With the development of Very-Deep Sub-Micron technologies, process variability is becoming increasingly important and is a very important issue in the design of complex circuits. Process variability is the statistical variation of process parameters, meaning that these parameters do not have always the same value, but become a random variable, with a given mean value and standard deviation. This effect can lead to several issues in digital circuit design.

The logical consequence of this parameter variation is that circuit characteristics, as delay and power, also become random variables. Because of the delay variability, not all circuits will now have the same performance, but some will be faster and some slower. However, the slowest circuits may be so slow that they will not be appropriate for sale. On the other hand, the fastest circuits that could be sold for a higher price can be very leaky, and also not very appropriate for sale. A main consequence of power variability is that the power consumption of some circuits will be different than expected, reducing reliability, average life expectancy and warranty of products. Sometimes the circuits will not work at all, due to reasons associated with process variations. At the end, these effects result in lower yield and lower profitability.

To understand these effects, it is necessary to study the consequences of variability in several aspects of circuit design, like logic gates, storage elements, clock distribution, and any other that can be affected by process variations. The main focus of this book will be storage elements.

Amid recent interest in Clifford algebra for dual quaternions as a more suitable method for Computer Graphics than standard matrix algebra, this book presents dual quaternions and their associated Clifford algebras in a new light, accessible to and geared towards the Computer Graphics community. Collating all the associated formulas and theorems in one place, this book provides an extensive and rigorous treatment of dual quaternions, as well as showing how two models of Clifford algebras emerge naturally from the theory of dual quaternions. Each chapter comes complete with a set of exercises to help readers sharpen and practice their knowledge. This book is accessible to anyone with a basic knowledge of quaternion algebra and is of particular use to forward-thinking members of the Computer Graphics community. .

 This Handbook is about methods, tools and examples of how to architect an enterprise through considering all life cycle aspects of Enterprise Entities (such as individual enterprises, enterprise networks, virtual enterprises, projects and other complex systems including a mixture of automated and human processes). The book is based on ISO15704:2000, or the GERAM Framework (Generalised Enterprise Reference Architecture and Methodology) that generalises the requirements of Enterprise Reference Architectures. Various Architecture Frameworks (PERA, CIMOSA, Grai-GIM, Zachman, C4ISR/DoDAF) are shown in light of GERAM to allow a deeper understanding of their contributions and therefore their correct and knowledgeable use. The handbook addresses a wide variety of audience, and covers methods and tools necessary to design or redesign enterprises, as well as to structure the implementation into manageable projects. 

Media processing applications, such as three-dimensional graphics, video compression, and image processing, currently demand 10-100 billion operations per second of sustained computation. Fortunately, hundreds of arithmetic units can easily fit on a modestly sized 1cm2 chip in modern VLSI. The challenge is to provide these arithmetic units with enough data to enable them to meet the computation demands of media processing applications. Conventional storage hierarchies, which frequently include caches, are unable to bridge the data bandwidth gap between modern DRAM and tens to hundreds of arithmetic units. A data bandwidth hierarchy, however, can bridge this gap by scaling the provided bandwidth across the levels of the storage hierarchy. The stream programming model enables media processing applications to exploit a data bandwidth hierarchy effectively. Media processing applications can naturally be expressed as a sequence of computation kernels that operate on data streams. This programming model exposes the locality and concurrency inherent in these applications and enables them to be mapped efficiently to the data bandwidth hierarchy. Stream programs are able to utilize inexperience local data bandwidth when possible and consume expensive global data bandwidth only when necessary. Stream Processor Architecture presents the architecture of the Imagine streaming media processor, which delivers a peak performance of 20 billion floating-point operations per second. Imagine efficiently supports 48 arithmetic units with a three-tiered data bandwidth hierarchy. At the base of the hierarchy, the streaming memory system employs memory access scheduling to maximize the sustained bandwidth of external DRAM. At the center of the hierarchy, the global stream register file enables streams of data to be recirculated directly from one computation kernel to the next without returning data to memory. Finally, local distributed register files that directly feed the arithmetic units enable temporary data to be stored locally so that it does not need to consume costly global register bandwidth. The bandwidth hierarchy enables Imagine to achieve up to 96% of the performance of a stream processor with infinite bandwidth from memory and the global register file.

