System-on-a-Chip (SoC) based Hardware Acceleration in Register Transfer Level (RTL) Design

Today, modern System-on-a-Chip (SoC) systems have grown rapidly due to the increased processing power, while maintaining the size of the hardware circuit. The number of transistors on a chip continues to increase, but current SoC designs may not be able to exploit the potential performance, especially with energy consumption and chip area becoming two major concerns. Traditional SoC designs usually separate software and hardware. Thus, the process of improving the system performance is a complicated task for both software and hardware designers. The aim of this research is to develop hardware acceleration workflow for software applications. Thus, system performance can be improved with constraints of energy consumption and on-chip resource costs. The characteristics of software applications can be identified by using profiling tools. Hardware acceleration can have significant performance improvement for highly mathematical calculations or repeated functions. The performance of SoC systems can then be improved, if the hardware acceleration method is used to accelerate the element that incurs performance overheads. The concepts mentioned in this study can be easily applied to a variety of sophisticated software applications. The contributions of SoC-based hardware acceleration in the hardware-software co-design platform include the following: (1) Software profiling methods are applied to H.264 Coder-Decoder (CODEC) core. The hotspot function of aimed application is identified by using critical attributes such as cycles per loop, loop rounds, etc. (2) Hardware acceleration method based on Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is used to resolve system bottlenecks and improve system performance. The identified hotspot function is then converted to a hardware accelerator and mapped onto the hardware platform. Two types of hardware acceleration methods – central bus design and co-processor design, are implemented for comparison in the proposed architecture. (3) System specifications, such as performance, energy consumption, and resource costs, are measured and analyzed. The trade-off of these three factors is compared and balanced. Different hardware accelerators are implemented and evaluated based on system requirements. 4) The system verification platform is designed based on Integrated Circuit (IC) workflow. Hardware optimization techniques are used for higher performance and less resource costs. Experimental results show that the proposed hardware acceleration workflow for software applications is an efficient technique. The system can reach 2.8X performance improvements and save 31.84% energy consumption by applying the Bus-IP design. The Co-processor design can have 7.9X performance and save 75.85% energy consumption

Multivisceral resection of nonfunctional pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasm with nearby organ invasion: a case report

Pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (pNENs) are relatively rare epithelial malignancies originating from pancreatic neuroendocrine cells, pathologically classified into well-differentiated pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNETs) and poorly-differentiated pancreatic neuroendocrine carcinoma (pNECs). Although they also fall under the category of pNENs, the almost entirely distinct biological characteristics and survival prognosis have caused debate among surgeons when it comes to the development of surgical intervention options, particularly for locally advanced G3 pNETs and pNECs. We present a case of 66-year-old male with nonfunctional G3 pNET, invasion of five nearby pancreatic organs and type II liver metastases. The patient achieved good outcomes after undergoing multivisceral resection and postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy. This finding helps surgeons better understand locally advanced pNENs, formulate treatment decisions systematically and confidently, and balance patient benefits and risks of surgery

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Optimization and acceleration of distance histogram algorithm of three-dimensionspace data of coal mine

The properties and data structure of distance histogram algorithm of three-dimensional space data were analyzed, and a general computing method based on graphics processor and a high performance computing method based on FPGA were proposed. The calculation method based on graphics processor is used to implement single instruction multiple data parallel optimization of distance histogram algorithm of three-dimensional space data; the calculation method based on FPGA can realize hardware block optimization, and achieve the optimal matching of the hardware structure of the algorithm. The experimental results show that using the calculation method based on graphics processor can make the algorithm reach performance acceleration with an average of 18 times, and the computing method based on FPGA can make the algorithm reach performance acceleration with an average of 30 times, which greatly improve data processing ability of the algorithm

High-Resolution Cooperate Density-Integrated Inversion Method of Airborne Gravity and Its Gradient Data

Airborne (or satellite) gravity measurement is a commonly used remote sensing method to obtain the underground density distribution. Airborne gravity gradiometry data have a higher horizontal resolution to shallower causative sources than airborne gravity anomaly, so joint exploration of airborne gravity and its gradient data can simultaneously obtain the anomaly feature of sources with different depths. The most commonly used joint inversion method of gravity and its gradient data is the data combined method, which is to combine all the components into a data matrix as mutual constraints to reduce ambiguity and non-uniqueness. In order to obtain higher resolution results, we proposed a cooperate density-integrated inversion method of airborne gravity and its gradient data, which firstly carried out the joint inversion using cross-gradient constraints to obtain two density structures, and then fused two recovered models into a result through Fourier transform; finally, data combined joint inversion of airborne gravity, and gradient data were reperformed to achieve high-resolution density result using fused density results as a reference model. Compared to the data combined joint inversion method, the proposed cooperate density-integrated inversion method can obtain higher resolution and more accurate density distribution of shallow and deep bodies meanwhile. We also applied it to real data in the mining area of western Liaoning Province, China. The results showed that the depth of the skarn-type iron mine in the region is about 900–1300 m and gives a more specific distribution compared to the geological results, which provided reliable data for the next exploration plan

Brief Review of Epitaxy and Emission Properties of GaSb and Related Semiconductors

Groups III–V semiconductors have received a great deal of attention because of their potential advantages for use in optoelectronic and electronic applications. Gallium antimonide (GaSb) and GaSb-related semiconductors, which exhibit high carrier mobility and a narrow band gap (0.725 eV at 300 K), have been recognized as suitable candidates for high-performance optoelectronics in the mid-infrared range. However, the performances of the resulting devices are strongly dependent on the structural and emission properties of the materials. Enhancement of the crystal quality, adjustment of the alloy components, and improvement of the emission properties have therefore become the focus of research efforts toward GaSb semiconductors. Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is suitable for the large-scale production of GaSb, especially for high crystal quality and beneficial optical properties. We review the recent progress in the epitaxy of GaSb materials, including films and nanostructures composed of GaSb-related alloys and compounds. The emission properties of these materials and their relationships to the alloy components and material structures are also discussed. Specific examples are included to provide insight on the common general physical and optical properties and parameters involved in the synergistic epitaxy processes. In addition, the further directions for the epitaxy of GaSb materials are forecasted

Epilepsy gene prickle ensures neuropil glial ensheathment through regulating cell adhesion molecules

Summary: Human PRICKLE1 gene has been associated with epilepsy. However, the underlying pathogenetic mechanisms remain elusive. Here we report a Drosophila prickle mutant pkIG1-1 exhibiting strong epileptic seizures and, intriguingly, abnormal glial wrapping. We found that pk is required in both neurons and glia, particularly neuropil ensheathing glia (EGN), the fly analog of oligodendrocyte, for protecting the animal from seizures. We further revealed that Pk directly binds to the membrane skeleton binding protein Ankyrin 2 (Ank2), thereby regulating the cell adhesion molecule Neuroglian (Nrg). Such protein interactions also apply to their human homologues. Moreover, nrg and ank2 mutant flies also display seizure phenotypes, and expression of either Nrg or Ank2 rescues the seizures of pkIG1-1 flies. Therefore, our findings indicate that Prickle ensures neuron-glial interaction within neuropils through regulating cell adhesion between neurons and ensheathing glia. Dysregulation of this process may represent a conserved pathogenic mechanism underlying PRICKLE1-associated epilepsy