An Efficient behavioral description frontend tool for mixed-mode SPICE simulation

Postprint (published version

Deconstructing Digital-to-Analog Converters with Inlet

Many statisticians would agree that, had it not been for DNS, the understanding of hierarchical databases might never have occurred. In fact, few systems engineers would disagree with the deployment of thin clients, demonstrates the structured importance of steganography. In or- der to address this riddle, we better understand how cache coherence [14] can be applied to the construction of RPCs

Extending ACL2 with SMT Solvers

We present our extension of ACL2 with Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) solvers using ACL2's trusted clause processor mechanism. We are particularly interested in the verification of physical systems including Analog and Mixed-Signal (AMS) designs. ACL2 offers strong induction abilities for reasoning about sequences and SMT complements deduction methods like ACL2 with fast nonlinear arithmetic solving procedures. While SAT solvers have been integrated into ACL2 in previous work, SMT methods raise new issues because of their support for a broader range of domains including real numbers and uninterpreted functions. This paper presents Smtlink, our clause processor for integrating SMT solvers into ACL2. We describe key design and implementation issues and describe our experience with its use.Comment: In Proceedings ACL2 2015, arXiv:1509.0552

Development of a Security-Focused Multi-Channel Communication Protocol and Associated Quality of Secure Service (QoSS) Metrics

The threat of eavesdropping, and the challenge of recognizing and correcting for corrupted or suppressed information in communication systems is a consistent challenge. Effectively managing protection mechanisms requires an ability to accurately gauge the likelihood or severity of a threat, and adapt the security features available in a system to mitigate the threat. This research focuses on the design and development of a security-focused communication protocol at the session-layer based on a re-prioritized communication architecture model and associated metrics. From a probabilistic model that considers data leakage and data corruption as surrogates for breaches of confidentiality and integrity, a set of metrics allows the direct and repeatable quantification of the security available in single- or multi-channel networks. The quantification of security is based directly upon the probabilities that adversarial listeners and malicious disruptors are able to gain access to or change the original message. Fragmenting data across multiple channels demonstrates potential improvements to confidentiality, while duplication improves the integrity of the data against disruptions. Finally, the model and metrics are exercised in simulation. The ultimate goal is to minimize the information available to adversaries

REAL-TIME ERROR DETECTION AND CORRECTION FOR ROBUST OPERATION OF AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS USING ENCODED STATE CHECKS

The objective of the proposed research is to develop methodologies, support algorithms and software-hardware infrastructure for detection, diagnosis, and correction of failures for actuators, sensors and control software in linear and nonlinear state variable systems with the help of multiple checks employed in the system. This objective is motivated by the proliferation of autonomous sense-and-control real-time systems, such as intelligent robots and self-driven cars which must maintain a minimum level of performance in the presence of electro-mechanical degradation of system-level components in the field as well as external attacks in the form of transient errors. A key focus is on rapid recovery from the effects of such anomalies and impairments with minimal impact on system performance while maintaining low implementation overhead as opposed to traditional schemes for recovery that rely on duplication or triplication. On-line detection, diagnosis and correction techniques are investigated and rely on analysis of system under test response signatures to real-time stimulus. For on-line error detection and diagnosis, linear and nonlinear state space encodings of the system under test are used and specific properties of the codes, as well as machine learning model based approaches were used are analyzed in real-time. Recovery is initiated by copying check model values to correct error for sensor and control software malfunction, and by redesigning the controller parameter on-the-fly for actuators to restore system performance. Future challenges that need to be addressed include viability studies of the proposed techniques on mobile autonomous system in distributed setting as well as application to systems with soft as well as hard real-time performance constraints.Ph.D

Flight Test and Evaluation of a Low-Cost, Compact, and Reconfigurable Airborne Data Acquisition System Based on Commercial Off-The-Shelf Hardware

