Several critical human activities depend on the weather forecasting. Some of them are transportation, health, work, safety, and agriculture. Such activities require computational solutions for weather forecasting through numerical models. These numerical models must be accurate and allow the computers to process them quickly. In this project, we aim at migrating a small part of the software of the weather forecasting model of Brazil, BRAMS Brazilian developments on the Regional Atmospheric Modelling System to a heterogeneous system composed of Xeon (Intel) processors coupled to a reprogrammable circuit (FPGA) via PCIe bus. According to the studies in the literature, the chemical equation from the mass continuity equation is the most computationally demanding part. This term calculates several linear systems Ax = b. Thus, we implemented such equations in hardware and provided a portable and highly parallel design in OpenCL language. The OpenCL framework also allowed us to couple our circuit to BRAMS legacy code in Fortran90. Although the development tools present several problems, the designed solution has shown to be viable with the exploration of parallel techniques. However, the performance was below of what we expected. / Várias atividades humanas dependem da previsão do tempo. Algumas delas são transporte, saúde, trabalho, segurança e agricultura. Tais atividades exigem solucões computacionais para previsão do tempo através de modelos numéricos. Estes modelos numéricos devem ser precisos e ágeis para serem processados no computador.Este projeto visa portar uma pequena parte do software do modelo de previsão de tempo do Brasil, o BRAMSBrazilian developments on the Regional Atmospheric Modelling Systempara uma arquitetura heterogênea composta por processadores Xeon (Intel) acoplados a um circuito reprogramável em FPGA via barramento PCIe. De acordo com os estudos, o termo da química da equação de continuidade da massa é o termo mais caro computacionalmente. Este termo calcula várias equações lineares do tipo Ax = b. Deste modo, este trabalho implementou estas equações em hardware, provendo um ´codigo portável e paralelo na linguagem OpenCL. O framework OpenCL também nos permitiu acoplar o código legado do BRAMS em Fortran90 junto com o hardware desenvolvido. Embora as ferramentas de desenvolvimento tenham apresentado vários problemas, a solução implementada mostrou-se viável com a exploração de técnicas de paralelismo. Entretando sua perfomance ficou muito aquém do desejado.

Dans un contexte où les ressources énergétiques sont moindres et la demande en termes de débit de communication est forte, il est intéressant de proposer des solutions techniques au niveau de la couche physique permettant d’optimiser la consommation énergétique de systèmes. Actuellement, pour une localisation précise et un transfert de données entre voie et trains efficace, la signalisation ferroviaire exploite des balises disposées entre les rails. La durée possible de la communication entre trains et balises s’avère très brève et n’est effective que lorsque le train passe juste au-dessus de la balise. Celle-ci reste en état de veille jusqu’à ce que le train la télé alimente lors de son passage. Le temps de communication utile entre le train et la balise s’établit à 3-4 ms pour un train roulant à 300 km/h. Par conséquent, plusieurs équipements consécutifs doivent être installés si l’on veut accroître la durée d’échange ou encore la quantité de données échangées. En outre, le fait d’émettre continument un puissant signal de télé alimentation radiofréquence non exploité depuis tous les trains en circulation, la difficulté de maintenance liée à la présence de cet équipement entre les rails, ainsi que la portée et donc la capacité de communication réduites des balises actuelles constituent autant de limitations que nous tentons de pallier avec ce nouvel équipement. Dès lors, nous développons une nouvelle génération de balise ferroviaire fondée sur un lien radiofréquence qui possède une portée atteignant quelques mètres, nettement plus importante que celle exploitable actuellement. Cette balise est également située en bord de voie et non entre les rails pour des questions de facilité de maintenance. Nous utilisons une technique de focalisation du signal émis depuis la balise vers l’antenne embarquée sur le train. Puisque la distance de communication balise au sol - interrogateur est portée à quelques mètres, la télé alimentation par couplage inductif actuelle n’est plus possible. Disposer d’une infrastructure centrale pour alimenter toutes les balises présentes sur le réseau n’est pas réaliste non plus. Une solution raisonnable et économe consiste à générer de l’énergie électrique basse tension localement en utilisant des énergies renouvelables (solaire, éolienne…), et en limitant le plus possible la consommation d’énergie de l’électronique de la balise. Dans cette optique, la contribution scientifique présentée consiste à développer et à optimiser, en termes d’énergie consommée, la couche physique de communication de cet équipement. / In railway signaling, accurate and safe localization of trains is of paramount importance for the safe exploitation of railway networks. Therefore, train odometry has received considerable interest. Usually, train odometers manage different embarked sensors including wheel counters and Doppler radars that compute the position and the speed of the trains. However, as trains move, these proprioceptive sensors accumulate drifts and, as a consequence, train localization accuracy is compromised after several kilometers. In order to fix this drift problem, railway signaling uses beacons installed at ground, on the track, between the rails. Installed every several kilometers, they transmit absolute localization information to trains passing over them thus, bringing back locally the drifts to zero. These beacons constitute major components of railway signaling and also one of the very last equipment installed between the rails. Existing railway beacons are placed on the rails for two main reasons. First of all, since in these conditions the radio link between the train and the beacons remains very short, in the order of a few tens of centimeters, placing the beacons on the rails is very helpful to deliver an accurate local absolute localization to the train. Moreover using this very short radio communication range, while passing over them, trains can supply electrical energy to the beacons by magnetically coupling radiofrequency energy from the train to the beacon. This radiofrequency energy is detected and converted in DC power supply to feed the beacon electronics. This very short range leads to a satisfactory transfer of energy between train and beacon. As indicated previously, beacons can just be position indicators; however, they can also handle communication between grounds and trains using a peer to peer radio link. In this case, communication is only active when the train passes over the beacons, thus, the effective communication time is very short. As another major drawback of this particular implementation between the rails, track maintenance requires disassembling the beacons and then repositioning them safely and accurately.

