Finite State Machine Decomposition for Low Power

Clock-gating techniques have been shown to be very effective in the reduction of the switching activity in sequential logic circuits. In this paper we describe a new clock-gating technique based on finite state machine (FSM) decomposition. We compute two sub-FSMs that together have the same functionality as the original FSM. For all the transitions within one sub-FSM, the clock for the other sub-FSM is disabled. To minimize the average switching activity, we search for a small cluster of states with high stationary state probability and use it to create the small sub-FSM. This way we will have a small amount of logic that is active most of the time, during which is disabling a much larger circuit, the other sub-FSM. We provide a set of experimental results that show that power consumption can be substantially reduced, in some cases up to 80%. I

Separation and Composition of Overlapping and Interacting Concerns

This position paper presents some of the problems we had and the results we achieved in the last 4 years of work when defining and developing DASCo [24]. DASCo (Development of Distributed Applications with Separation of Concerns) is an approach for developing objectoriented concurrent and distributed programs using a separation of concerns strategy. In this position paper we emphasize separation and composition of nonorthogonal concerns. The interested reader can obtain more information from the DASCo web page at http://www.esw.inesc.pt/ars/dasco. 1. Introduction Separation of concerns approaches have to deal with two different issues: abstractions and integration mechanisms. The former describes solutions for domain-specific aspects of the software, e.g. object synchronization. The latter are responsible for integrating abstractions among themselves and with the functionality object, e.g. the integration of an object synchronization abstraction with the functionality object. Non-se..

Hardware/Software Solution for the Automation and Real-Time Control of a Wine Bottling Production Line

Factory automation requires smart solutions, especially when a set of equipment, from different vendors, has to be interfaced to enable fast and flexible production. In this paper, a hardware /software (hw/sw) modeling approach and its implementation, in the electronic system, Fill, for the automation and real-time control of a wine bottling production line, is presented. Fill is a sub-system of an intelligent production line. Object Oriented concept is used for system modeling and development. The key novelty of the implementation approach is the use of the bottle, as an active object, for synchronizing the production line. A prototype of Fill has been implemented in an industrial environment, in the northern part of Portugal, boosting productivity. If the market makes it cost-effective, the hw/sw solution can be easily integrated and installed in other production lines and companies