Due to the decreasing production costs of IT systems, applications that had to be realised as expensive PCBs formerly, can now be realised as a system-on-chip. Furthermore, low cost broadband communication media for wide area communication as well as for the realisation of local distributed systems are available. Typically the market requires IT systems that realise a set of specific features for the end user in a given environment, so called embedded systems. Some examples for such embedded systems are control systems in cars, airplanes, houses or plants, information and communication devices like digital TV, mobile phones or autonomous systems like service- or edutainment robots. For the design of embedded systems the designer has to tackle three major aspects: The application itself including the man-machine interface, The (target) architecture of the system including all functional and non-functional constraints and, the design methodology including modelling, specification, synthesis, test and validation. The last two points are a major focus of this book. This book documents the high quality approaches and results that were presented at the International Workshop on Distributed and Parallel Embedded Systems (DIPES 2000), which was sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), and organised by IFIP working groups WG10.3, WG10.4 and WG10.5. The workshop took place on October 18-19, 2000, in Schloss Eringerfeld near Paderborn, Germany. Architecture and Design of Distributed Embedded Systems is organised similar to the workshop. Chapters 1 and 4 (Methodology I and II) deal with different modelling and specification paradigms and the corresponding design methodologies. Generic system architectures for different classes of embedded systems are presented in Chapter 2. In Chapter 3 several design environments for the support of specific design methodologies are presented. Problems concerning test and validation are discussed in Chapter 5. The last two chapters include distribution and communication aspects (Chapter 6) and synthesis techniques for embedded systems (Chapter 7). This book is essential reading for computer science researchers and application developers."

Transaction processing is an established technique for the concurrent and fault tolerant access of persistent data. While this technique has been successful in standard database systems, factors such as time-critical applications, emerg ing technologies, and a re-examination of existing systems suggest that the performance, functionality and applicability of transactions may be substan tially enhanced if temporal considerations are taken into account. That is, transactions should not only execute in a "legal" (i.e., logically correct) man ner, but they should meet certain constraints with regard to their invocation and completion times. Typically, these logical and temporal constraints are application-dependent, and we address some fundamental issues for the man agement of transactions in the presence of such constraints. Our model for transaction-processing is based on extensions to established mod els, and we briefly outline how logical and temporal constraints may be ex pressed in it. For scheduling the transactions, we describe how legal schedules differ from one another in terms of meeting the temporal constraints. Exist ing scheduling mechanisms do not differentiate among legal schedules, and are thereby inadequate with regard to meeting temporal constraints. This provides the basis for seeking scheduling strategies that attempt to meet the temporal constraints while continuing to produce legal schedules."

Artificial Intelligence is entering the mainstream of com- puter applications and as techniques are developed and integrated into a wide variety of areas they are beginning to tax the pro- cessing power of conventional architectures. To meet this demand, specialized architectures providing support for the unique features of symbolic processing languages are emerging. The goal of the research presented here is to show that an archi- tecture specialized for Prolog can achieve a ten-fold improve- ment in performance over conventional, general-purpose architec- tures. This book presents such an architecture for high perfor- mance execution of Prolog programs. The architecture is based on the abstract machine descrip- tion introduced by David H.D. Warren known as the Warren Abstract Machine (W AM). The execution model of the W AM is described and extended to provide a complete Instruction Set Architecture (lSA) for Prolog known as the PLM. This ISA is then realized in a microarchitecture and finally in a hardware design. The work described here represents one of the first efforts to implement the W AM model in hardware. The approach taken is that of direct implementation of the high level WAM instruction set in hardware resulting in a elSe style archi- tecture.

This book presents some of the latest applications of new theories based on the concept of paraconsistency and correlated topics in informatics, such as pattern recognition (bioinformatics), robotics, decision-making themes, and sample size. Each chapter is self-contained, and an introductory chapter covering the logic theoretical basis is also included. The aim of the text is twofold: to serve as an introductory text on the theories and applications of new logic, and as a textbook for undergraduate or graduate-level courses in AI. Today AI frequently has to cope with problems of vagueness, incomplete and conflicting (inconsistent) information. One of the most notable formal theories for addressing them is paraconsistent (paracomplete and non-alethic) logic.

This book is structured in a practical, example-driven, manner. The use of VHDL for constructing logic synthesisers is one of the aims of the book; the second is the application of the tools to the design process. Worked examples, questions and answers are provided together with do and don'ts of good practice. An appendix on logic design the source code are available free of charge over the Internet.

