Thesis (MScEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A collaboration between the Katholieke Universiteit van Leuven (KUL) and Stellenbosch University (SU), resulted in the development of a satellite based platform for use in agricultural sensing applications. This will primarily serve as a test platform for a digitally beam-steerable antenna array (SAA) that was developed by KUL. SU developed all flight - and ground station based hardware and software, enabling ground to flight communications and interfacing with the KUL SAA. Although most components had already been completed at the start of this M:Sc:Eng: project, final systems integration was still unfinished. Modules necessary for communication were also outstanding. This project implemented an automatic repeat and request (ARQ) strategy for reliable file transfer across the wireless link. Channel coding has also been implemented on a field programmable gate array (FPGA). This layer includes an advanced forward error correction (FEC) scheme i.e. a low-density parity-check (LDPC), which outperforms traditional FEC techniques. A flexible architecture for channel coding has been designed that allows speed and complexity trade-offs on the FPGA. All components have successfully been implemented, tested and integrated. Simulations of LDPC on the FPGA have been shown to provide excellent error correcting performance. The prototype has been completed and recently successfully demonstrated at KUL. Data has been reliably transferred between the satellite platform and a ground station, during this event. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Tydens ’n samewerkingsooreenkoms tussen die Katholieke Universiteit van Leuven (KUL) en die Universiteit van Stellenbosch (US) is ’n satelliet stelsel ontwikkel vir sensor-netwerk toepassings in die landbou bedryf. Hierdie stelsel sal hoofsaaklik dien as ’n toetsmedium vir ’n digitaal stuurbare antenna (SAA) wat deur KUL ontwikkel is. Die US het alle hardeware en sagteware komponente ontwikkel om kommunikasie d.m.v die SAA tussen die satelliet en ’n grondstasie te bewerkstellig. Sedert die begin van hierdie M:Sc:Ing: projek was die meeste komponente alreeds ontwikkel en geïmplementeer, maar finale stelselsintegrasie moes nog voltooi word. Modules wat kommunikasie sou bewerkstellig was ook nog uistaande. Hierdie projek het ’n ARQ protokol geïmplementeer wat data betroubaar tussen die satelliet en ’n grondstasie kon oordra. Kanaalkodering is ook op ’n veld programmeerbare hekskikking (FPGA) geïmplementeer. ’n Gevorderde foutkorrigeringstelsel, naamlik ’n lae digtheids pariteit toetskode (LDPC), wat tradisionele foutkorrigeringstelsels se doeltreffendheid oortref, word op hierdie FPGA geïmplementeer. ’n Kanaalkoderingsargitektuur is ook ontwikkel om die verwerkingspoed van data en die hoeveelheid FPGA logika wat gebruik word, teenoor mekaar op te weeg. Alle komponente is suksesvol geïmplementeer, getoets en geïntegreer met die hele stelsel. Simulasies van LDPC op die FPGA het uistekende foutkorrigeringsresultate gelewer. ’n Werkende prototipe is onlangs voltooi en suksesvol gedemonstreer by KUL. Betroubare data oordrag tussen die satelliet en die grondstasie is tydens hierdie demonstrasie bevestig.

Speeding up addition is the key to faster digital signal processing (DSP). This can be achieved by exploiting the properties of redundant number systems. Their expanded symbol (digit) alphabet gives them multiple representations for most values. Utilising redundant representations at the output of an adder permits addition to be performed without carry-propagation, yielding fast, constant time performance irrespective of the word length. A resource efficient implementation of this fast adder structure is developed that re-purposes the fast carry logic of low-cost field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Experiments confirm constant time addition and show that it outperforms binary ripple carry addition at word lengths of greater than 44 bits in a Xilinx Spartan 3 FPGA and 24 bits in an Altera Cyclone III FPGA. Redundancy also provides other properties that can be exploited for performance gain. Some redundant representations will have more zero-symbols than others. These maximise the opportunities to exploit the multiplicative absorbing and additive identity properties of zero that when exercised reduce superfluous calculations. A serial recoding algorithm is developed that generates a redundant representation for a specified value with as few nonzero symbols as possible. Unlike previously published methods, it accepts a wide specification of number systems including those with irregularly spaced symbol alphabets. A Markov analysis and analysis of the elementary cycles in the formulated state machine provides average and worst case measures for the tested number system. Typically, the average number of non-zero symbols is less than a third and the worst case is less than a half. Further to the increase in zero-symbols, zero-dominance is proposed as a new property of redundant number representations. It promotes a set of representations that have uniquely positioned zero-symbols, in a Pareto-optimal sense. This set covers all representations of a value and is used to select representations to optimise the calculation of a dot-product. The dot-product or vector-multiply is a fundamental operation in DSP, since it is employed in filtering, correlation and convolution. The nonzero partial products can be packed together, substantially reducing the calculation time. The application of redundant number systems provides a two-fold benefit. Firstly, the number of nonzero partial products is reduced. Secondly, a novel opportunity is identified to use the representations in the zero-dominant set to optimise the packing further, gaining an extra 18% improvement. An implementation of the proposed dot-product with partial product packing is developed for a Cyclone II FPGA. It outperforms a quad-multiplier binary implementation in throughput by 50% . Redundant number systems excel at increasing performance in particular DSP subsystems, those that are numerically intensive and consist of considerable accumulation. The conversion back to a binary result is the performance bottleneck in the DSP algorithm, taking a time proportional to a binary adder. Therefore, redundant number systems are best utilised when this conversion cost can be amortised over many fast redundant additions, which is typical in many DSP and communications applications.