Les systèmes éoliens seront certainement amenés, à court terme, à contribuer aux services systèmes (compensation de la puissance réactive, stabilité du plan de tension,…) comme le font actuellement les alternateurs de centrales classiques. Ils seront également amenés à participer à l'amélioration de la qualité de l'énergie électrique, filtrage des courants harmoniques en particulier. De plus, vu l'augmentation de la puissance éolienne installée et fournie au réseau électrique, les éoliennes devront certainement assurer, à plus long terme, une continuité de service suite à un défaut électrique sur le réseau ou sur un des éléments de la chaîne de conversion électromécanique (interrupteurs de puissance, capteurs,…) afin d'améliorer leur fiabilité. Dans ces travaux de thèse, nous avons montré dans un premier temps qu'un système éolien basé sur une Machine Asynchrone à Double Alimentation (MADA) possédant un gain d'amplification entre les courants rotoriques et statoriques peut participer efficacement à l'amélioration de la qualité de l'énergie électrique en compensant simultanément de la puissance réactive et des courants harmoniques présents sur le réseau, sans pour autant nécessiter un surdimensionnement des éléments de la chaîne de conversion électromécanique. Ensuite, nous avons étudié des topologies dites “fault tolerant” de convertisseurs statiques triphasés et leurs commandes associées, permettant de garantir la continuité de service en présence de défauts éventuels d'un semi-conducteur ou d'un capteur de courant. Pour réduire autant que possible le temps de détection de défaut, nous avons ciblé un composant FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) pour le contrôle/commande “fault tolerant”. Les résultats de simulation, de prototypage “FPGA in the loop” et expérimentaux démontrent les performances des méthodes proposées / Wind Energy Conversion Systems (WECS) will probably be intended, in a short term, to provide ancillary services such as reactive power compensation, as done by conventional generators of power plants and/or participate in improving electric power quality by filtering harmonic currents. Furthermore, by considering the increased installed wind power, connected to the grid, WECS will certainly ensure, in long term, the continuity of service following an electrical fault on the grid or on one of elements of the electromechanical conversion (power switches, sensors…) to ensure their reliability. In this thesis, we have studied in the first part a WECS based on Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) with an amplification gain between the stator and rotor currents. We have demonstrated that such a WECS can efficiently improving the electric power quality by compensating simultaneously reactive power and harmonic currents on the grid, without requiring any oversized elements in the electromechanical conversion chain. Then, we studied fault tolerant converter topologies and associated controls, ensuring the continuity of service in the presence of possible faults of a semiconductor or a current sensor. To minimize the time fault detection, we used an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) to implement the fault tolerant controller. Simulation, “FPGA in the loop” prototyping and experimental results have validated the performances of the proposed methods and fault tolerant topologie

<p>Denna rapport omfattar ett 15 poängs (22,5 högskolepoäng) examensarbete vid Karlstads universitet. Arbetet har utförts på plats hos BAE Systems Bofors i Karlskoga. Företaget ville kunna styra en radiostyrd leksaksstridsvagn med en laserpekare. En kamera ansluten till en digital signalprocessor (DSP) skulle kunna detektera var en laserpunkt befinner sig och styra stridsvagnen mot den.</p><p>Ett styrgränssnitt mellan DSP:n och leksaksstridsvagnen konstruerades och byggdes med hjälp av en programmerbar logisk krets. Leksaksstridsvagnens interna signalsystem analyserades. En manchesterkodad signal i form av ett 32-bitars seriellt kodord hittades, vilket ursprungligen kom från radiostyrningen. Ett styrgränssnitt konstruerades kring en CPLD (Complex Programmable Logic Device) vilken programmerades med VHDL (Very high speed integrated Hardware Description Language) som återskapar den Manchesterkodade styrsignalen.</p><p>Gränssnittet ansluter till DSP:n som kontrollerar stridsvagnens styrning och övriga funktioner till fullo. Kommunikationen mellan styrgränssnittet och DSP:n sker via ett parallellgränssnitt som är 16-bitar brett. 13 bitar är datasignaler och övriga tre är ”styrbitar” som konfigurerar gränssnittet. En applikation integrerades i projektet för att demonstrera styrgränssnittets funktion. DSP:n tolkar var en laserpunkt befinner sig inom ett kameraområde och skickar motsvarande styrsignaler till leksaksstridsvagnen.