Many real systems are composed of multi-state components with different performance levels and several failure modes. These affect the whole system's performance.

Most books on reliability theory cover binary models that allow a system only to function perfectly or fail completely.

"The Universal Generating Function in Reliability Analysis and Optimization" is the first book that gives a comprehensive description of the universal generating function technique and its applications in binary and multi-state system reliability analysis.

Features:
- an introduction to basic tools of multi-state system reliability and optimization;
- applications of the universal generating function in widely used multi-state systems;
- examples of the adaptation of the universal generating function to different systems in mechanical, industrial and software engineering.

This monograph will be of value to anyone interested in system reliability, performance analysis and optimization in industrial, electrical and nuclear engineering.

Many new topologies and circuit design techniques have emerged recently to improve the performance of active inductors, but a comprehensive treatment of the theory, topology, characteristics, and design constraint of CMOS active inductors and transformers, and a detailed examination of their emerging applications in high-speed analog signal processing and data communications over wire and wireless channels, is not available. This book is an attempt to provide an in-depth examination and a systematic presentation of the operation principles and implementation details of CMOS active inductors and transformers, and a detailed examination of their emerging applications in high-speed analog signal processing and data communications over wire and wireless channels.

The content of the book is drawn from recently published research papers and are not available in a single, cohesive book. Equal emphasis is given to the theory of CMOS active inductors and transformers, and their emerging applications. Major subjects to be covered in the book include: inductive characteristics in high-speed analog signal processing and data communications, spiral inductors and transformers - modeling and limitations, a historical perspective of device synthesis, the topology, characterization, and implementation of CMOS active inductors and transformers, and the application of CMOS active inductors and transformers in high-speed analog and digital signal processing and data communications.

The authors have consolidated their research work in this volume titled Soft Computing for Data Mining Applications. The monograph gives an insight into the research in the ?elds of Data Mining in combination with Soft Computing methodologies. In these days, the data continues to grow - ponentially. Much of the data is implicitly or explicitly imprecise. Database discovery seeks to discover noteworthy, unrecognized associations between the data items in the existing database. The potential of discovery comes from the realization that alternate contexts may reveal additional valuable information. The rate at which the data is storedis growing at a phenomenal rate. Asaresult, traditionaladhocmixturesofstatisticaltechniquesanddata managementtools are no longer adequate for analyzing this vast collection of data. Severaldomainswherelargevolumesofdataarestoredincentralizedor distributeddatabasesincludesapplicationslikeinelectroniccommerce, bio- formatics, computer security, Web intelligence, intelligent learning database systems, ?nance, marketing, healthcare, telecommunications, andother?elds. E?cient tools and algorithms for knowledge discovery in large data sets have been devised during the recent years. These methods exploit the ca- bility of computers to search huge amounts of data in a fast and e?ective manner. However, the data to be analyzed is imprecise and a?icted with - certainty. In the case of heterogeneous data sources such as text and video, the data might moreover be ambiguous and partly con?icting. Besides, p- terns and relationships of interest are usually approximate. Thus, in order to make the information mining process more robust it requires tolerance toward imprecision, uncertainty and exc

We describe in this book, new methods and applications of hybrid intelligent systems using soft computing techniques. Soft Computing (SC) consists of several intelligent computing paradigms, including fuzzy logic, neural networks, and evolutionary al- rithms, which can be used to produce powerful hybrid intelligent systems. The book is organized in five main parts, which contain a group of papers around a similar subject. The first part consists of papers with the main theme of intelligent control, which are basically papers that use hybrid systems to solve particular problems of control. The second part contains papers with the main theme of pattern recognition, which are basically papers using soft computing techniques for achieving pattern recognition in different applications. The third part contains papers with the themes of intelligent agents and social systems, which are papers that apply the ideas of agents and social behavior to solve real-world problems. The fourth part contains papers that deal with the hardware implementation of intelligent systems for solving particular problems. The fifth part contains papers that deal with modeling, simulation and optimization for real-world applications.

