All-rounder: A flexible DNN accelerator with diverse data format support

Recognizing the explosive increase in the use of DNN-based applications, several industrial companies developed a custom ASIC (e.g., Google TPU, IBM RaPiD, Intel NNP-I/NNP-T) and constructed a hyperscale cloud infrastructure with it. The ASIC performs operations of the inference or training process of DNN models which are requested by users. Since the DNN models have different data formats and types of operations, the ASIC needs to support diverse data formats and generality for the operations. However, the conventional ASICs do not fulfill these requirements. To overcome the limitations of it, we propose a flexible DNN accelerator called All-rounder. The accelerator is designed with an area-efficient multiplier supporting multiple precisions of integer and floating point datatypes. In addition, it constitutes a flexibly fusible and fissionable MAC array to support various types of DNN operations efficiently. We implemented the register transfer level (RTL) design using Verilog and synthesized it in 28nm CMOS technology. To examine practical effectiveness of our proposed designs, we designed two multiply units and three state-of-the-art DNN accelerators. We compare our multiplier with the multiply units and perform architectural evaluation on performance and energy efficiency with eight real-world DNN models. Furthermore, we compare benefits of the All-rounder accelerator to a high-end GPU card, i.e., NVIDIA GeForce RTX30390. The proposed All-rounder accelerator universally has speedup and high energy efficiency in various DNN benchmarks than the baselines

Acute myocarditis associated with non-typhoidal Salmonella gastroenteritis

Acute myocarditis is clinically rare in children, but poses a significant risk for morbidity and mortality. Children with myocarditis show a wide variety of clinical manifestations ranging from subclinical myocarditis to heart failure, hemodynamic compromise, arrhythmia, and even sudden death. Salmonella species are associated with clinical presentations including gastroenteritis, enteric fever, bacteremia, and extra-intestinal focal infections. Non-typhoidal Salmonella infections usually cause self-limiting gastroenteritis, but are rarely associated with myocarditis. In this report, we present a case of myocarditis associated with Salmonella serogroup B gastroenteritis in a previously healthy 15-year-old boy

Peregrine: A Flexible Hardware Accelerator for LSTM with Limited Synaptic Connection Patterns

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AutoRelax: HW-SW Co-Optimization for Efficient SpGEMM Operations with Automated Relaxation in Deep Learning

IEEEWe propose a HW-SW co-optimization technique to perform energy-efficient spGEMM operations for deep learning. First, we present an automated pruning algorithm, named AutoRelax, that allows some level of relaxation to achieve higher compression ratio. Since the benefit of the proposed pruning algorithm may be limited by the sparsity level of a given weight matrix, we present additional steps to further improve its efficiency. Along with the software approach, we also present a hardware architecture for processing sparse GEMM operations to maximize the benefit of the proposed pruning algorithm and sparse matrix format. To validate the efficiency of our co-optimization methodology, we evaluated the proposed method on three benchmarks, language modeling, speech recognition and image classification. As a result, our approach improved on-chip performance of spGEMM operations by 9.5027.57% and achieved energy reductions of 15.3533.28% considering DRAM accesses over other sparse accelerators.11Nsciescopu

Towards multiplexed immunofluorescence of 3D tissues

Abstract Profiling molecular expression in situ allows the integration of biomolecular and cellular features, enabling an in-depth understanding of biological systems. Multiplexed immunofluorescence methods can visualize tens to hundreds of proteins from individual tissue samples, but their application is usually limited to thin tissue sections. Multiplexed immunofluorescence of thick tissues or intact organs will enable high-throughput profiling of cellular protein expression within 3D tissue architectures (e.g., blood vessels, neural projections, tumors), opening a new dimension in diverse biological research and medical applications. We will review current multiplexed immunofluorescence methods and discuss possible approaches and challenges to achieve 3D multiplexed immunofluorescence

Effects of Biofeedback Postural Training on Pre-Existing Low Back Pain in Static-Posture Workers

