Real-Time Vocal Tract Modelling

To date, most speech synthesis techniques have relied upon the representation of the vocal tract by some form of filter, a typical example being linear predictive coding (LPC). This paper describes the development of a physiologically realistic model of the vocal tract using the well-established technique of transmission line modelling (TLM). This technique is based on the principle of wave scattering at transmission line segment boundaries and may be used in one, two, or three dimensions. This work uses this technique to model the vocal tract using a one-dimensional transmission line. A six-port scattering node is applied in the region separating the pharyngeal, oral, and the nasal parts of the vocal tract

Runtime Scheduling, Allocation, and Execution of Real-Time Hardware Tasks onto Xilinx FPGAs Subject to Fault Occurrence

This paper describes a novel way to exploit the computation capabilities delivered by modern Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), not only towards a higher performance, but also towards an improved reliability. Computation-specific pieces of circuitry are dynamically scheduled and allocated to different resources on the chip based on a set of novel algorithms which are described in detail in this article. These algorithms consider most of the technological constraints existing in modern partially reconfigurable FPGAs as well as spontaneously occurring faults and emerging permanent damage in the silicon substrate of the chip. In addition, the algorithms target other important aspects such as communications and synchronization among the different computations that are carried out, either concurrently or at different times. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithms is tested by means of a wide range of synthetic simulations, and, notably, a proof-of-concept implementation of them using real FPGA hardware is outlined

High Performance Biological Pairwise Sequence Alignment: FPGA versus GPU versus Cell BE versus GPP

This paper explores the pros and cons of reconfigurable computing in the form of FPGAs for high performance efficient computing. In particular, the paper presents the results of a comparative study between three different acceleration technologies, namely, Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), Graphics Processor Units (GPUs), and IBM’s Cell Broadband Engine (Cell BE), in the design and implementation of the widely-used Smith-Waterman pairwise sequence alignment algorithm, with general purpose processors as a base reference implementation. Comparison criteria include speed, energy consumption, and purchase and development costs. The study shows that FPGAs largely outperform all other implementation platforms on performance per watt criterion and perform better than all other platforms on performance per dollar criterion, although by a much smaller margin. Cell BE and GPU come second and third, respectively, on both performance per watt and performance per dollar criteria. In general, in order to outperform other technologies on performance per dollar criterion (using currently available hardware and development tools), FPGAs need to achieve at least two orders of magnitude speed-up compared to general-purpose processors and one order of magnitude speed-up compared to domain-specific technologies such as GPUs

Radioactivity Distribution In Surface And Core Sediment Of The Central Part Of The Algerian Coast: An Estimation Of The Recent Sedimentation Rate

Sediment core samples and marine surface sediments of identical composition, mostly muddy, were collected using a Van Veen type grab and a box corer on board the M.S. Benyahia research vessel (ISMAL), along the Algerian littoral, between Algiers (36Ζ49.9 N/ 03Ζ 02.3 E) and Cherchell (36Ζ 39.4 N/ 02Ζ 12.4 E), during a sampling cruise in September 1997. The samples were analysed to determine the activity concentration of natural radionuclides (uranium and thorium series and 40 K as well) and artificial radionuclides ( 137 Cs and Pu isotopes), using a direct gamma spectrometry for gamma emitters and radiochemical separations and alpha spectrometry for alpha emitters. The horizontal and vertical distribution of the examined radionuclides were studied in the surface and core samples and an effort to estimate the sedimentation rate was attempted.The measured values range was: 17 - 26 Bq/Kg dry for uranium series radioisotopes, 18 – 32 Bq/Kg dry for thorium series radioisotopes, 311 - 690 Bq/Kg dry for 40 K, 0.4 - 11 Bq/Kg dry, for 137 Cs and 0.4 – 1.0 Bq/Kg dry for 239 + 240 Pu