private leaders from around the world, providing a forum for international leadership on renewable energy and connects the wide variety of stakeholders that came together at the International Conference for Renewable Energies in Bonn, Germany, in 2004. The creation of REN21 was sponsored by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. Formally established in Copenhagen in June 2005, REN21 is now supported by a steering committee of 11 governments, 5 intergovernmental organizations, 5 non-governmental organizations, and several regional, local, and private organizations

Algorithms in computer-aided design of VLSI circuits.

With the increased complexity of Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) circuits,Computer Aided Design (CAD) plays an even more important role. Top-downdesign methodology and layout of VLSI are reviewed. Moreover, previouslypublished algorithms in CAD of VLSI design are outlined.In certain applications, Reed-Muller (RM) forms when implemented withAND/XOR or OR/XNOR logic have shown some attractive advantages overthe standard Boolean logic based on AND/OR logic. The RM forms implementedwith OR/XNOR logic, known as Dual Forms of Reed-Muller (DFRM),is the Dual form of traditional RM implemented with AND /XOR.Map folding and transformation techniques are presented for the conversionbetween standard Boolean and DFRM expansions of any polarity. Bidirectionalmulti-segment computer based conversion algorithms are also proposedfor large functions based on the concept of Boolean polarity for canonicalproduct-of-sums Boolean functions. Furthermore, another two tabular basedconversion algorithms, serial and parallel tabular techniques, are presented forthe conversion of large functions between standard Boolean and DFRM expansionsof any polarity. The algorithms were tested for examples of up to 25variables using the MCNC and IWLS'93 benchmarks.Any n-variable Boolean function can be expressed by a Fixed PolarityReed-Muller (FPRM) form. In order to have a compact Multi-level MPRM(MMPRM) expansion, a method called on-set table method is developed.The method derives MMPRM expansions directly from FPRM expansions.If searching all polarities of FPRM expansions, the MMPRM expansions withthe least number of literals can be obtained. As a result, it is possible to findthe best polarity expansion among 2n FPRM expansions instead of searching2n2n-1 MPRM expansions within reasonable time for large functions. Furthermore,it uses on-set coefficients only and hence reduces the usage of memorydramatically.Currently, XOR and XNOR gates can be implemented into Look-Up Tables(LUT) of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). However, FPGAplacement is categorised to be NP-complete. Efficient placement algorithmsare very important to CAD design tools. Two algorithms based on GeneticAlgorithm (GA) and GA with Simulated Annealing (SA) are presented for theplacement of symmetrical FPGA. Both of algorithms could achieve comparableresults to those obtained by Versatile Placement and Routing (VPR) toolsin terms of the number of routing channel tracks