The increasing demand for energy efficient computing has endorsed the usage of Field-Programmable Gate Arrays to create hardware accelerators for large and complex codes. However, implementing such accelerators involve two complex decisions. The first one lies in deciding which code snippet is the best to create an accelerator, and the second one lies in how to implement the accelerator. When considering both decisions concomitantly, the problem becomes more complicated since the code snippet implementation affects the code snippet choice, creating a combined design space to be explored. As such, a fast design space exploration for the accelerators implementation is crucial to allow the exploration of different code snippets. However, such design space exploration suffers from several time-consuming tasks during the compilation and evaluation steps, making it not a viable option to the snippets exploration. In this work, we focus on the efficient implementation of pipelined hardware accelerators and present our contributions on speeding up the pipelines creation and their design space exploration. Towards loop pipelining, the proposed approaches achieve up to 100× speed-up when compared to the state-uf-the-art methods, leading to 164 hours saving in a full design space exploration with less than 1% impact in the final results quality. Towards design space exploration, the proposed methods achieve up to 9:5× speed-up, keeping less than 1% impact in the results quality. / A demanda crescente por computação energeticamente eficiente tem endossado o uso de Field- Programmable Gate Arrays para a criação de aceleradores de hardware para códigos grandes e complexos. Entretanto, a implementação de tais aceleradores envolve duas decisões complexas. O primeiro reside em decidir qual trecho de código é o melhor para se criar o acelerador, e o segundo reside em como implementar tal acelerador. Quando ambas decisões são consideradas concomitantemente, o problema se torna ainda mais complicado dado que a implementação do trecho de código afeta a seleção dos trechos de código, criando um espaço de projeto combinatorial a ser explorado. Dessa forma, uma exploração do espaço de projeto rápida para a implementação de aceleradores é crucial para habilitar a exploração de diferentes trechos de código. Contudo, tal exploração do espaço de projeto é impedida por várias tarefas que consumem tempo durante os passos de compilação a análise, o que faz da exploração de trechos de códigos inviável. Neste trabalho, focamos na implementação eficiente de aceleradores pipeline em hardware e apresentamos nossas contribuições para o aceleramento da criações de pipelines e de sua exploração do espaço de projeto. Referente à criação de pipelines, as abordagens propostas alcançam uma aceleração de até 100× quando comparadas às abordagens do estado-da-arte, levando à economia de 164 horas em uma exploração de espaço de projeto completa com menos de 1% de impacto na qualidade dos resultados. Referente à exploração do espaço de projeto, as abordagens propostas alcançam uma aceleração de até 9:5×, mantendo menos de 1% de impacto na qualidade dos resultados.