This monograph is devoted to theoretical and experimental study of inhibitory decision and association rules. Inhibitory rules contain on the right-hand side a relation of the kind "attribut = value." The use of inhibitory rules instead of deterministic (standard) ones allows us to describe more completely infor- tion encoded in decision or information systems and to design classi?ers of high quality. The mostimportantfeatureofthis monographis thatit includesanadvanced mathematical analysis of problems on inhibitory rules. We consider algorithms for construction of inhibitory rules, bounds on minimal complexity of inhibitory rules, and algorithms for construction of the set of all minimal inhibitory rules. We also discuss results of experiments with standard and lazy classi?ers based on inhibitory rules. These results show that inhibitory decision and association rules can be used in data mining and knowledge discovery both for knowledge representation and for prediction. Inhibitory rules can be also used under the analysis and design of concurrent systems. The results obtained in the monograph can be useful for researchers in such areas as machine learning, data mining and knowledge discovery, especially for those who are working in rough set theory, test theory, and logical analysis of data (LAD). The monograph can be used under the creation of courses for graduate students and for Ph.D. studies. TheauthorsofthisbookextendanexpressionofgratitudetoProfessorJanusz Kacprzyk, to Dr. Thomas Ditzinger and to the Studies in Computational Int- ligence sta? at Springer for their support in making this book possible.

In high speed communications and signal processing applications, random electrical noise that emanates from devices has a direct impact on critical high level specifications, for instance, system bit error rate or signal to noise ratio. Hence, predicting noise in RF systems at the design stage is extremely important. Additionally, with the growing complexity of modern RF systems, a flat transistor-level noise analysis for the entire system is becoming increasingly difficult. Hence accurate modelling at the component level and behavioural level simulation techniques are also becoming increasingly important. In this book, we concentrate on developing noise simulation techniques for RF circuits.
The difference between our approach of performing noise analysis for RF circuits and the traditional techniques is that we first concentrate on the noise analysis for oscillators instead of non-oscillatory circuits. As a first step, we develop a new quantitative description of the dynamics of stable nonlinear oscillators in presence of deterministic perturbations. Unlike previous such attempts, this description is not limited to two-dimensional system of equations and does not make any assumptions about the type of nonlinearity. By considering stochastic perturbations in a stochastic differential calculus setting, we obtain a correct mathematical characterization of the noisy oscillator output. We present efficient numerical techniques both in time domain and in frequency domain for computing the phase noise of oscillators. This approach also determines the relative contribution of the device noise sources to phase noise, which is very useful for oscillator design.
This new way of characterizing the oscillator output has a far-reaching impact on the noise analysis methodology for nonautonomous circuits, which we also investigate. We also use the perturbation analysis results of oscillators to derive the phase noise of phase feedback systems such as phase-locked loops. We formulate the problem as a stochastic differential equation and is solved in presence of circuit white noise sources yielding the spectrum of the PLI output.
Noise Analysis of Radio Frequency Circuits is written for circuit designers and will be of particular interest to RF circuit designers.

This book is the first in aseries on novellow power design architectures, methods and design practices. It results from of a large European project started in 1997, whose goal is to promote the further development and the faster and wider industrial use of advanced design methods for reducing the power consumption of electronic systems. Low power design became crucial with the wide spread of portable information and cornrnunication terminals, where a small battery has to last for a long period. High performance electronics, in addition, suffers from a permanent increase of the dissipated power per square millimetre of silicon, due to the increasing eIock-rates, which causes cooling and reliability problems or otherwise limits the performance. The European Union's Information Technologies Programme 'Esprit' did there fore launch a 'Pilot action for Low Power Design', wh ich eventually grew to 19 R&D projects and one coordination project, with an overall budget of 14 million Euro. It is meanwhile known as European Low Power Initiative for Electronic System Design (ESD-LPD) and will be completed by the end of 2001. It involves 30 major Euro pean companies and 20 well-known institutes. The R&D projects aims to develop or demonstrate new design methods for power reduction, while the coordination project takes care that the methods, experiences and results are properly documented and pub licised."

This volume constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Curves and Surfaces, held in Avignon, in June 2010. The conference had the overall theme: "Representation and Approximation of Curves and Surfaces and Applications." The 39 revised full papers presented together with 9 invited talks were carefully reviewed and selected from 114 talks presented at the conference. The topics addressed by the papers range from mathematical foundations to practical implementation on modern graphics processing units and address a wide area of topics such as computer-aided geometric design, computer graphics and visualisation, computational geometry and topology, geometry processing, image and signal processing, interpolation and smoothing, scattered data processing and learning theory and subdivision, wavelets and multi-resolution methods.

