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This thesis describes the design and implementation of an interactive, nonphotorealistic rendering system for three-dimensional computer animation. The system provides a two-dimensional interface for coloring successive frames of animation using a virtual crayon that emulates the appearance of hand-drawn wax crayons on textured paper. The crayon strokes automatically track and move with threedimensional objects in the animation to preserve temporal coherency of strokes from one frame to the next. The system is intended to be used as an interactive renderer in conjunction with third-party three-dimensional modeling and animation tools.

The progression of Moore’s Law has resulted in both embedded and performance computing systems which use an ever increasing number of processing cores integrated in a single chip. Commercial systems are now available which provide hundreds of cores, and academics have proposed architectures for up to 1024 cores. Embedded multicores are increasingly popular as it is easier to guarantee hard-realtime constraints using individual cores dedicated for tasks, than to use traditional time-multiplexed processing. However, finding the optimal hardware configuration to meet these requirements at minimum cost requires extensive trial and error approaches to investigate the design space. This thesis tackles the problems encountered in the design of these large scale multicore systems by first addressing the problem of fast, detailed micro-architectural simulation. Initially addressing embedded systems, this work exploits the lack of hardware cache-coherence support in many deeply embedded systems to increase the available parallelism in the simulation. Then, through partitioning the NoC and using packet counting and cycle skipping reduces the amount of computation required to accurately model the NoC interconnect. In combination, this enables simulation speeds significantly higher than the state of the art, while maintaining less error, when compared to real hardware, than any similar simulator. Simulation speeds reach up to 370MIPS (Million (target) Instructions Per Second), or 110MHz, which is better than typical FPGA prototypes, and approaching final ASIC production speeds. This is achieved while maintaining an error of only 2.1%, significantly lower than other similar simulators. The thesis continues by scaling the simulator past large embedded systems up to 64-1024 core processors, adding support for coherent architectures using the same packet counting techniques along with low overhead context switching to enable the simulation of such large systems with stricter synchronisation requirements. The new interconnect model was partitioned to enable parallel simulation to further improve simulation speeds in a manner which did not sacrifice any accuracy. These innovations were leveraged to investigate significant novel energy saving optimisations to the coherency protocol, processor ISA, and processor micro-architecture. By introducing a new instruction, with the name wait-on-address, the energy spent during spin-wait style synchronisation events can be significantly reduced. This functions by putting the core into a low-power idle state while the cache line of the indicated address is monitored for coherency action. Upon an update or invalidation (or traditional timer or external interrupts) the core will resume execution, but the active energy of running the core pipeline and repeatedly accessing the data and instruction caches is effectively reduced to static idle power. The thesis also shows that existing combined software-hardware schemes to track data regions which do not require coherency can adequately address the directory-associativity problem, and introduces a new coherency sharer encoding which reduces the energy consumed by sharer invalidations when sharers are grouped closely together, such as would be the case with a system running many tasks with a small degree of parallelism in each. The research concludes by using the extremely fast simulation speeds developed to produce a large set of training data, collecting various runtime and energy statistics for a wide range of embedded applications on a huge diverse range of potential MPSoC designs. This data was used to train a series of machine learning based models which were then evaluated on their capacity to predict performance characteristics of unseen workload combinations across the explored MPSoC design space, using only two sample simulations, with promising results from some of the machine learning techniques. The models were then used to produce a ranking of predicted performance across the design space, and on average Random Forest was able to predict the best design within 89% of the runtime performance of the actual best tested design, and better than 93% of the alternative design space. When predicting for a weighted metric of energy, delay and area, Random Forest on average produced results within 93% of the optimum result. In summary this thesis improves upon the state of the art for cycle accurate multicore simulation, introduces novel energy saving changes the the ISA and microarchitecture of future multicore processors, and demonstrates the viability of machine learning techniques to significantly accelerate the design space exploration required to bring a new manycore design to market.