L'objectif du travail réalisé dans le cadre de cette thèse est de montrer l'intérêt d'utiliser les FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Array) comme support pour l'implantation d'algorithmes complexes dédiés à la commande de machines électriques. Pour ce faire, une commande sans capteur mécanique utilisant un filtre de Kalman étendu et basée sur FPGA est réalisée. Cette commande est destinée à piloter une machine synchrone à pôles saillants. Le modèle d-q de la machine basé sur l'approximation d'inertie infinie est implanté. L'ordre du Filtre de Kalman est donc égal à 4 et la complexité totale de la boucle de régulation est évaluée à près de 700 opérations arithmétiques (dont plus de 53% de multiplications). Les apports des solutions FPGAs en termes de performances de contrôle et en termes de capacité d'intégration sont quantifiés.En terme de performances de contrôle, il a été démontré qu'en utilisant de telles solutions matérielles, le temps de calcul est très réduit (de l'ordre de 5µs, 5% de la période d'échantillonnage). Cette rapidité de calcul permet d'avoir un contrôle quasi-instantané ce qui améliore la bande passante de la boucle de régulation. A ce sujet, une comparaison avec les performances obtenues avec une solution logicielle telle que le DSP est effectuée. Dans les deux cas, le comportement dynamique de la boucle de régulation s de vitesse ans capteur est quantifié.En termes de capacité d'intégration, il est possible de développer une architecture commune qui peut être adaptée à plusieurs systèmes. A titre d'exemple, il est possible de développer un filtre de Kalman sur un même FPGA capable d'estimer les grandeurs de plusieurs systèmes sans pour autant affecter les performances de contrôle. En outre, une méthodologie de développement dédiée à de tels algorithmes complexes est proposée. Il s'agit là d'une adaptation des méthodologies proposées dans des travaux de thèse précédents, [62] et [63]. En effet, une étape de spécification préliminaire du système ainsi que des procédures d'optimisation supplémentaires y sont introduites. Ces dernières sont particulièrement nécessaires dans le cas de commandes complexes et permettent une adéquation entre l'algorithme développé et l'architecture FPGA correspondante. De plus, cette méthodologie a été organisée de façon à distinguer l'étape du développement de l'algorithme et l'étape du développement de l'architecture FPGA. Un état de l'art sur les technologies FPGA est également proposé. La structure interne des FPGAs récents est décrite. Leur contribution dans le domaine de la commande des machines électriques est quantifiée. Les différentes étapes de la méthodologie de développement sont présentées. Le développement d'une commande numérique (basée sur FPGA) d'une machine synchrone à aimant permanent associée à un capteur de position Resolver est par la suite traité. Cette application s'inscrit dans un contexte avionique où l'objectif était d'avoir une solution FPGA hautement intégrée. Pour ce faire, le FPGA Actel Fusion est utilisé. Ce composant intègre un convertisseur analogique numérique. La commande, le traitement des signaux Resolver ainsi que la conversion analogique numériques sont implantés sur le même composant.En ce qui concerne la commande sans capteur basée sur le filtre de Kalman étendu, il a été décidé de structurer les chapitres correspondants à travers la méthodologie de développement proposée. Ainsi, la phase de spécification préliminaire du système, la phase du développement de l'algorithme, la phase du développement de l'architecture FPGA et la phase d'expérimentation sont séparément traitées. Durant la phase d'expérimentation, la procédure «Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL)» est incluse afin de valider le fonctionnement de l'architecture développée une fois la phase d'implantation physique achevée. / The aim of this thesis is to present the interest of using Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices for the implementation of complex AC drive controllers. The case of a sensorless speed controller using the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) has been chosen and applied to a Salient Synchronous Machine (SSM). The d-q model based on the infinite inertia hypothesis has been implemented. The corresponding EKF order is then equal to 4 and the complexity of the whole sensorless controller is equal to 700 arithmetic operations (more than 53% of multiplications). The contribution of FPGAs in this field has been quantified in terms of control performances and in terms of system integration. In terms of control performances, the proposed FPGA-based solution ensures a short execution time which is around 5µs (5% of the sampling period). This treatment fastness ensures a quasi-instantaneous control which improves the control bandwidth. To this purpose, a comparison with a software DSP-based solution is made. The dynamic behavior and the influence of the execution time, in both cases, on the control bandwidth have been quantified. In terms of integration capacity, it is possible to implement a generic FPGA architecture that can be adapted to the control of several systems. Thus, it is possible to develop a common EKF architecture that is able to estimate variables from many systems without affecting the control performances.In addition, a design methodology adapted to such complex controllers has been proposed. The particularity of this updated methodology, compared to the previous ones ([62], [63]), is to provide an enlarged set of steps starting from the preliminary system specification to the ultimate experimentation. Optimization procedures have also been introduced. These optimizations are necessary in case of complex controllers and lead to the adequation between the developed algorithm and the corresponding hardware FPGA architecture. A state of the art FPGA technology is also presented. The internal structure of the recent devices and their corresponding technology are discussed. Their contribution in the field of AC drive applications is quantified. An in-depth presentation of the proposed design methodology is made.Besides, the development of a fully integrated FPGA-based controller for a Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine (PMSM) associated with a Resolver sensor is presented. This controller has been developed in for an aircraft application where the main objective was to develop a fully integrated FPGA solution. The Actel Fusion FPGA device has been used. This device integrates an Analog to Digital Converter (ADC). The current controller, the Resolver Processing Unit (RPU) and the analog to digital conversion are implemented within the same device. When it comes to the sensorless controller, the corresponding chapters have been structured according to the presented design methodology: the preliminary system specification, the algorithm development, the FPGA architecture development and finally the experimentation. The latter includes Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) tests and the final experimental validation.