Integrating formal property verification (FPV) into an existing design process raises several interesting questions. Have I written enough properties? Have I written a consistent set of properties? What should I do when the FPV tool runs into capacity issues? This book develops the answers to these questions and fits them into a roadmap for formal property verification a roadmap that shows how to glue FPV technology into the traditional validation flow. A Roadmap for Formal Property Verification explores the key issues in this powerful technology through simple examples you do not need any background on formal methods to read most parts of this book.

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A genuinely useful text that gives an overview of the state-of-the-art in system-level design trade-off explorations for concurrent tasks running on embedded heterogeneous multiple processors. The targeted application domain covers complex embedded real-time multi-media and communication applications. This material is mainly based on research at IMEC and its international university network partners in this area over the last decade. In all, the material those in the digital signal processing industry will find here is bang up-to-date.

The world we live in is pervaded with uncertainty and imprecision. Is it likely to rain this afternoon? Should I take an umbrella with me? Will I be able to find parking near the campus? Should I go by bus? Such simple questions are a c- mon occurrence in our daily lives. Less simple examples: What is the probability that the price of oil will rise sharply in the near future? Should I buy Chevron stock? What are the chances that a bailout of GM, Ford and Chrysler will not s- ceed? What will be the consequences? Note that the examples in question involve both uncertainty and imprecision. In the real world, this is the norm rather than exception. There is a deep-seated tradition in science of employing probability theory, and only probability theory, to deal with uncertainty and imprecision. The mon- oly of probability theory came to an end when fuzzy logic made its debut. H- ever, this is by no means a widely accepted view. The belief persists, especially within the probability community, that probability theory is all that is needed to deal with uncertainty. To quote a prominent Bayesian, Professor Dennis Lindley, "The only satisfactory description of uncertainty is probability.

Covering the development of field computation in the past forty years, this book is a concise, comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to methods for the analysis and synthesis of electric and magnetic fields. A broad view of the subject of field models in electricity and magnetism, ranging from basic theory to numerical applications, is offered. The approach throughout is to solve field problems directly from partial differential equations in terms of vector quantities.

Hardware Software Co-Design of a Multimedia SOC Platform is one of the first of its kinds to provide a comprehensive overview of the design and implementation of the hardware and software of an SoC platform for multimedia applications. Topics covered in this book range from system level design methodology, multimedia algorithm implementation, a sub-word parallel, single-instruction-multiple data (SIMD) processor design, and its virtual platform implementation, to the development of an SIMD parallel compiler as well as a real-time operating system (RTOS). Hardware Software Co-Design of a Multimedia SOC Platform is written for practitioner engineers and technical managers who want to gain first hand knowledge about the hardware-software design process of an SoC platform. It offers both tutorial-like details to help readers become familiar with a diverse range of subjects, and in-depth analysis for advanced readers to pursue further.

This book presents design guidelines and implementation approaches for enterprise safety management system as integrated within enterprise integrated systems. It shows new model-based safety management where process design automation is integrated with enterprise business functions and components. It proposes new system engineering approach addressed to new generation chemical industry. It will help both the undergraduate and professional readers to build basic knowledge about issues and problems of designing practical enterprise safety management system, while presenting in clear way, the system and information engineering practices to design enterprise integrated solution.

Traditionally, the DDSS conferences aim to be a platform for both starting and experienced researchers who focus on the development and application of computer support in urban planning and architectural design. This volume contains 31 peer reviewed papers from this year's conference. This book will bring researchers together and is a valuable resource for their continuous joint effort to improve the design and planning of our environment.

Motivated learning is an emerging research field in artificial intelligence and cognitive modelling. Computational models of motivation extend reinforcement learning to adaptive, multitask learning in complex, dynamic environments - the goal being to understand how machines can develop new skills and achieve goals that were not predefined by human engineers. In particular, this book describes how motivated reinforcement learning agents can be used in computer games for the design of non-player characters that can adapt their behaviour in response to unexpected changes in their environment.

This book covers the design, application and evaluation of computational models of motivation in reinforcement learning. The authors start with overviews of motivation and reinforcement learning, then describe models for motivated reinforcement learning. The performance of these models is demonstrated by applications in simulated game scenarios and a live, open-ended virtual world.

Researchers in artificial intelligence, machine learning and artificial life will benefit from this book, as will practitioners working on complex, dynamic systems - in particular multiuser, online games.

