This thesis takes an empirical approach to understanding of the behavior and interactions between the two main components of reinforcement learning: the learning algorithm and the functional representation of learned knowledge. The author approaches these entities using design of experiments not commonly employed to study machine learning methods. The results outlined in this work provide insight as to what enables and what has an effect on successful reinforcement learning implementations so that this learning method can be applied to more challenging problems.

This book explores near-threshold computing (NTC), a design-space using techniques to run digital chips (processors) near the lowest possible voltage. Readers will be enabled with specific techniques to design chips that are extremely robust; tolerating variability and resilient against errors. Variability-aware voltage and frequency allocation schemes will be presented that will provide performance guarantees, when moving toward near-threshold manycore chips. * Provides an introduction to near-threshold computing, enabling reader with a variety of tools to face the challenges of the power/utilization wall; * Demonstrates how to design efficient voltage regulation, so that each region of the chip can operate at the most efficient voltage and frequency point; * Investigates how performance guarantees can be ensured when moving towards NTC manycores through variability-aware voltage and frequency allocation schemes.

This book addresses Software-Defined Radio (SDR) baseband processing from the computer architecture point of view, providing a detailed exploration of different computing platforms by classifying different approaches, highlighting the common features related to SDR requirements and by showing pros and cons of the proposed solutions. It covers architectures exploiting parallelism by extending single-processor environment (such as VLIW, SIMD, TTA approaches), multi-core platforms distributing the computation to either a homogeneous array or a set of specialized heterogeneous processors, and architectures exploiting fine-grained, coarse-grained, or hybrid reconfigurability.

This book provides a unified treatment of Flip-Flop design and selection in nanometer CMOS VLSI systems. The design aspects related to the energy-delay tradeoff in Flip-Flops are discussed, including their energy-optimal selection according to the targeted application, and the detailed circuit design in nanometer CMOS VLSI systems. Design strategies are derived in a coherent framework that includes explicitly nanometer effects, including leakage, layout parasitics and process/voltage/temperature variations, as main advances over the existing body of work in the field. The related design tradeoffs are explored in a wide range of applications and the related energy-performance targets. A wide range of existing and recently proposed Flip-Flop topologies are discussed. Theoretical foundations are provided to set the stage for the derivation of design guidelines, and emphasis is given on practical aspects and consequences of the presented results. Analytical models and derivations are introduced when needed to gain an insight into the inter-dependence of design parameters under practical constraints. This book serves as a valuable reference for practicing engineers working in the VLSI design area, and as text book for senior undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students (already familiar with digital circuits and timing).

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This book describes simple to complex ASIC design practical scenarios using Verilog. It builds a story from the basic fundamentals of ASIC designs to advanced RTL design concepts using Verilog. Looking at current trends of miniaturization, the contents provide practical information on the issues in ASIC design and synthesis using Synopsys DC and their solution. The book explains how to write efficient RTL using Verilog and how to improve design performance. It also covers architecture design strategies, multiple clock domain designs, low-power design techniques, DFT, pre-layout STA and the overall ASIC design flow with case studies. The contents of this book will be useful to practicing hardware engineers, students, and hobbyists looking to learn about ASIC design and synthesis.

This book describes a new design methodology that allows optimization-based synthesis of RF systems in a hierarchical multilevel approach, in which the system is designed in a bottom-up fashion, from the device level up to the (sub)system level. At each level of the design hierarchy, the authors discuss methods that increase the design robustness and increase the accuracy and efficiency of the simulations. The methodology described enables circuit sizing and layout in a complete and automated integrated manner, achieving optimized designs in significantly less time than with traditional approaches.

This book describes the state-of-the art of industrial and academic research in the architectural design of heterogeneous, multi/many-core processors. The authors describe methods and tools to enable next-generation embedded and high-performance heterogeneous processors to confront cost-effectively the inevitable variations by providing Dependable-Performance: correct functionality and timing guarantees throughout the expected lifetime of a platform under thermal, power, and energy constraints. Various aspects of the reliability problem are discussed, at both the circuit and architecture level, the intelligent selection of knobs and monitors in multicore platforms, and systematic design methodologies. The authors demonstrate how new techniques have been applied in real case studies from different applications domain and report on results and conclusions of those experiments. Enables readers to develop performance-dependable heterogeneous multi/many-core architectures Describes system software designs that support high performance dependability requirements Discusses and analyzes low level methodologies to tradeoff conflicting metrics, i.e. power, performance, reliability and thermal management Includes new application design guidelines to improve performance dependability

An introductory text to computer architecture, this comprehensive volume covers the concepts from logic gates to advanced computer architecture. It comes with a full spectrum of exercises and web-downloadable support materials, including assembler and simulator, which can be used in the context of different courses. The authors also make available a hardware description, which can be used in labs and assignments, for hands-on experimentation with an actual, simple processor.This unique compendium is a useful reference for undergraduates, graduates and professionals majoring in computer engineering, circuits and systems, software engineering, biomedical engineering and aerospace engineering.Related Link(s)

Networks-on-Chip: From Implementations to Programming Paradigms provides a thorough and bottom-up exploration of the whole NoC design space in a coherent and uniform fashion, from low-level router, buffer and topology implementations, to routing and flow control schemes, to co-optimizations of NoC and high-level programming paradigms.