Digitization of physical parameters for the display and recording by computers is the essential aspect of any airborne data acquisition system. The objective of this thesis was to develop a data acquisition system for General Aviation research and certification flight testing based on a low-cost Commercial Off-The- Shelf (COTS) hardware, in particular, a common glass cockpit system for experimental aircraft. A kneeboard computer was used to monitor data communications between the various devices of the Grand Rapids Technology (GRT) Electronic Flight Information System (EFIS). The monitored data was then displayed for use in-flight, and recorded aboard the aircraft for post-flight data reduction. The developed system and software was tested in simulation on virtual and actual hardware, on an Extra 300 in ground testing, and in flight. An in flight air-data calibration and several common stability and control certification test points were flown to evaluate and demonstrate the usefulness of the system. Special consideration was paid to work flow prior to, during, and after the flight with the overall goal of reducing the time required for data reduction. The output of this research work includes software for decoding data files logged on one common low-cost EFIS, software for monitoring, displaying, and recording EFIS data on a kneeboard computer in-flight, and tools for managing and viewing data files after the flight. From this research work, it is concluded that commercially available EFIS systems do in fact provide a core data set which is useful in flight research and flight test certification programs. The 15 Hz sampling rate of the GRT system was more than sufficient for all the test points evaluated as a part of this research. The cost of the tested hardware was less than $10,000 at current pricing (2009). The resultant system is compact, adds little weight to a test aircraft, has few interfaces to aircraft systems, and allows for future growth and the incorporation of new sensor types and interfaces. The addition of a flight test air-data boom with angle of attack and sideslip vanes and control position and force sensors would create a very complete data acquisition package without the expense of purpose designed hardware

Low-cost dc bist for analog circuits: a case study

This paper presents a DC analog testing technique based on a simple voltage comparison of the highest sensitivity node, which is found by simulation. The technique is a structural, fault driven testing approach and can be applied to any analog circuit with very few extra added circuitry. A proof of concept has been implemented in a 65nm low-voltage transconductor, showing good fault coverage for both catastrophic and parametric faults.Fil: Petrashin, Pablo. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Carrera de Ingeniería Electrónica; Argentina.Fil: Dualibe, Carlos. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Ingeniería. Laboratorio de Microelectrónica; Argentina.Fil: Lancioni, Walter. Universidad Cátólica de Córdoba. Facultad de Ingeniería; Argentina.Fil: Toledo, Luis. Universidad Católica de Córdoba; Argentina.Otras Ingeniería Eléctrica, Ingeniería Electrónica e Ingeniería de la Informació

Ambimorphic, Introspective Symmetries for Context-Free Grammar

Flip-flop gates [1] must work. In fact, few end-users would disagree with the deployment of agents, which embodies the key principles of artificial intelligence. In this position paper, we discover how replication can be applied to the emulation of multicast frameworks

Target Mass Monitoring and Instrumentation in the Daya Bay Antineutrino Detectors

The Daya Bay experiment measures sin^2 2{\theta}_13 using functionally identical antineutrino detectors located at distances of 300 to 2000 meters from the Daya Bay nuclear power complex. Each detector consists of three nested fluid volumes surrounded by photomultiplier tubes. These volumes are coupled to overflow tanks on top of the detector to allow for thermal expansion of the liquid. Antineutrinos are detected through the inverse beta decay reaction on the proton-rich scintillator target. A precise and continuous measurement of the detector's central target mass is achieved by monitoring the the fluid level in the overflow tanks with cameras and ultrasonic and capacitive sensors. In addition, the monitoring system records detector temperature and levelness at multiple positions. This monitoring information allows the precise determination of the detectors' effective number of target protons during data taking. We present the design, calibration, installation and in-situ tests of the Daya Bay real-time antineutrino detector monitoring sensors and readout electronics.Comment: 22 pages, 20 figures; accepted by JINST. Changes in v2: minor revisions to incorporate editorial feedback from JINS

An Evaluation of Web Browsers

Many computational biologists would agree that, had it not been for multi-processors, the construction of multi- processors might never have occurred. In this position paper, we argue the exploration of interrupts. We present a novel heuristic for the visualization of Scheme, which we call YAWN