The AXIOM software layers

AXIOM project aims at developing a heterogeneous computing board (SMP-FPGA).The Software Layers developed at the AXIOM project are explained.OmpSs provides an easy way to execute heterogeneous codes in multiple cores. People and objects will soon share the same digital network for information exchange in a world named as the age of the cyber-physical systems. The general expectation is that people and systems will interact in real-time. This poses pressure onto systems design to support increasing demands on computational power, while keeping a low power envelop. Additionally, modular scaling and easy programmability are also important to ensure these systems to become widespread. The whole set of expectations impose scientific and technological challenges that need to be properly addressed.The AXIOM project (Agile, eXtensible, fast I/O Module) will research new hardware/software architectures for cyber-physical systems to meet such expectations. The technical approach aims at solving fundamental problems to enable easy programmability of heterogeneous multi-core multi-board systems. AXIOM proposes the use of the task-based OmpSs programming model, leveraging low-level communication interfaces provided by the hardware. Modular scalability will be possible thanks to a fast interconnect embedded into each module. To this aim, an innovative ARM and FPGA-based board will be designed, with enhanced capabilities for interfacing with the physical world. Its effectiveness will be demonstrated with key scenarios such as Smart Video-Surveillance and Smart Living/Home (domotics).Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

The AXIOM platform for next-generation cyber physical systems

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) are widely used in many applications that require interactions between humans and their physical environment. These systems usually integrate a set of hardware-software components for optimal application execution in terms of performance and energy consumption. The AXIOM project (Agile, eXtensible, fast I/O Module), presented in this paper, proposes a hardware-software platform for CPS coupled with an easy parallel programming model and sufficient connectivity so that the performance can scale-up by adding multiple boards. AXIOM supports a task-based programming model based on OmpSs and leverages a high-speed, inexpensive communication interface called AXIOM-Link. The board also tightly couples the CPU with reconfigurable resources to accelerate portions of the applications. As case studies, AXIOM uses smart video surveillance, and smart home living applicationsThis work is partially supported by the European Union H2020 program through the AXIOM project (grant ICT-01-2014 GA 645496) and HiPEAC (GA 687698), by the Spanish Government through Programa Severo Ochoa (SEV-2015-0493), by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology through TIN2015-65316-P project, and by the Generalitat de Catalunya (contracts 2014-SGR-1051 and 2014-SGR-1272). We also thank the Xilinx University Program for its hardware and software donations.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Axiom voice recognition dataset

<p>The AXIOM Voice Dataset has the main purpose of gathering audio recordings from Italian natural language speakers. This voice data collection intended to obtain audio reconding sample for the training and testing of VIMAR algorithm implemented for the Smart Home scenario for the Axiom board. The final goal was to developing an efficient voice recognition system using machine learning algorithms.  A team of UX researchers of the University of Siena collected data for five months and tested the voice recognition system on the AXIOM board [1]. The data acquisition process involved natural Italian speakers who provided their written consent to participate in the research project. The participants were selected in order to maintain a cluster with different characteristics in gender, age, region of origin and background. </p

Chemical Synthesis and Characterization of Wild-type and Biotinylated N-terminal Domain 1-64 of Beta2-glycoprotein I

Abstract: The antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is a severe autoimmune disease associated with recurrent thrombosis and fetal loss and characterized by the presence of circulating autoantibodies (aAbs) mainly recognizing the N-terminal domain (DmI) of b2-glycoprotein I (b2GpI). To possibly block anti-b2GpI Abs activity, we synthesized the entire DmI comprising residues 1\u201364 of b2GpI by chemical methods. Oxidative disulfide renaturation of DmI was achieved in the presence of reduced and oxidized glutathione. The folded DmI (N-DmI) was purified by RP-HPLC, and its chemical identity and correct disulfide pairing (Cys4-Cys47 and Cys32-Cys60) were established by enzymatic peptide mass fingerprint analysis. The results of the conformational characterization, conducted by far- and near-UV CD and fluorescence spectroscopy, provided strong evidence for the native-like structure of DmI, which is also quite resistant to both Gdn-HCl and thermal denaturation. However, the thermodynamic stability of N-DmI at 37C was remarkably low, in agreement with the unfolding energetics of small proteins. Of note, aAbs failed to bind to plates coated with N-DmI in direct binding experiments. From ELISA competition experiments with plate-immobilized b2GpI, a mean IC50 value of 8.8 lM could be estimated for N-DmI, similar to that of the full-length protein, IC50(b2GpI) 5 6.4 lM, whereas the cysteine-reduced and carboxamidomethylated DmI, RC-DmI, failed to bind to anti-b2GpI Abs. The versatility of chemical synthesis was also exploited to produce an N-terminally biotin-(PEG)2-derivative of N-DmI (Biotin- N-DmI) to be possibly used as a new tool in APS diagnosis. Strikingly, Biotin-N-DmI loaded onto a streptavidin-coated plate selectively recognized aAbs from APS patients