This book provides practical solutions for delay and power reduction for on-chip interconnects and buses. It provides an in depth description of the problem of signal delay and extra power consumption, possible solutions for delay and glitch removal, while considering the power reduction of the total system. Coverage focuses on use of the Schmitt Trigger as an alternative approach to buffer insertion for delay and power reduction in VLSI interconnects. In the last section of the book, various bus coding techniques are discussed to minimize delay and power in address and data buses.

This book serves a dual purpose: firstly to combine the treatment of circuits and digital electronics, and secondly, to establish a strong connection with the contemporary world of digital systems. The need for this approach arises from the observation that introducing digital electronics through a course in traditional circuit analysis is fast becoming obsolete. Our world has gone digital. Automata theory helps with the design of digital circuits such as parts of computers, telephone systems and control systems. A complete perspective is emphasized, because even the most elegant computer architecture will not function without adequate supporting circuits. The focus is on explaining the real-world implementation of complete digital systems. In doing so, the reader is prepared to immediately begin design and implementation work. This work serves as a bridge to take readers from the theoretical world to the everyday design world where solutions must be complete to be successful.

Per Martin-Loef's work on the development of constructive type theory has been of huge significance in the fields of logic and the foundations of mathematics. It is also of broader philosophical significance, and has important applications in areas such as computing science and linguistics. This volume draws together contributions from researchers whose work builds on the theory developed by Martin-Loef over the last twenty-five years. As well as celebrating the anniversary of the birth of the subject it covers many of the diverse fields which are now influenced by type theory. It is an invaluable record of areas of current activity, but also contains contributions from N. G. de Bruijn and William Tait, both important figures in the early development of the subject. Also published for the first time is one of Per Martin-Loef's earliest papers.

This book looks at relationships between the organisation of physical objects in space and the organisation of ideas. Historical, philosophical, psychological and architectural knowledge are united to develop an understanding of the relationship between information and its representation. Despite its potential to break the mould, digital information has relied on metaphors from a pre-digital era. In particular, architectural ideas have pervaded discussions of digital information, from the urbanisation of cyberspace in science fiction, through to the adoption of spatial visualisations in the design of graphical user interfaces. This book tackles: * the historical importance of physical places to the organisation and expression of knowledge * the limitations of using the physical organisation of objects as the basis for systems of categorisation and taxonomy * the emergence of digital technologies and the 20th century new conceptual understandings of knowledge and its organisation * the concept of disconnecting storage of information objects from their presentation and retrieval * ideas surrounding semantic space' * the realities of the types of user interface which now dominate modern computing.

This book provides a comprehensive coverage of System-on-Chip (SoC) post-silicon validation and debug challenges and state-of-the-art solutions with contributions from SoC designers, academic researchers as well as SoC verification experts. The readers will get a clear understanding of the existing debug infrastructure and how they can be effectively utilized to verify and debug SoCs.

In brief summary, the following results were presented in this work: * A linear time approach was developed to find register requirements for any specified CS schedule or filled MRT. * An algorithm was developed for finding register requirements for any kernel that has a dependence graph that is acyclic and has no data reuse on machines with depth independent instruction templates. * We presented an efficient method of estimating register requirements as a function of pipeline depth. * We developed a technique for efficiently finding bounds on register require ments as a function of pipeline depth. * Presented experimental data to verify these new techniques. * discussed some interesting design points for register file size on a number of different architectures. REFERENCES [1] Robert P. Colwell, Robert P. Nix, John J O'Donnell, David B Papworth, and Paul K. Rodman. A VLIW Architecture for a Trace Scheduling Com piler. In Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems, pages 180-192, 1982. [2] C. Eisenbeis, W. Jalby, and A. Lichnewsky. Compile-Time Optimization of Memory and Register Usage on the Cray-2. In Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Languages and Compilers, Urbana l/inois, August 1989. [3] C. Eisenbeis, William Jalby, and Alain Lichnewsky. Squeezing More CPU Performance Out of a Cray-2 by Vector Block Scheduling. In Proceedings of Supercomputing '88, pages 237-246, 1988. [4] Michael J. Flynn. Very High-Speed Computing Systems. Proceedings of the IEEE, 54:1901-1909, December 1966.

