Addressing the Smart Systems Design Challenge: The SMAC Platform

This article presents the concepts, the organization, and the preliminary application results of SMAC, a smart systems co-design platform. The SMAC platform, which has been developed as Integrated Project (IP) of the 7th ICT Call under the Objective 3.2 \u201cSmart components and Smart Systems integration\u201d addresses the challenges of the integration of heterogeneous and conflicting domains that emerge in the design of smart systems. SMAC includes methodologies and EDA tools enabling multi-disciplinary and multi-scale modelling and design, simulation of multidomain systems, subsystems and components at different levels of abstraction, system integration and exploration for optimization of functional and non-functional metrics. The article presents the preliminary results obtained by adopting the SMAC platform for the design of a limb tracking smart system

Design and simulation of an integrated optical CMOS heart rate sensor

An optical CMOS heart rate sensor that processes the photoplethysmographic signal was designed and fabricated in Austriamicrosystems 0.35um CMOS process. The sensor consists of photodiode, transimpedance amplifier, analogue bandpass filters, analogue-to-digital converters, digital signal processor, and a timing circuit that is used to modulate the external light-emitting diodes. The mixed-signal simulation has been carried out to validate the system design. With modulated green light source and integrated lock-in detection the sensor is capable of extracting clean photoplethysmographic signal when it is operated in reflectance mode. The heart rate output was compared with commercial devices and they show a good agreement. The chip-level integration enables a small footprint of the design and makes it suitable for the applications of ambulatory monitoring

Addressing the Smart Systems Design Challenge: The SMAC Platform

This article presents the concepts, the organization, and the preliminary application results of SMAC, a smart systems co-design platform. The SMAC platform, which has been developed as Integrated Project (IP) of the 7th ICT Call under the Objective 3.2 \u201cSmart components and Smart Systems integration\u201d addresses the challenges of the integration of heterogeneous and conflicting domains that emerge in the design of smart systems. SMAC includes methodologies and EDA tools enabling multi-disciplinary and multi-scale modelling and design, simulation of multidomain systems, subsystems and components at different levels of abstraction, system integration and exploration for optimization of functional and non-functional metrics. The article presents the preliminary results obtained by adopting the SMAC platform for the design of a limb tracking smart system

SMAC: Smart Systems Co-Design

In this work we present the concepts and the organization of the FP7 Project SMAC (SMArt systems Co-design), an Integrated Project (IP) of the 7th ICT Call under the Objective 3.2 “Smart components and Smart Systems integration”. We describe in particular the project objectives and its organization, and how it addresses the challenges of the integration of heterogeneous and conflicting domains that emerge in the design of smart systems. The main outcome of the SMAC project is the development of flexible software platform ( the SMAC platform) for smart subsystems/components design include methodologies and EDA tools enabling multi-disciplinary and multi-scale modeling and design, simulation of multi-domain systems, subsystems and components at all levels of abstraction, system integration and exploration for optimization of functional and non-functional metrics

Longley-Rice model prediction inaccuracies in the UHF and VHF TV bands in mountainous terrain

Coverage prediction is of prime importance for TV broadcasting. A classic model used for TV coverage prediction is the Longley-Rice ITM (Irregular Terrain Model). Other well-known multiple knife-edge diffraction models are the Epstein-Peterson, Deygout, and Giovaneli methods. In this paper, comparisons are presented between accurate field-strength measurements, taken by a Rohde & Schwarz FSH-3 portable spectrum analyzer using precision calibrated antennas and calculated results from the Longley-Rice model, and the multiple knife-edge models in conjunction with the 3-arc-second SRTM (Satellite Radar Topography Mission) terrain data. Calculations are limited to the main 2 knife-edges of the propagation path. The Longley-Rice model predicts received field strength accurately in most cases even in mountainous terrain with multiple diffracting obstacles in the VHF and UHF TV Bands. However, in some long distance fringe reception areas field-strength is underestimated by the Longley-Rice model, while it is accurately calculated by the multiple knife-edge diffraction models