AXIOM: a flexible platform for the smart home

The AXIOM hardware/software platform aims at bringing easy programmability on top of a cluster of processors by using a fast interconnect and FPGA as a basis for building a scalable embedded system. The Smart Home is one of the key scenarios in which AXIOM could be useful for the Internet-of-Things (IoT). In Smart Homes, everything is linked to the flow of information that from the “on the field” devices needs to arrive to the cloud servers. The information sensed in the environment will not be transmitted as is to the higher layers, but is somehow interpreted to provide a synthetic light-weight representation of the environment. In such a scenario, it is then clear that there is a need for peripheral nodes as well as intermediate gateways which needs to be able to perform high-performance computational loads. AXIOM provides the possibility of designing a cluster of low-power/low-budget boards, which could be packed inside a “high-performance embedded low-cost product.” The AXIOM boards are heterogeneous, thus allowing for even greater diversity which is needed in those kind of IoT scenarios. The cluster itself can then be integrated inside the IoT architectures as “computational-power node,” which could be the center of a distributed intelligence near the edges of the IoT network.Peer Reviewe

The AXIOM Project: IoT on Heterogeneous Embedded Platforms

The AXIOM project aims at providing an environment for Cyber-Physical Systems. Smart Video Surveillance targets public environments, involving real-time face detection in crowds. Smart Home Living targets home environments and access control. These applications are used as experimental use cases for the AXIOM platform, currently based on the Xilinx Zynq-7000 SoCs. We have integrated the Xilinx Vivado HLS tool for the FPGA support within the OmpSs programming model, to enable OpenMP-like programming in the FPGA. This paper presents the programming environment, and the evaluation of the most computationally expensive parts of the target applications

AXIOM: a hardware-software platform for cyber physical systems

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) are widely necessary for many applications that require interactions with the humans and the physical environment. A CPS integrates a set of hardware-software components to distribute, execute and manage its operations. The AXIOM project (Agile, eXtensible, fast I/O Module) aims at developing a hardware-software platform for CPS such that i) it can use an easy parallel programming model and ii) it can easily scale-up the performance by adding multiple boards (e.g., 1 to 10 boards can run in parallel). AXIOM supports taskbased programming model based on OmpSs and leverage a high-speed, inexpensive communication interface called AXIOM-Link. Another key aspect is that the board provides programmable logic (FPGA) to accelerate portions of an application. We are using smart video surveillance, and smart home living applications to drive our design.Peer Reviewe

AXIOM: a hardware-software platform for cyber physical systems

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) are widely necessary for many applications that require interactions with the humans and the physical environment. A CPS integrates a set of hardware-software components to distribute, execute and manage its operations. The AXIOM project (Agile, eXtensible, fast I/O Module) aims at developing a hardware-software platform for CPS such that i) it can use an easy parallel programming model and ii) it can easily scale-up the performance by adding multiple boards (e.g., 1 to 10 boards can run in parallel). AXIOM supports taskbased programming model based on OmpSs and leverage a high-speed, inexpensive communication interface called AXIOM-Link. Another key aspect is that the board provides programmable logic (FPGA) to accelerate portions of an application. We are using smart video surveillance, and smart home living applications to drive our design.Peer Reviewe