This thesis report presents a new design of a synchronization unit for high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) applications used for depositing thin films. The proposed system is composed of two major hardware parts: a microcontroller unit (MCU) and a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). The control range of the new system is increased by at least ten times compared to existing synchronization unit designed by Ionautics AB.In order to verify the system and benchmark its innovations, several batches of the thin film have been deposited using the new technology. It is shown that HiPIMS with synchronized pulsed substrate bias can effectively improve coating performance. Pulsed substrate bias with user-defined pulse width and delay time is possible to use in the new control mode proposed by this master thesis work; Bias mode. As a result, this master thesis work enables users to flexibly control the HiPIMS processes.

Reconfigurable hardware architectures have been available now for several years. Yet the application development for such architectures is still a challenging and error-prone task, since the methods, languages, and tools being used for development are inappropriate to handle the complexity of the problem. This thesis introduces a novel approach that tackles the complexity challenge by raising the level of abstraction to system-level and increasing the degree of automation. The approach is centered around the paradigms of object-orientation, platforms, and modeling. An application and all platforms being used for its design, implementation, and deployment are modeled with objects using UML and an action language. The application model is then transformed into an implementation, whereby the transformation is steered by the platform models. In this thesis solutions for the relevant problems behind this approach are discussed. It is shown how UML can be used for complete and precise modeling of applications and platforms. Application development is done at the system-level using a set of well-defined, orthogonal platform models. Thereby the core features of object-orientation - data abstraction, encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism - are fully supported. Novel algorithms are presented, that allow for an automatic mapping of such application models to the target architecture. Thereby the problems of platform mapping, estimation of implementation characteristics, and synthesis of UML models are discussed. The thesis explores the utilization of platform models for generation of highly optimized implementations in an automatic yet adaptable way. The approach is evaluated by a number of relevant applications. The execution of the generated implementations is supported by a run-time service. This service manages the hardware configurations and objects comprising the application. Moreover, it serves as broker for hardware objects. The efficient management of configurations and objects at run-time is discussed and optimized life cycles for these entities are proposed. Mechanisms are presented that make the approach portable among different physical hardware architectures. Further, this thesis presents UML profiles and example platforms that support system-level design. These extensions are embodied in a novel type of model compiler. The compiler is accompanied by an implementation of the run-time service. Both have been used to evaluate and improve the presented concepts and algorithms.

Der achte Band der wissenschaftlichen Schriftenreihe EINGEBETTETE, SELBSTORGANISIERENDE SYSTEME widmet sich der Synthese von partiell dynamisch rekonfigurierbaren, eingebetteten Systemen. Mit der Möglichkeit Hardwareblöcke zur Laufzeit auf programmierbaren Bausteinen neu zu konfigurieren, lässt sich eine höhere Flexibilität im Vergleich zu einer Hardwarerealisierung in eingebettete Systeme integrieren. Gleichzeitig sind diese Systeme durch eine gesteigerte Performance gegenüber Software gekennzeichnet. Die Flexibilität kann ausgenutzt werden, um kleinere Schaltkreise bei gleichem Funktionsumfang einzusetzen. Für die Integration von Rekonfigurierung sind zusätzliche Entwurfschritte im Design Flow notwendig. Herr Meisel stellt hierfür in seiner Arbeit eine Entwurfsmethodik vor und geht im Besonderen auf die Partitionierung, Platzierung und Steuerung in dynamisch rekonfigurierbaren, eingebetteten Systemen ein. Um eine vergleichsweise effizient zu realisierende Partitionierung des Systems zu erhalten, wurde das Overlaying Verfahren aus dem Bereich der Speicherverwaltung für dynamische Rekonfigurierung adaptiert. Für das Platzierungsverfahren wurden Rekonfigurierungen als Markov Kette modelliert, um so zu einer Minimierung der durchschnittlichen Rekonfigurierungsdauer zu gelangen. Die vorgestellte Rekonfigurierungssteuerung fokussiert auf einer ressourcensparenden Hardware Implementierung. Mit einem Entwurfsbeispiel werden die Vorteile und Ergebnisse des Ansatzes anschaulich illustriert. So kann der Leser die Mächtigkeit des entwickelten Ansatzes nachvollziehen und wird motiviert, die entwickelte Methodik auf weitere Anwendungsfälle zu übertragen. / Volume 8 of scientific series EINGEBETTETE, SELBSTORGANISIERENDE SYSTEME (Embedded Self-Organized Systems) addresses the synthesis of partially dynamically reconfigurable embedded systems. With the ability to configure hardware blocks during run-time, more flexibility can be integrated in embedded systems. At the same time, these systems have better performance than functions implemented in software. Through this flexibility it is possible to use smaller circuits without limiting the functionality. For the integration of reconfiguration into embedded systems, additional design steps are required. Mr. Meisel presents a design methodology for the design flow and primarily concerns the problem of partitioning, placement, and reconfiguration control in dynamically reconfigurable embedded systems. The implemented partitioning of the system is based on the adapted memory management concept of Overlaying. For the placement method the configurations are modeled as Markov chain, in order to minimize the average reconfiguration time. The presented reconfiguration control unit focuses on a resource-saving hardware implementation. The benefits and results of the approach are clearly illustrated with a design sample. The reader can understand the power of developed approach and is motivated to transfer the developed methodology to more use cases.

