An Integrated Radar Tile for Digital Beamforming X-/Ka-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar Instruments

This paper presents the first experimental assessment of a highly integrated dual-band dual-polarized antenna tile designed for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) digital beamforming (DBF) satellite applications. The demonstrator described in this paper is the first comprehensive experimental validation of an RF module providing the X-band and Ka-band (9.6- and 35.75-GHz) operation with custom downconversion stages. All the antennas, transitions, and downconversion chips are integrated in the same antenna tile fabricated using a customized 15-layer high density interconnect process. The designed tile goes to the limits of the proposed technology and for the high trace density and for the size of the vertical transitions. The proposed results represent the state of the art in terms of compactness for a DBF SAR RF module even though the demonstrator was manufactured with a standard low-cost technology. The experimental assessment proves the validity of the proposed manufacturing and integration approaches showing a substantial agreement between the performance of the individual blocks and of the integrated system

Interfacing 3D-stacked electronic and optical NoCs with mixed CMOS-ECL bridges: A realistic preliminary assessment

The combination of optical networks-on-chip and 3D stacking represents the most promising system integration framework to overcome the communication bottleneck of future many-core processors. From an architecture viewpoint, the availability of an energy-efficient, low-latency bridge connecting the electronic network-on-chip with the optical one is as important as the maturity of the optical interconnect technology. The key design challenge consists of overcoming the inherent serial nature of optical communications, which is typically pursued by increasing either the data rate or the bit-level parallelism, or by a combination thereof. This paper explores an hybrid CMOS-ECL technology platform for bridge implementation by means of a complete logic synthesis effort. By spanning the wider configuration space of the hybrid bridge with respect to fully-CMOS realizations, the paper identifies the most energy-efficient configurations and provides a comparative assessment of achievable quality metrics. Derived results represent a solid and realistic starting point for future optimizations and for the refinement into an actual layout

Gamification: What it is, and how to fight it

‘Gamification’ is understood as the application of game systems – competition, rewards, quantifying player/user behaviour – into non-game domains, such as work, productivity and fitness. Such practices are deeply problematic as they represent the capture of ‘play’ in the pursuit of neoliberal rationalization and the managerial optimization of working life and labour. However, applying games and play to social life is also central to the Situationist International, as a form of resistance against the regularity and standardization of everyday behaviour. In this article, the authors distinguish between two types of gamification: first, ‘gamification-from-above’, involving the optimization and rationalizing of work practices by management; and second, ‘gamification-from-below’, a form of active resistance against control at work. Drawing on Autonomism and Situationism, the authors argue that it is possible to transform non-games into games as resistance, rather than transferring game elements out of playful contexts and into managerial ones. Since the original ‘gamification’ term is now lost, the authors develop the alternative conception as a practice that supports workers, rather than one used to adapt behaviour to capital. The article concludes with a renewed call for this ‘gamification-from-below’, which is an ideal form of resistance against gamification-from-above and its capture of play in pursuit of work