This book offers up a deep understanding of concepts and practices behind the composition of heterogeneous components. After the analysis of existing computation and execution models used for the specification and validation of different sub-systems, the book introduces a systematic approach to build an execution model for systems composed of heterogeneous components. Mixed continuous/discrete and hardware/software systems are used to illustrate these concepts. The benefit of reading this book is to arrive at a clear vision of the theory and practice of specification and validation of complex modern systems. Numerous examples give designers highly applicable solutions.

Embedded systems encompass a variety of hardware and software components which perform specific functions in host systems, for example, satellites, washing machines, hand-held telephones and automobiles. Embedded systems have become increasingly digital with a non-digital periphery (analog power) and therefore, both hardware and software codesign are relevant. The vast majority of computers manufactured are used in such systems. They are called embedded' to distinguish them from standard mainframes, workstations, and PCs. Athough the design of embedded systems has been used in industrial practice for decades, the systematic design of such systems has only recently gained increased attention. Advances in microelectronics have made possible applications that would have been impossible without an embedded system design. Embedded System Applications describes the latest techniques for embedded system design in a variety of applications. This also includes some of the latest software tools for embedded system design. Applications of embedded system design in avionics, satellites, radio astronomy, space and control systems are illustrated in separate chapters. Finally, the book contains chapters related to industrial best-practice in embedded system design. Embedded System Applications will be of interest to researchers and designers working in the design of embedded systems for industrial applications.

Chapter 3 Specifying RTL Properties 61 3. 1 Definitions and concepts 62 62 3. 1. 1 Property 3. 1. 2 Events 65 3. 2 Property classification 65 Safety versus liveness 66 3. 2. 1 3. 2. 2 Constraint versus assertion 67 3. 2. 3 Declarative versus procedural 67 3. 3 RTL assertion specification techniques 68 RTL invariant assertions 69 3. 3. 1 3. 3. 2 Declaring properties with PSL 72 RTL cycle related assertions 73 3. 3. 3 3. 3. 4 PSL and default clock declaration 74 3. 3. 5 Specifying sequences 75 3. 3. 6 Specifying eventualities 80 3. 3. 7 PSL built-in functions 82 3. 4Pragma-based assertions 82 3. 5 SystemVerilog assertions 84 3. 5. 1 Immediate assertions 84 3. 5. 2Concurrent assertions 86 3. 5. 3 System functions 95 3. 6 PCI property specification example 96 3. 6. 1 PCI overview 96 3. 7 Summary 102 Chapter 4 PLI-Based Assertions 103 4. 1 Procedural assertions 104 4. 1. 1 A simple PLI assertion 105 4. 1. 2 Assertions within a simulation time slot 108 4. 1. 3 Assertions across simulation time slots 111 4. 1. 4 False firing across multiple time slots 116 4. 2 PLI-based assertion library 118 4. 2. 1 Assert quiescent state 119 4. 3 Summary 123 Chapter 5 Functional Coverage 125 5. 1 Verification approaches 126 5. 2 Understanding coverage 127 5. 2. 1 Controllability versus observability 128 5. 2.

The Language of Design articulates the theory that there is a language of design. Drawing upon insights from computational language processing, the language of design is modeled computationally through latent semantic analysis (LSA), lexical chain analysis (LCA), and sentiment analysis (SA). The statistical co-occurrence of semantics (LSA), semantic relations (LCA), and semantic modifiers (SA) in design text is used to illustrate how the reality producing effect of language is itself an enactment of design, allowing a new understanding of the connections between creative behaviors. The computation of the language of design makes it possible to make direct measurements of creative behaviors which are distributed across social spaces and mediated through language. The book demonstrates how machine understanding of design texts based on computation over the language of design yields practical applications for design management.