Monte Carlo (MC) simulations are widely used in the field of medical biophysics, particularly for modelling light propagation in biological tissue. The iterative nature of MC simulations and their high computation time currently limit their use to solving the forward solution for a given set of source characteristics and tissue optical properties. However, applications such as photodynamic therapy treatment planning or image reconstruction in diffuse optical tomography require solving the inverse problem given a desired light dose distribution or absorber distribution, respectively. A faster means for performing MC simulations would enable the use of MC-based models for such tasks. In this thesis, a gold standard MC code called MCML was accelerated using two distinct hardware-based approaches, namely designing custom hardware on field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and programming commodity graphics processing units (GPUs). Currently, the GPU-based approach is promising, offering approximately 1000-fold speedup with 4 GPUs compared to an Intel Xeon CPU.

Today’s embedded systems depend on the availability of hybrid platforms, that contain heterogeneous computing resources such as programmable processors units (CPU’s or DSP’s) and highly specialized hardware cores. These platforms have been scaled down to integrated embedded system-on-chip. Modern platform FPGAs enhance such systems by the flexibility of runtime configurable silicon. One of the major advantages that arises is the ability to use hardware (HW) and software (SW) resources in a time-shared manner. Though the ability to dynamically assign computing resources based on decisions taken at runtime is given.

The McTronX research group at the North-West University is currently researching self-sensing techniques for Active Magnetic Bearings (AMB). The research is part of an ongoing effort to expand the knowledge base on AMBs in the School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering to support industries that make use of the technology. The aim of this project is to develop an integrated co-processor based power electronic drive with the emphasis placed on the ability of the co-processor to execute AMB self-sensing algorithms. The two primary techniques for implementing self-sensing in AMBs are state estimation and modulation. This research focuses on hardware development to facilitate the implementation of the modulation method. Self-sensing algorithms require concurrent processing power and speed that are well suited to an architecture that combines a digital signal processor (DSP) and a field programmable gate array (FPGA). A comprehensive review of various power amplifier topologies shows that the pulse width modulation (PWM) switching amplifier is best suited for controlling the voltage and current required to drive the AMB coils. Combining DSPs and power electronics to form an integrated co-processor based power electronic drive requires detail attention to aspects of PCB design, including signal integrity and grounding. A conceptual design is conducted and forms part of the process of compiling a subsystem development specification for the integrated drive, in conjunction with the McTronX Research Group. Component selection criteria, trade-off studies and various circuit simulations serve as the basis for this essential phase of the project. The conceptual design and development specification determines the architecture, functionality and interfaces of the integrated drive. Conceptual designs for the power amplifier, digital controller, electronic supply and mechanical layout of the integrated drive is provided. A detail design is performed for the power amplifier, digital controller and electronic supply. Issues such as component selection, power supply requirements, thermal design, interfacing of the various circuit elements and PCB design are covered in detail. The output of the detail design is a complete set of circuit diagrams for the integrated controller. The integrated drive is interfaced with existing AMB hardware and facilitates the successful implementation of two self-sensing techniques. The hardware performance of the integrated coprocessor based power electronic drive is evaluated by means of measurements taken from this experimental self-sensing setup. The co-processor performance is evaluated in terms of resource usage and execution time and performs satisfactorily in this regard. The integrated co-processor based power electronic drive provided sufficient resources, processing speed and flexibility to accommodate a variety of self-sensing algorithms thus contributing to the research currently underway in the field of AMBs by the McTronX research group at the North-West University. / Thesis (M.Ing. (Electrical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.