The Sandblaster Software-Defined Radio Platform for Mobile 4G Wireless Communications

We present a tier 2 Software Defined-Radio platform (SDR), built around the latest Sandbridge Technologies' multithreaded Digital Signal Processor (DSP) SB3500, along with the description of major design steps taken to ensure the best radio link and computational performance. This SDR platform is capable of executing 4G wireless communication standards such as WiMAX Wave 2, WLAN 802.11 g, and LTE. Performance results for WiMAX are presented in the conclusion section

Effect of general anaesthesia and surgery on neutrophil function

The effects of general anaesthesia and surgical trauma on neutrophil function were studied in 60 female ASA 1 and 2 patients undergoing anaesthesia for gynaecological surgery. Patients were divided into three groups depending on the degree of trauma and duration of surgery. Group 1 (n = 15) were patients for dilatation and curettage (minor surgical trauma) and were given 2% halothane. Group 2 (n = 30) had laparoscopic surgery (moderate surgical trauma) and received either 0.5% halothane or 1% enflurane. Group 3 (n= 15) were those having hysterectomy (major surgical trauma) and received 0.5% halothane for a longer duration. Venous samples were taken 30 min before anaesthesia (control value), 10 min after induction of anaesthesia, 10 min after the start of surgery, 30 min after the end of anaesthesia and 24 h later. Phagocytic index, nitroblue tetrazolium reduction test, total leucocyte count, and differential leucocyte counts were performed on each sample. Data were analysed by paired t-test to compare findings in the same patient and by unpaired t-test for differences between groups. Anaesthesia with halothane 0 5% to 2% caused a dose-related depressant effect on leucocyte function which reversed. Enflurane 1% on the other hand caused significantly greater depression of leucocyte function compared with 0.5% halothane which persisted during the recovery period and recovered on the first postoperative day. Total leucocyte counts also showed a fivefold increase in the major surgery groups

Hand held analog television over WiMAX executed in SW

This paper describes a device capable of performing the following tasks: it samples and decodes the composite video analog TV signal, it encodes the resulting RGB data into a MPEG-4 stream and sends it over a WiMAX link. On the other end of the link a similar device receives the WiMAX signal, in either TDD or FDD mode, decodes the MPEG data and displays it on the LCD display. The device can be a hand held device, such as a mobile phone or a PDA. The algorithms for the analog TV, WiMAX physical layer, WiMAX MAC and the MPEG encoder/decoder are executed entirely in software in real time, using the Sandbridge Technologies’ low power SB3011 digital signal processor. The SB3011 multithreaded digital signal processor includes four DSP cores with eight threads each, and one ARM processor. The execution of the algorithms requires the entire four cores for the FDD mode. The WiMAX MAC is executed on the ARM processor.Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc