Automated power gating methodology for dataflow-based reconfigurable systems

Modern embedded systems designers are required to implement efficient multi-functional applications, over portable platforms under strong energy and resources constraints. Automatic tools may help them in challenging such a complex scenario: to develop complex reconfigurable systems while reducing time-to-market. At the same time, automated methodologies can aid them to manage power consumption. Dataflow models of computation, thanks to their modularity, turned out to be extremely useful to these purposes. In this paper, we will demonstrate as they can be used to automatically achieve power management since the earliest stage of the design flow. In particular, we are focussing on the automation of power gating. The methodology has been evaluated on an image processing use case targeting an ASIC 90 nm CMOS technology

Mutual Impact between Clock Gating and High Level Synthesis in Reconfigurable Hardware Accelerators

With the diffusion of cyber-physical systems and internet of things, adaptivity and low power consumption became of primary importance in digital systems design. Reconfigurable heterogeneous platforms seem to be one of the most suitable choices to cope with such challenging context. However, their development and power optimization are not trivial, especially considering hardware acceleration components. On the one hand high level synthesis could simplify the design of such kind of systems, but on the other hand it can limit the positive effects of the adopted power saving techniques. In this work, the mutual impact of different high level synthesis tools and the application of the well known clock gating strategy in the development of reconfigurable accelerators is studied. The aim is to optimize a clock gating application according to the chosen high level synthesis engine and target technology (Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) or Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)). Different levels of application of clock gating are evaluated, including a novel multi level solution. Besides assessing the benefits and drawbacks of the clock gating application at different levels, hints for future design automation of low power reconfigurable accelerators through high level synthesis are also derived

Modelling and Automated Implementation of Optimal Power Saving Strategies in Coarse-Grained Reconfigurable Architectures

This paper focuses on how to efficiently reduce power consumption in coarse-grained reconfigurable designs, to allow their effective adoption in heterogeneous architectures supporting and accelerating complex and highly variable multifunctional applications. We propose a design flow for this kind of architectures that, besides their automatic customization, is also capable of determining their optimal power management support. Power and clock gating implementation costs are estimated in advance, before their physical implementation, on the basis of the functional, technological, and architectural parameters of the baseline design. Experimental results, on 90 and 45 nm CMOS technologies, demonstrate that the proposed approach guides the designer towards optimal implementation

Reconfigurable Adaptive Multiple Transform Hardware Solutions for Versatile Video Coding

Computer aided design is nowadays a must to quickly provide optimized circuits, to cope with stringent time to market constraints, and to be able to guarantee colliding constrained requirements. Design automation is exploited, whenever possible, to speed up the design process and relieve the developers from error prone customization, optimization and tuning phases. In this work we study the possibility of adopting automated algorithms for the optimization of reconfigurable multiple constant multiplication circuits. In particular, an exploration of novel reconfigurable Adaptive Multiple Transform circuital solutions adoptable in video coding applications has been conducted. These solutions have also been compared with the unique similar work at the state of the art, revealing to be beneficial under certain constraints. Moreover, the proposed approach has been generalized with some guidelines helpful to designers facing similar problems

A Relationship between bruxism and orofacial-dystonia? A trigeminal electrophysiological approach in a case report of pineal cavernoma

Background: In some clinical cases, bruxism may be correlated to central nervous system hyperexcitability, suggesting that bruxism may represent a subclinical form of dystonia. To examine this hypothesis, we performed an electrophysiological evaluation of the excitability of the trigeminal nervous system in a patient affected by pineal cavernoma with pain symptoms in the orofacial region and pronounced bruxism. Methods: Electrophysiological studies included bilateral electrical transcranial stimulation of the trigeminal roots, analysis of the jaw jerk reflex, recovery cycle of masseter inhibitory reflex, and a magnetic resonance imaging study of the brain. Results: The neuromuscular responses of the left- and right-side bilateral trigeminal motor potentials showed a high degree of symmetry in latency (1.92 ms and 1.96 ms, respectively) and amplitude (11 mV and 11.4 mV, respectively), whereas the jaw jerk reflex amplitude of the right and left masseters was 5.1 mV and 8.9 mV, respectively. The test stimulus for the recovery cycle of masseter inhibitory reflex evoked both silent periods at an interstimulus interval of 150 ms. The duration of the second silent period evoked by the test stimulus was 61 ms and 54 ms on the right and left masseters, respectively, which was greater than that evoked by the conditioning stimulus (39 ms and 35 ms, respectively). Conclusions: We found evidence of activation and peripheral sensitization of the nociceptive fibers, the primary and secondary nociceptive neurons in the central nervous system, and the endogenous pain control systems (including both the inhibitory and facilitatory processes), in the tested subject. These data suggest that bruxism and central orofacial pain can coexist, but are two independent symptoms, which may explain why numerous experimental and clinical studies fail to reach unequivocal conclusions.</br

A road to reality with topological superconductors

Topological states of matter are a source of low-energy quasiparticles, bound to a defect or propagating along the surface. In a superconductor these are Majorana fermions, described by a real rather than a complex wave function. The absence of complex phase factors promises protection against decoherence in quantum computations based on topological superconductivity. This is a tutorial style introduction written for a Nature Physics focus issue on topological matter.Comment: pre-copy-editing, author-produced version of the published paper: 4 pages, 2 figure

De Novo Loss-of-Function Mutations in USP9X Cause a Female-Specific Recognizable Syndrome with Developmental Delay and Congenital Malformations

Mutations in more than a hundred genes have been reported to cause X-linked recessive intellectual disability (ID) mainly in males. In contrast, the number of identified X-linked genes in which de novo mutations specifically cause ID in females is limited. Here, we report 17 females with de novo loss-of-function mutations in USP9X, encoding a highly conserved deubiquitinating enzyme. The females in our study have a specific phenotype that includes ID/developmental delay (DD), characteristic facial features, short stature, and distinct congenital malformations comprising choanal atresia, anal abnormalities, post-axial polydactyly, heart defects, hypomastia, cleft palate/bifid uvula, progressive scoliosis, and structural brain abnormalities. Four females from our cohort were identified by targeted genetic testing because their phenotype was suggestive for USP9X mutations. In several females, pigment changes along Blaschko lines and body asymmetry were observed, which is probably related to differential (escape from) X-inactivation between tissues. Expression studies on both mRNA and protein level in affected-female-derived fibroblasts showed significant reduction of USP9X level, confirming the loss-of-function effect of the identified mutations. Given that some features of affected females are also reported in known ciliopathy syndromes, we examined the role of USP9X in the primary cilium and found that endogenous USP9X localizes along the length of the ciliary axoneme, indicating that its loss of function could indeed disrupt cilium-regulated processes. Absence of dysregulated ciliary parameters in affected female-derived fibroblasts, however, points toward spatiotemporal specificity of ciliary USP9X (dys-)function

Design and management of image processing pipelines within CPS : Acquired experience towards the end of the FitOptiVis ECSEL Project

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) are dynamic and reactive systems interacting with processes, environment and, sometimes, humans. They are often distributed with sensors and actuators, characterized for being smart, adaptive, predictive and react in real-time. Indeed, image- and video-processing pipelines are a prime source for environmental information for systems allowing them to take better decisions according to what they see. Therefore, in FitOptiVis, we are developing novel methods and tools to integrate complex image- and video-processing pipelines. FitOptiVis aims to deliver a reference architecture for describing and optimizing quality and resource management for imaging and video pipelines in CPSs both at design- and run-time. The architecture is concretized in low-power, high-performance, smart components, and in methods and tools for combined design-time and run-time multi-objective optimization and adaptation within system and environment constraints.Peer reviewe