This lecture is intended for an advanced course on computer architecture, suitable for graduate students or senior undergrads who want to specialize in the area of computer architecture and Networks-on-Chip. It is also intended for practitioners in the industry in the area of microprocessor design, especially the many-core processor design with a network-on-chip. The graduates can learn many practical and theoretical lessons from this course, and also can be motivated to delve further into the ideas and designs proposed in this book. The industrial engineers can refer this book to make practicing tradeoffs as well. The graduates and engineers focus on off-chip network design can also refer this book for deadlock-free routing algorithm designs.
Provides thorough and insightful exploration of NoC design space. Description from low-level logic implementations to co-optimizations of high-level program paradigms and NoCs.The coherent and uniform description fashion offers the readers a clear, quick and efficient exploration of NoC design spaceCovers many novel and exciting research ideas, which encourage researchers to further delve into these topics.Presents both engineering and theoretical contributions. The detailed description of the router, buffer and topology implementations, comparisons and analysis are of high engineering value.

This volume is the first ever collection devoted to the field of proof-theoretic semantics. Contributions address topics including the systematics of introduction and elimination rules and proofs of normalization, the categorial characterization of deductions, the relation between Heyting's and Gentzen's approaches to meaning, knowability paradoxes, proof-theoretic foundations of set theory, Dummett's justification of logical laws, Kreisel's theory of constructions, paradoxical reasoning, and the defence of model theory. The field of proof-theoretic semantics has existed for almost 50 years, but the term itself was proposed by Schroeder-Heister in the 1980s. Proof-theoretic semantics explains the meaning of linguistic expressions in general and of logical constants in particular in terms of the notion of proof. This volume emerges from presentations at the Second International Conference on Proof-Theoretic Semantics in Tubingen in 2013, where contributing authors were asked to provide a self-contained description and analysis of a significant research question in this area. The contributions are representative of the field and should be of interest to logicians, philosophers, and mathematicians alike.

This book explains for readers how 3D chip stacks promise to increase the level of on-chip integration, and to design new heterogeneous semiconductor devices that combine chips of different integration technologies (incl. sensors) in a single package of the smallest possible size. The authors focus on heterogeneous 3D integration, addressing some of the most important challenges in this emerging technology, including contactless, optics-based, and carbon-nanotube-based 3D integration, as well as signal-integrity and thermal management issues in copper-based 3D integration. Coverage also includes the 3D heterogeneous integration of power sources, photonic devices, and non-volatile memories based on new materials systems.

This book introduces readers to the most advanced research results on Design for Manufacturability (DFM) with multiple patterning lithography (MPL) and electron beam lithography (EBL). The authors describe in detail a set of algorithms/methodologies to resolve issues in modern design for manufacturability problems with advanced lithography. Unlike books that discuss DFM from the product level or physical manufacturing level, this book describes DFM solutions from a circuit design level, such that most of the critical problems can be formulated and solved through combinatorial algorithms.

Architecting High Performing, Scalable and Available Enterprise Web Applications provides in-depth insights into techniques for achieving desired scalability, availability and performance quality goals for enterprise web applications. The book provides an integrated 360-degree view of achieving and maintaining these attributes through practical, proven patterns, novel models, best practices, performance strategies, and continuous improvement methodologies and case studies. The author shares his years of experience in application security, enterprise application testing, caching techniques, production operations and maintenance, and efficient project management techniques.

This book provides a single-source reference to the state-of-the-art of high-level programming models and compilation tool-chains for embedded system platforms. The authors address challenges faced by programmers developing software to implement parallel applications in embedded systems, where very often they are forced to rewrite sequential programs into parallel software, taking into account all the low level features and peculiarities of the underlying platforms. Readers will benefit from these authors' approach, which takes into account both the application requirements and the platform specificities of various embedded systems from different industries. Parallel programming tool-chains are described that take as input parameters both the application and the platform model, then determine relevant transformations and mapping decisions on the concrete platform, minimizing user intervention and hiding the difficulties related to the correct and efficient use of memory hierarchy and low level code generation.