A quality-driven design and verification flow for digital systems is developed and presented in Quality-Driven SystemC Design. Two major enhancements characterize the new flow: First, dedicated verification techniques are integrated which target the different levels of abstraction. Second, each verification technique is complemented by an approach to measure the achieved verification quality. The new flow distinguishes three levels of abstraction (namely system level, top level and block level) and can be incorporated in existing approaches. After reviewing the preliminary concepts, in the following chapters the three levels for modeling and verification are considered in detail. At each level the verification quality is measured. In summary, following the new design and verification flow a high overall quality results.

This book introduces readers to various threats faced during design and fabrication by today's integrated circuits (ICs) and systems. The authors discuss key issues, including illegal manufacturing of ICs or "IC Overproduction," insertion of malicious circuits, referred as "Hardware Trojans", which cause in-field chip/system malfunction, and reverse engineering and piracy of hardware intellectual property (IP). The authors provide a timely discussion of these threats, along with techniques for IC protection based on hardware obfuscation, which makes reverse-engineering an IC design infeasible for adversaries and untrusted parties with any reasonable amount of resources. This exhaustive study includes a review of the hardware obfuscation methods developed at each level of abstraction (RTL, gate, and layout) for conventional IC manufacturing, new forms of obfuscation for emerging integration strategies (split manufacturing, 2.5D ICs, and 3D ICs), and on-chip infrastructure needed for secure exchange of obfuscation keys- arguably the most critical element of hardware obfuscation.

This volume contains the papers presented at the Fifth International Workshop on Database Machines. The papers cover a wide spectrum of topics on Database Machines and Knowledge Base Machines. Reports of major projects, ECRC, MCC, and ICOT are included. Topics on DBM cover new database machine architectures based on vector processing and hypercube parallel processing, VLSI oriented architecture, filter processor, sorting machine, concurrency control mechanism for DBM, main memory database, interconnection network for DBM, and performance evaluation. In this workshop much more attention was given to knowledge base management as compared to the previous four workshops. Many papers discuss deductive database processing. Architectures for semantic network, prolog, and production system were also proposed. We would like to express our deep thanks to all those who contributed to the success of the workshop. We would also like to express our apprecia tion for the valuable suggestions given to us by Prof. D. K. Hsiao, Prof. D."

Advanced research on the description of distributed systems and on design calculi for software and hardware is presented in this volume. Distinguished researchers give an overview of the latest state of the art.

This book describes a novel approach for the design of embedded systems and industrial automation systems, using a unified model-driven approach that is applicable in both domains. The authors illustrate their methodology, using the IEC 61499 standard as the main vehicle for specification, verification, static timing analysis and automated code synthesis. The well-known synchronous approach is used as the main vehicle for defining an unambiguous semantics that ensures determinism and deadlock freedom. The proposed approach also ensures very efficient implementations either on small-scale embedded devices or on industry-scale programmable automation controllers (PACs). It can be used for both centralized and distributed implementations. Significantly, the proposed approach can be used without the need for any run-time support. This approach, for the first time, blurs the gap between embedded systems and automation systems and can be applied in wide-ranging applications in automotive, robotics, and industrial control systems. Several realistic examples are used to demonstrate for readers how the methodology can enable them to reduce the time-to-market, while improving the design quality and productivity.

Modern consumers carry many electronic devices, like a mobile phone, digital camera, GPS, PDA and an MP3 player. The functionality of each of these devices has gone through an important evolution over recent years, with a steep increase in both the number of features as in the quality of the services that they provide. However, providing the required compute power to support (an uncompromised combination of) all this functionality is highly non-trivial. Designing processors that meet the demanding requirements of future mobile devices requires the optimization of the embedded system in general and of the embedded processors in particular, as they should strike the correct balance between flexibility, energy efficiency and performance. In general, a designer will try to minimize the energy consumption (as far as needed) for a given performance, with a sufficient flexibility. However, achieving this goal is already complex when looking at the processor in isolation, but, in reality, the processor is a single component in a more complex system. In order to design such complex system successfully, critical decisions during the design of each individual component should take into account effect on the other parts, with a clear goal to move to a global Pareto optimum in the complete multi-dimensional exploration space.