The overarching goal of this research was to generate a menu of shape memory alloys (SMAs) actuator materials capable of meeting the demands of aerospace applications. Material requirements were recognized to meet the demand for high temperature SMAs with actuating temperatures above 85 °C and provide material options capable of performing over 100K actuation cycles. The first study is a preliminary characterization for the down selection of Ni-rich NiTiHf15 compositions chosen for a more in-depth examination of the nano-precipitation and evolution of the H-phase. To make this selection, the effect of Ni content in Ni-rich NiTiHf high temperature shape memory alloys (HTSMAs) on processability, microstructure, and hardness was analyzed for three compositions (Ni50.1TiHf15, Ni50.3TiHf15, Ni50.5TiHf15). Each composition was characterized under three conditions: homogenized, 25%, and 50% thickness reduction through hot-rolling. The second study emphasized the processing and aging response of an industrially produced, hot-extruded Ni50.3Ti29.7Hf20 (at%) HTSMA. The samples were sectioned into two halves with half remaining as-extruded and the other half hot-rolled to a 25% reduction in thickness. A portion of both conditions underwent conventional aging for 3 hours at various temperatures ranging from 450-750 °C, and the other portion was pre-aged for 12 hours at 300 °C followed by conventional aging treatments. After processing, the samples were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Vickers hardness (HV) testing, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction (SR-XRD). The relationship between the introduction of texturing, pre-aging, and aging on Ni-rich and high Hf-content compositions was investigated.

Bien que le développement actuel d'accélérateurs se concentre principalement sur la création de puces Multiprocesseurs (MPSoC) hétérogènes, c'est-à-dire composés de processeurs spécialisées, de nombreux acteurs de la microélectronique s'intéressent au développement d'un autre type de MPSoC, constitué d'une grille de processeurs identiques. Ces MPSoC homogènes, bien que composés de processeurs énergétiquement moins efficaces, possèdent une programmabilité et une flexibilité plus importante que les MPSoC hétérogènes, ce qui favorise notamment l'adaptation du système à la charge demandée, et offre un espace de solutions de configuration potentiellement plus vaste et plus simple à contrôler. C'est dans ce contexte que s'inscrit cette thèse, en exposant la création d'une architecture MPSoC homogène scalable (c'est-à-dire dont la mise à l'échelle des performances est linéaire), ainsi que le développement de différents systèmes d'adaptation et de programmation sur celle-ci.Cette architecture, constituée d'une grille de processeurs de type MicroBlaze, possédant chacun sa propre mémoire, au sein d'un Réseau sur Puce 2D, a été développée conjointement avec un système d'exploitation temps réel (RTOS) spécialisé et modulaire. Grâce à la création d'une pile de communication complexe, plusieurs mécanismes d'adaptation ont été mis en œuvre : une migration de tâche « avec redirection de données », permettant de diminuer l'impact de cette migration avec des applications de type flux de données, ainsi qu'un mécanisme dit « d'exécution distante ». Ce dernier consiste non plus à migrer le code instruction d'une mémoire à une autre, mais de conserver le code dans sa mémoire initiale et de le faire exécuter par un processeur distinct. Les différentes expériences réalisées avec ce mécanisme ont permis de souligner la meilleure réactivité de celui-ci face à la migration de tâche, tout en possédant des performances d'adaptation plus faible.Ce dernier mécanisme a conduit naturellement à la création d'un modèle de programmation de type « mémoire partagée » au sein de l'architecture. La mise en place de ce dernier nécessitait la création d'un mécanisme de cohérence mémoire, qui a été réalisé de façon matérielle/logicielle et scalable par l'intermédiaire du développement de la librairie PThread. Les performances ainsi obtenues mettent en évidence les avantages d'un MPSoC homogène tout en utilisant une programmation « classique » de type multiprocesseur. / Although the accelerators market is dominated by heterogeneous MultiProcessor Systems-on-Chip (MPSoC), i.e. with different specialized processors, a growing interest is put on another type of MPSoC, composed by an array of identical processors. Even if these processors achieved lower performance to power ratio, the better flexibility and programmability of these homogeneous MPSoC allow an easier adaptation to the load, and offer a wider space of configurations. In this context, this thesis exposes the development of a scalable homogeneous MPSoC – i.e. with linear performance scaling – and different kind of adaptive mechanisms and programming model on it.This architecture is based on an array of MicroBlaze-like processors, each having its own memory, and connected through a 2D NoC. A modular RTOS was build on top of it. Thanks to a complex communication stack, different adaptive mechanisms were made: a “redirected data” task migration mechanism, reducing the impact of the migration mechanism for data-flow applications, and a “remote execution” mechanism. Instead of migrate the instruction code from a memory to another, this last consists in only migrate the execution, keeping the code in its initial memory. The different experiments shows faster reactivity but lower performance of this mechanism compared to migration.This development naturally led to the creation of a shared memory programming model. To achieve this, a scalable hardware/software memory consistency and cache coherency mechanism has been made, through the PThread library development. Experiments show the advantage of using NoC based homogeneous MPSoC with a brand programming model.