This book provides readers with insight into an alternative approach for enhancing the reliability, security, and low power features of integrated circuit designs, related to transient faults, hardware Trojans, and power consumption. The authors explain how the addition of integrated sensors enables the detection of ionizing particles and how this information can be processed at a high layer. The discussion also includes a variety of applications, such as the detection of hardware Trojans and fault attacks, and how sensors can operate to provide different body bias levels and reduce power costs. Readers can benefit from these sensors-based approaches through designs with fast response time, non-intrusive integration on gate-level and reasonable design costs.

The development of computer technology, particularly the work of the Fifth Generation Computer Project of Japan, will have far-reaching international implications. The author explores the uses of the new generation computer and information systems now under development in Japan by identifying their application, assessing their impact on society, and envisioning the transition to the future.

This book proposes a synergistic framework to help IP vendors to protect hardware IP privacy and integrity from design, optimization, and evaluation perspectives. The proposed framework consists of five interacting components that directly target at the primary IP violations. All the five algorithms are developed based on rigorous mathematical modeling for primary IP violations and focus on different stages of IC design, which can be combined to provide a formal security guarantee.

Service orchestration techniques combine the benefits of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Business Process Management (BPM) to compose and coordinate distributed software services. On the other hand, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is gaining popularity as a software delivery model through cloud platforms due to the many benefits to software vendors, as well as their customers. Multi-tenancy, which refers to the sharing of a single application instance across multiple customers or user groups (called tenants), is an essential characteristic of the SaaS model. Written in an easy to follow style with discussions supported by real-world examples, Service Orchestration as Organization introduces a novel approach with associated language, framework, and tool support to show how service orchestration techniques can be used to engineer and deploy SaaS applications.

This book analyzes energy and reliability as major challenges faced by designers of computing frameworks in the nanometer technology regime. The authors describe the existing solutions to address these challenges and then reveal a new reconfigurable computing platform, which leverages high-density nanoscale memory for both data storage and computation to maximize the energy-efficiency and reliability. The energy and reliability benefits of this new paradigm are illustrated and the design challenges are discussed. Various hardware and software aspects of this exciting computing paradigm are described, particularly with respect to hardware-software co-designed frameworks, where the hardware unit can be reconfigured to mimic diverse application behavior. Finally, the energy-efficiency of the paradigm described is compared with other, well-known reconfigurable computing platforms.

System-on-chip (SoC) technology is revolutionizing the way computers are designed and used, driving down their cost and making them more pervasive than ever before. However, it's extremely challenging for designers to get their SoC designs right the first time. ARM System Architecture, Second Edition gives system designers an authoritative, inside perspective on SoC design -- and on ARM, the world's #1, fastest-growing SoC platform for mobile phones and information appliances. The insights in this book will be crucial to every system designer and ARM licensee seeking to build more effective SoC designs -- and get them to market more quickly. KEY TOPICS: In contrast to most ARM documentation, this book explains not only what ARM is, but why -- and how you can leverage it most effectively. Expert system designer and ARM specialist Steve Furber introduces the key design challenges associated with SoC systems, including memory hierarchy, caches, memory management, on-chip debug, and production test. Next, he presents state-of-the-art ARM-based solutions for each key problem. Furber reviews the entire ARM processor family, helping designers choose the most appropriate solutions; and covers both the ARM and Thumb programming models, providing real-world guidance for developing applications more quickly and effectively. The book includes a helpful review of the fundamentals of computer architecture, as well as valuable coverage of related topics such as digital signal processing and asynchronous design. MARKET:

This is an introductory book on supercomputer applications written by a researcher who is working on solving scientific and engineering application problems on parallel computers. The book is intended to quickly bring researchers and graduate students working on numerical solutions of partial differential equations with various applications into the area of parallel processing.The book starts from the basic concepts of parallel processing, like speedup, efficiency and different parallel architectures, then introduces the most frequently used algorithms for solving PDEs on parallel computers, with practical examples. Finally, it discusses more advanced topics, including different scalability metrics, parallel time stepping algorithms and new architectures and heterogeneous computing networks which have emerged in the last few years of high performance computing. Hundreds of references are also included in the book to direct interested readers to more detailed and in-depth discussions of specific topics.

This book questions the relevance of computation to the physical universe. Our theories deliver computational descriptions, but the gaps and discontinuities in our grasp suggest a need for continued discourse between researchers from different disciplines, and this book is unique in its focus on the mathematical theory of incomputability and its relevance for the real world. The core of the book consists of thirteen chapters in five parts on extended models of computation; the search for natural examples of incomputable objects; mind, matter, and computation; the nature of information, complexity, and randomness; and the mathematics of emergence and morphogenesis. This book will be of interest to researchers in the areas of theoretical computer science, mathematical logic, and philosophy.