BACKGROUND: Many studies report a relationship between poor static posture (SP) and low back pain (LBP). This study examined the effects of a biofeedback postural training program on pre-existing LBP, changes to level of physical activity and workability in participants. OBJECTIVE: To determine if static posture training with biofeedback alleviates LBP. METHODS: The control group wore a pedometer to track level of physical activity and the experimental group wore the postural training device, Lumo Lift, for three weeks. Participants completed the Cornell Musculoskeletal Discomfort Questionnaire (CMDQ) and completed pre- and post-intervention side-view pictures to evaluate changes in posture. Participants were predominately-sedentary work environment (N= 31; 13 men, 18 women; age = 33.1 ± 13.3 years; height = 170.2 ± 9.7 cm; mass = 71.6 ± 17.5 kg). RESULTS: LBP discomfort was statistically significant when comparing pretest and posttest CMDQ mean score in all subjects [F(1, 18) = 6.25, p= 0.02]. There was no significant evidence of reducing LBP experience and LBP interference at work when comparing all subjects. There was no statistical difference in level of physical activity by analyzing average steps between the experimental and control groups (95% CI =-1040.4 –1845.4, p= 0.57). CONCLUSIONS: Postural training with biofeedback application helps with LBP management by decreasing level of LBP discomfort. People with LBP should be aware of their static posture and develop good muscle strength and endurance in order to maintain performance at work, school, or sports

Resistance Spot Welding of Aluminum Alloy and Carbon Steel with Spooling Process Tapes

Many lightweight materials, including aluminum alloy, magnesium alloy, and plastic, have been used for automotives. Aluminum alloy—the most commonly utilized lightweight metal—has poor resistance spot weldability owing to its inherent properties, which demand the development of welding solutions. Various welding techniques are utilized to improve the resistance spot weldability of aluminum alloy, including DeltaSpot welding. However, the technological development for welding dissimilar metals (aluminum alloy and steel) required for vehicle body assembly is still in its nascent stages. This study proposes DeltaSpot welding (a resistance spot welding process with spooling process tapes) using the alloy combination of 6000 series aluminum alloy (Al 6K32) and 440 MPa grade steel (SGARC 440). The welding characteristics of the main process parameters in DeltaSpot welding were analyzed and the weldability of the combination of the aluminum alloy, Al 6K32, and 440 MPa grade steel was evaluated. In addition, the characteristics of the intermetallic compound layer between the 440 MPa grade steel and Al 6K32 sheets were identified via scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS)

Analysis of failure of C-V characteristics of MIS structure with SiO2 passivation layer deposited on InSb substrate via Raman spectroscopy

The effect of interfacial phases on the electrical properties of Au/Ti/SiO2/InSb metal-insulator (oxide)-semiconductor (MIS or MOS) structures was investigated by capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements. With increasing the deposition temperature of silicon oxide from 100 to 350°C using PECVD, the change in the interfacial phases between SiO2 and InSb were analyzed by resonant Raman spectroscopy to verify the relation between the breakdown of C-V characteristics and the change of interfacial phases. The shape of C-V characteristics was dramatically changed when the deposition temperature was above 300°C. The C-V measurements and Raman spectra represented that elemental Sb accumulation resulted from the chemical reaction of Sb oxide with InSb substrate was responsible for the failure in the C-V characteristics of MIS structure. Copyright © 2014 Materials Research Society.N

Multi-step plasma etching process for development of highly photosensitive InSb mid-IR FPAs

Reactive ion beam etching (RIBE) with CH4/H2/Ar or Cl2/Ar and ion beam etching (IBE) with Ar has been widely used for indium-contained compound semiconductors such as InAs, InP and InSb. To improve the performance of InSb FPAs, reduction of the ion-induced defects and the surface roughness is one of the key issues. To find the optimized plasma etching method for the fabrication of InSb devices, conventional plasma etching processes were comparatively investigated. RIBE of InSb was observed to generate residual by-products such as carbide and chloride causing the degradation of devices. On the other hand, very smooth surface was obtained by etching with N2. However, the etch rate of the N2 etching was too slow for the application to the device fabrication. As an alternative way to solve these problems, a multi-step plasma etching process, a combination of the Ar etching and the N2 etching, for InSb was developed. As gradually increasing the amount of N2 gas flow during the etching process, the plasma damage causing the surface roughen decreased and consequently smoother surface close to that of N2 RIE could be obtained. Furthermore, Raman analysis of the InSb surface after the plasma etching indicated clearly that the multi-step etching process was an effective approach in reducing the ion-induced damages on the surface. © 2014 SPIE.N