Rapid progress in the area of Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) has led to the availability of softcore processors that are simple to use, and can enable the development of a fully working system in minutes. This has lead to the enormous popularity of System-On-Programmable-Chip (SOPC) computing platforms. These softcore processors, while relatively simple compared to their leading-edge hardcore counterparts, are often designed with a number of advanced performance-enhancing features, such as instruction and data caches. Moreover, they are designed to be used in a uniprocessor or uncoupled multiprocessor architecture, and not in a tightly-coupled multiprocessing architecture. As a result, traditional cache-coherency protocols are not suitable for use with such systems. This thesis describes a system for enforcing cache coherency on symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) systems using softcore processors. A hybrid protocol that incorporates hardware and software to enforce cache coherency is presented.

Rapid progress in the area of Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) has led to the availability of softcore processors that are simple to use, and can enable the development of a fully working system in minutes. This has lead to the enormous popularity of System-On-Programmable-Chip (SOPC) computing platforms. These softcore processors, while relatively simple compared to their leading-edge hardcore counterparts, are often designed with a number of advanced performance-enhancing features, such as instruction and data caches. Moreover, they are designed to be used in a uniprocessor or uncoupled multiprocessor architecture, and not in a tightly-coupled multiprocessing architecture. As a result, traditional cache-coherency protocols are not suitable for use with such systems. This thesis describes a system for enforcing cache coherency on symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) systems using softcore processors. A hybrid protocol that incorporates hardware and software to enforce cache coherency is presented.

abstract: Due to restructuring and open access to the transmission system, modern electric power systems are being operated closer to their operational limits. Additionally, the secure operational limits of modern power systems have become increasingly difficult to evaluate as the scale of the network and the number of transactions between utilities increase. To account for these challenges associated with the rapid expansion of electric power systems, dynamic equivalents have been widely applied for the purpose of reducing the computational effort of simulation-based transient security assessment. Dynamic equivalents are commonly developed using a coherency-based approach in which a retained area and an external area are first demarcated. Then the coherent generators in the external area are aggregated and replaced by equivalenced models, followed by network reduction and load aggregation. In this process, an improperly defined retained area can result in detrimental impacts on the effectiveness of the equivalents in preserving the dynamic characteristics of the original unreduced system. In this dissertation, a comprehensive approach has been proposed to determine an appropriate retained area boundary by including the critical generators in the external area that are tightly coupled with the initial retained area. Further-more, a systematic approach has also been investigated to efficiently predict the variation in generator slow coherency behavior when the system operating condition is subject to change. Based on this determination, the critical generators in the external area that are tightly coherent with the generators in the initial retained area are retained, resulting in a new retained area boundary. Finally, a novel hybrid dynamic equivalent, consisting of both a coherency-based equivalent and an artificial neural network (ANN)-based equivalent, has been proposed and analyzed. The ANN-based equivalent complements the coherency-based equivalent at all the retained area boundary buses, and it is designed to compensate for the discrepancy between the full system and the conventional coherency-based equivalent. The approaches developed have been validated on a large portion of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) system and on a test case including a significant portion of the eastern interconnection. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Electrical Engineering 2011

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In this thesis, we apply nonlinear Koopman mode analysis to decompose the swing dynamics of a power system into modes of oscillation, which are identified by analyzing the Koopman operator, a linear infinite-dimensional operator that may be defined for any nonlinear dynamical system. Specifically, power system modes of oscillation are identified through spectral analysis of the Koopman operator associated with a particular observable. This means that they can be determined directly from measurements. These modes, referred to as Koopman modes, are single-frequency oscillations, which may be extracted from nonlinear swing dynamics under small and large disturbances. They have an associated temporal frequency and growth rate. Consequently, they may be viewed as a nonlinear generalization of eigen-modes of a linearized system. Koopman mode analysis has been also applied to identify coherent swings and coherent groups of machines of a power system. This will allow us to carry out a model reduction of a large-scale system and to derive a precursor to monitor the loss of transient stability. / Master of Science