Multibody Mechanics and Visualization is designed to appeal to computer-savvy students who will acquire significant skills in mathematical and physical modelling of mechanical systems in the process of producing attractive computer simulations and animations. The emphasis here is on general skills with all-round applicability rather than the ability to solve "cooked-up problems. The approachable style and clear presentation of this text will help you grasp the essentials of: modeling the kinematics and dynamics of arbitrary multibody mechanisms; formulating a mathematical description of general motions of such mechanisms; implementing the description in a computer-graphics application for the animation/visualization of the movement. Multibody Mechanics and Visualization plays down the prediction of dynamics by formal analysis of differential equations while preparing its students to perform such analyses with greater understanding later. The text relies on the following principles for effective tuition: an inductive approach to learning - discerning general patterns from particular observations; repetition and review of important principles to reinforce your learning through numerous examples; obvious visual guidance that shows you at a glance which information you need for different levels of understanding; computer tools, visual representations and elements of active learning integrated into the text to suit the way you want to learn. Supported in the text in parallel with the theoretical presentation is the simulation and animation application Mambo. In contrast with existing commercially available educational software tools, Mambo requires detailed input from you in order to define the specific geometry of a mechanism as well as the differential equations governing its behavior while allowing you to visualize the results of your efforts. The Mambo toolbox enables you to provide these specifications for mechanisms that would pose insurmountable algebraic challenges to manual calculation. With these tools, you will be able to see the implications of decisions made throughout the modeling process, to check your mathematical analyses, and to enjoy the fruit of your labor Mambo can be freely downloaded from the author's website and runs under any version of MS Windows(r). The toolbox is compatible with the Maple software environment and the Matlab(r) extended symbolic toolbox."

System Level Design Model with Reuse of System IP addresses system design by providing a framework for assessing and developing system design practices that observe and utilise reuse of system design know-how. The know-how accumulated in the companies represents an intellectual asset, or property ('IP').

The current situation regarding system design in general is, that the methods are insufficient, informally practised, and weakly supported by formal techniques and tools. Regarding system design reuse the methods and tools for exchanging system design data and know-how within companies are ad hoc and insufficient. The means available inside companies being already insufficient, there are actually no ways of exchanging between companies.

To establish means for systematic reuse, the required system design concepts are identified through an analysis of existing design flows, and their definitions are catalogued in the form of a glossary and taxonomy. The System Design Conceptual Model (SDCM) formalises the concepts and their relationships by providing meta-models for both the system design process (SDPM) and the system under design (SUDM). The models are generic enough so that they can be applied in various organisations and for various kinds of electronic systems. System design patterns are presented as example means for enhancing reuse. The characteristics of system-level IP, a list of heuristic criteria of system-IP reusability, and guidelines for assessing system IP reusability within a particular design flow provide a pragmatic view to reuse. An analysis of selected languages and formalisms, and guidelines for the analysis of system-level languages provides means for assessing how the expression and representation of system design concepts are supported by languages.

System Level Design Model with Reuse of System IP describes both a theoretical framework and various practical means for improving reuse in the design of complex systems. The information can be used in various ways in enhancing system design: Understanding system design, Analysing and assessing existing design flows, reuse practices and languages, Instantiating design flows for new design paradigms, Eliciting requirements for methods and tools, Organising teams, and Educating employees, partners and customers.

For a company to survive in the manufacturing industry, it must not only accumulate light-weight 3D data, but also share this information within the company and with related companies as well as train key personnel. 3D Manufacturing Innovation introduces the best practices developed by Toyota, Sony, Nikon, Casio and other pioneers in the global engineering scene, providing the reader with invaluable tips for manufacturing innovation.

Designing Inclusive Futures reflects the need to explore, in a coherent way, the issues and practicalities that lie behind design that is intended to extend our active future lives. This encompasses design for inclusion in daily life at home but also extends to the workplace and for products within these contexts. For example, given trends in employment sector growth, skills requirements, labour supply and demographic change, there is a need to predict the critical areas where individual capabilities are mismatched with the physical, social and organisational demands of work. This mismatch, which can be addressed within the domain of inclusive design, is pervasively linked to real artefacts in workspaces and their intersection with the health factors that relate to ageing. This book is the result of the fourth CWUAAT workshop held in Cambridge, England in April 2008.

"Introduction to Embedded System Design Using Field Programmable Gate Arrays" provides a starting point for the use of field programmable gate arrays in the design of embedded systems. The text considers a hypothetical robot controller as an embedded application and weaves around it related concepts of FPGA-based digital design. The book details: use of FPGA vis-a-vis general purpose processor and microcontroller; design using Verilog hardware description language; digital design synthesis using Verilog and Xilinx(r) SpartanTM 3 FPGA; FPGA-based embedded processors and peripherals; overview of serial data communications and signal conditioning using FPGA; FPGA-based motor drive controllers; and prototyping digital systems using FPGA.

The book is a good introductory text for FPGA-based design for both students and digital systems designers. Its end-of-chapter exercises and frequent use of example can be used for teaching or for self-study."