In the complex, global design of battery-operated embedded systems, the focus of Ultra-Low Energy Domain-Specific Instruction-Set Processors is on the energy-aware architecture exploration of domain-specific instruction-set processors and the co-optimization of the datapath architecture, foreground memory, and instruction memory organisation with a link to the required mapping techniques or compiler steps at the early stages of the design. By performing an extensive energy breakdown experiment for a complete embedded platform, both energy and performance bottlenecks have been identified, together with the important relations between the different components. Based on this knowledge, architecture extensions are proposed for all the bottlenecks.

For real-time systems, the worst-case execution time (WCET) is the key objective to be considered. Traditionally, code for real-time systems is generated without taking this objective into account and the WCET is computed only after code generation. Worst-Case Execution Time Aware Compilation Techniques for Real-Time Systems presents the first comprehensive approach integrating WCET considerations into the code generation process. Based on the proposed reconciliation between a compiler and a timing analyzer, a wide range of novel optimization techniques is provided. Among others, the techniques cover source code and assembly level optimizations, exploit machine learning techniques and address the design of modern systems that have to meet multiple objectives.

Using these optimizations, the WCET of real-time applications can be reduced by about 30% to 45% on the average. This opens opportunities for decreasing clock speeds, costs and energy consumption of embedded processors. The proposed techniques can be used for all types real-time systems, including automotive and avionics IT systems.

Architecture and Hardware Support for AI Processing: VLSI Design of a 3D Highly Parallel MessagePassing Architecture (J.L. Bechennec et al.). Architectural Design of the Rewrite Rule Machine Ensemble (H. Aida et al.). A Dataflow Architecture for AI (J. DelgadoFrias et al.). Machines for Prolog: An Extended Prolog Instruction Set for RISC Processors (A. Krall). A VLSI Engine for Structured Logic Programming (P. Civera et al.). Performance Evaluation of a VLSI Associative Unifier in a WAM Based Environment (P. Civera et al.). Analogue and Pulse Stream Neural Networks: Computational Capabilities of BiologicallyRealistic Analog Processing Elements (C. Fields et al.). Analog VLSI Models of Mean Field Networks (C. Schneider et al.). An Analogue Neuron Suitable for a Data Frame Architecture (W.A.J. Waller et al.). Digital Implementations of Neural Networks: The VLSI Implementation of the sigma Architecture (S.R. Williams et al.). A Cascadable VLSI Architecture for the Realization of Large Binary Associative Networks (W. Poechmueller et al.). Digital VLSI Implementations of an Associative memory Based on Neural Networks (U. Ruckert). Arrays for Neural Networks: A Highly Parallel Digital Architecture for Neural Network Emulation (D. Hammerstrom). 26 additional articles. Index.

Analog Interfacing to Embedded Microprocessors addresses the technologies and methods used in interfacing analog devices to microprocessors, providing in-depth coverage of practical control applications, op amp examples, and much more. A companion to the author's popular Embedded Microprocessor Systems: Real World Design, this new embedded systems book focuses on measurement and control of analog quantities in embedded systems that are required to interface to the real world.
At a time when modern electronic systems are increasingly digital, a comprehensive source on interfacing the real world to microprocessors should prove invaluable to embedded systems engineers, students, technicians, and hobbyists. Anyone involved in connecting the analog environment to their digital machines, or troubleshooting such connections will find this book especially useful. Stuart Ball is also the author of Debugging Embedded Microprocessor Systems, both published by Newnes. Additionally, Stuart has written articles for periodicals such as Circuit Cellar INK, Byte, and Modern Electronics.
* Provides hard-to-find information on interfacing analog devices and technologies to the purely digital world of embedded microprocessors
* Gives the reader the insight and perspective of a real embedded systems design engineer, including tips that only a hands-on professional would know
* Covers important considerations for both hardware and software systems when linking analog and digital devices

This is the first book to focus on designing run-time reconfigurable systems on FPGAs, in order to gain resource and power efficiency, as well as to improve speed. Case studies in partial reconfiguration guide readers through the FPGA jungle, straight toward a working system. The discussion of partial reconfiguration is comprehensive and practical, with models introduced together with methods to implement efficiently the corresponding systems. Coverage includes concepts for partial module integration and corresponding communication architectures, floorplanning of the on-FPGA resources, physical implementation aspects starting from constraining primitive placement and routing all the way down to the bitstream required to configure the FPGA, and verification of reconfigurable systems.