Intelligent redundant actuation system requirements and preliminary system design

Several redundant actuation system configurations were designed and demonstrated to satisfy the stringent operational requirements of advanced flight control systems. However, this has been accomplished largely through brute force hardware redundancy, resulting in significantly increased computational requirements on the flight control computers which perform the failure analysis and reconfiguration management. Modern technology now provides powerful, low-cost microprocessors which are effective in performing failure isolation and configuration management at the local actuator level. One such concept, called an Intelligent Redundant Actuation System (IRAS), significantly reduces the flight control computer requirements and performs the local tasks more comprehensively than previously feasible. The requirements and preliminary design of an experimental laboratory system capable of demonstrating the concept and sufficiently flexible to explore a variety of configurations are discussed

User-defined data types and operators in occam

This paper describes the addition of user-defined monadic and dyadic operators to occam* [1], together with some libraries that demonstrate their use. It also discusses some techniques used in their implementation in KRoC [2] for a variety of target machines

On-Line Sea Beam Acoustic Imaging

This paper describes a system designed and built at the Marine Physical Laboratory of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography to produce acoustic images of the seafloor on-line with a Sea Beammultibeam echo-sounder. This system uses a stand alone interface between the Sea Beam system and a grey-scale line-scan recorder. The interface is built around a Motorola 68000 microprocessor and has digitizing capabilities. It digitizes the detected echo signals from each of the 16 preformed beams inside the Sea Beam echo processor as well as the roll information given by the ship\u27s vertical reference. Theacoustic data are then roll compensated and combined into a port and a starboard time series. These time series are eventually output in digital format to a line-scan recorder which produces the grey scaleacoustic image. Results are discussed for Sea Beam acoustic images of the seafloor and of the Deep Scattering layers

GRAPHICAL CONFIGURATION PROGRAMMING - THE STRUCTURAL DESCRIPTION, CONSTRUCTION AND EVOLUTION OF SOFTWARE SYSTEMS USING GRAPHICS

Published versio

Sparse distributed memory prototype: Principles of operation

Sparse distributed memory is a generalized random access memory (RAM) for long binary words. Such words can be written into and read from the memory, and they can be used to address the memory. The main attribute of the memory is sensitivity to similarity, meaning that a word can be read back not only by giving the original right address but also by giving one close to it as measured by the Hamming distance between addresses. Large memories of this kind are expected to have wide use in speech and scene analysis, in signal detection and verification, and in adaptive control of automated equipment. The memory can be realized as a simple, massively parallel computer. Digital technology has reached a point where building large memories is becoming practical. The research is aimed at resolving major design issues that have to be faced in building the memories. The design of a prototype memory with 256-bit addresses and from 8K to 128K locations for 256-bit words is described. A key aspect of the design is extensive use of dynamic RAM and other standard components

High speed fiber optics local area networks: Design and implementation

The design of high speed local area networks (HSLAN) for communication among distributed devices requires solving problems in three areas: (1) the network medium and its topology; (2) the medium access control; and (3) the network interface. Considerable progress has been made in all areas. Accomplishments are divided into two groups according to their theoretical or experimental nature. A brief summary is given in Section 2, including references to papers which appeared in the literature, as well as to Ph.D. dissertations and technical reports published at Stanford University

DEVELOPING A MOTOROLA 68000 TRAINING BOARD

The aim of this project is to build a Motorola 68000 microprocessor training board using modular approach to aid the teaching and learning process for the microprocessor subject in Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP). The board is designed in modular approach to nurture more understanding among the students on the system itself. The final system consists of 3 different separated cards; the central processing unit (CPU) card, the memory card, and a serial/parallel interface card and a backplane. Wire wrapping method is used to build the training board. This project involves circuit design study, parts substitution study, and the board construction itself Basically, the board features a Motorola 68000 microprocessor, 10-MHz crystal clock, buffer circuits, memory decoder circuits, EPROM modules, SRAM modules, serial interface, and parallel interface. This board can be connected to a personal computer (PC) through serial interface for program downloading purposes, and the output is connected through the parallel interface available on-board. It is envisaged that the final system would be utilized as a learning tool for the microprocessor course (EAB2023)

A voice operated musical instrument.

Many mathematical formulas and algorithms exist to identify pitches formed by human voices, and this has continued to be popular in the fields of music and signal pro-cessing. Other systems and research perform real time pitch identification implemented by using PCs with system clocks faster than 400MHz. This thesis explores developing an embedded RPTI system using the average magnitude difference function (AMDF), which will also use MIDI commands to control a synthesizer to track the pitch in near real time. The AMDF algorithm was simulated and its performance analyzed in MATLAB with pre-recorded sound files from a PC. Errors inherent to the AMDF and the hardware constraints led to noticeable pitch errors. The MATLAB code was optimized and its performance verified for the Motorola 68000 assembly language. This stage of development led to realization that the original design would have to change for the processing time required for the AMDF implementation. Hardware was constructed to support an 8MHz Motorola 68000, analog input, and MIDI communications. The various modules were constructed using Vectorbord© prototyping board with soldered tracks, wires and sockets. Modules were tested individually and as a whole unit. A design flaw was noticed with the final design, which caused the unit to fail during program execution while operating in a stand-alone mode. This design is a proof of concept for a product that can be improved upon with newer components, more advanced algorithms and hardware construction, and a more aesthetically pleasing package. Ultimately, hardware limitations imposed by the available equipment in addition to a hidden design flaw contributed to the failure of this stand-alone prototype