An automatic tool flow for the combined implementation of multi-mode circuits

A multi-mode circuit implements the functionality of a limited number of circuits, called modes, of which at any given time only one needs to be realised. Using run-time reconfiguration of an FPGA, all the modes can be implemented on the same reconfigurable region, requiring only an area that can contain the biggest mode. Typically, conventional run-time reconfiguration techniques generate a configuration for every mode separately. To switch between modes the complete reconfigurable region is rewritten, which often leads to very long reconfiguration times. In this paper we present a novel, fully automated tool flow that exploits similarities between the modes and uses Dynamic Circuit Specialization to drastically reduce reconfiguration time. Experimental results show that the number of bits that is rewritten in the configuration memory reduces with a factor from 4.6X to 5.1X without significant performance penalties

Adding aspect-oriented features to MATLAB

This paper presents an approach to enrich MATLAB with aspect-oriented extensions to experiment different implementation features. The language we propose aims to configure the low-level data representation of real variables and expressions, to a specifically-tailored fixed-point data representation that benefits from a more efficient support by computing engines (e.g., DSPs, application-specific architectures, etc.) without specific hardware-based floating point units. Additionally, the approach aims to help developers to introduce handlers and monitoring features, and to configure a function with an optimized implementation.FCT under projects PPC-VM (POSI/CHS/47158/2002) and SOFTAS (POSI/EIA/ 60189/200

A Methodology to Design FPGA-based PID Controllers

This paper presents a methodology to implement PID (Proportional, Integral, Derivative) controllers in FPGAs (Field-Programmable Gate Arrays) using fixed-point numerical representation. The Matlab/Simulink environment is used for modeling, simulation and evaluation the performance provided by different fixed-point representations using a given control process. A static bit-width analyzer is used to give a specialized fixed-point representation for each operand/operator in the controller system. After bit-width analysis, a VHDL represen-tation of the system is generated. Results show that the proposed methodology leads to shorten design cycles achieving important resource savings by employing specialized fixed-point repre-sentations

A domain-specific aspect language for transforming MATLAB programs

Aspect-oriented programming provides powerful ways to augment programs with information out of the scope of the base language while avoiding harming code readability and thus portability. MATLAB is a popular modeling/programming language that will strongly benefit of aspect-oriented programming features. For instance, MATLAB programmers could use aspects to provide information such as restrictions on allowed data types and/or values, monitoring specific aspects of the execution such as the effective dataset sizes or if a given variable ever assumes a specific value, without “polluting” the code with “check code”. This paper describes the main concepts of a domain-specific aspect language (DSAL) for specifying transformations of MATLAB programs in view of supporting optimizations by facilitating the experimentation of alternative implementations. This DSAL specifies aspect modules structured in three sections: intersections equivalent to AspectJ poincuts, actions equivalent to AspectJ advice, and conditions that control triggering of actions. Support for aspect composition strategies and aspect parameterization of tokens from the base program are also supported. We believe the described features complement and enhance MATLAB programming in substantial and valuable ways

Enriching MATLAB with aspect-oriented features for developing embedded systems

This article presents an approach to enrich the MATLAB language with aspect-oriented modularity features, enabling developers to experiment different implementation characteristics and to acquire runtime data and traces without polluting their base MATLAB code. We propose a language through which programmers configure the low-level data representation of variables and expressions. Examples include specifically-tailored fixed-point data representations leading to more efficient support for the underlying hardware, e.g., digital signal processors and application-specific architectures, without built-in floating point units. This approach assists developers in adding handlers and monitoring features in a non-invasive way as well as configuring MATLAB functions with optimized implementations. Different aspect modules can be used to retarget common MATLAB code bases for different purposes and implementations. We validate the proposed approach with a set of representative examples where we attain a simple way to explore a number of properties. Experiment results and collected aspect-oriented software metrics lend support to the claims on its usefulness.This work was partially supported by FCT (Portuguese Science Foundation) under the project AMADEUS (POCTI, PTDC/EIA/70271/2006)

Paleolítico médio em Galapos (Arrábida)

Descrevem-se artefactos líticos de quartzo (e sílex) recolhidos em Galapos (Creiro), na vertente meridional da Serra da Arrábida. São característicos do Paleolítico médio (Mustierense) e reforçam a evidência da importante ocupação humana da região, já salientada pelo estudo da gruta da Figueira Brava.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

LARA as a language-independent aspect-oriented programming approach

Usually, Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) languages are an extension of a specific target language (e.g., AspectJ for Java and AspectC++ for C++). This coupling can impose drawbacks such as arbitrary limitations to the aspect language. LARA is a DSL for source-to-source transformations inspired by AOP concepts, and has been designed to be independent of the target language. In this paper we propose techniques to overcome some of the challenges presented by a language-independent approach to source code transformations, and present and discuss possible solutions and their impact. Additionally, we present some of the benefits and opportunities of this approach. We present an evaluation of our approach, show that we can significantly reduce the effort to develop weavers for new target languages and that the proposed techniques contribute to more concise LARA aspects and safer semantics. Copyright 2017 ACM