</p> / <p>This report consists of a 15 points (22.5 ECTS) Exam Degree project at Karlstad University. The work was done on location at BAE Systems Bofors AB in Karlskoga. The company wanted to control a radio controlled toy tank from a digital signal processor (DSP). A camera connected to the DSP locates the laser point and steers the toy tank towards it.</p><p>An interface using a programmable logic device was constructed that connects the DSP to the toy tank. The internal signals in the toy tank was analyzed and a Manchester coded signal in form of a 32-bit serial code word was detected. The code word originated from the radio controller. The control interface was built around a CPLD (Complex Programmable Logic Device) which was programmed in VHDL (Very high speed integrated Hardware Description Language). The control interface recreates the signal controlling the toy tank.</p><p>The interface connects the toy tank to the DSP which controls the toy tank and it’s functions to the full extent. Communication between the interface and the DSP is done via a 16 bit parallel connection. 13 of the bits are data bits and the remaining 3 are control bits that are used to set up the interface. An application was integrated in the project where the DSP is detecting a laser point. Corresponding signals to the laser points position where sent to the control interface to demonstrate the function of the interface.</p>

Fossil fuel is a rare commodity and the combustion of this fuel results in negative environmental effects. This paper evaluates and validates the electronics needed to run intelligent algorithms to lower the fuel consumption for commercial vessels. This is done by integrating advanced fuel saving functions into an electronic device that controls the fuel injection of large diesel engines, as known as a diesel engine governor. The control system is classified as a safety critical system. This means that the electronics needs to be designed for fail safe operation. To allow for future research and development, the platform needs flexibility in respect to hardware reconfiguration and software changes, i.e. this is the basis for a system that allows for hardware-software co-design. For efficient installation and easy commissioning, the system shall allow for auto-calibration combined with programmable jumper selections to attain a cost effective solution. The computation of the fuel saving algorithm require accurate data to build a model of the vessels motions. This is achieved by integrating state of the art sensors and a multitude of communication interfaces. Among other things gyroscopes contra accelerometers where evaluated to find the best solution in respect to cost and performance. This design replace the current product DEGO III. The new product requires the same functionality and shall allow for more functions. Focus has been spent on communication, methods of accruing sensor data and more computation speed. In creating a new generation of a product there are tasks like selecting components, questions pertaining to layout of the printed circuit board and an evaluation of supply chains. The manufacturing aspects are considered to rationalize production and testing. / Fossila bränslen är en dyrbar råvara och förbränningen av detta bränsle leder till negativa miljöeffekter. Detta papper utvärderar och verifierar elektroniken som behövs för att beräkna intelligenta algoritmer som minskar bränsle konsumtionen för kommersiella fartyg. Detta görs genom att sammanfoga avancerade funktioner i en och samma elektroniska enhet som kontrollerar bränsle insprutningen på stora diesel motorer, denna elektronik är känd som en varvtals regulator. Kontroll systemet är klassificerat som ett säkerhetskritiskt system. Detta betyder att elektroniken måste utformas för att vara felsäker. För att tillåta framtida forskning och utveckling behöver plattformen vara flexibel. Den ska tillåta konfiguration av hårdvara och mjukvara ändringar. Samverkan mellan hårdvara och mjukvara. För effektiv installation samt drifttagning, måste systemet vara automat-kalibrerande och utrustat med programmerbara byglingar som möjliggör en kostnadseffektiv lösning. Beräkningen av bränsle optimeringen behöver en detaljerad modell av fartygets rörelse. Detta möjliggörs genom att integrera moderna sensorer och en mängd olika kommunikationsmedier. Bland annat så utvärderades gyroskop kontra accelerometrar för att hitta den bästa lösningen i förhållande till kostnad och kvalitet. Denna design ersätter den nuvarande produkten DEGO III. Den nya produkten behöver samma funktionalitet samt en mängd nya funktioner. Fokus har varit kommunikation, metoder för att samla sensordata och ökad beräknings kraft. När en ny generation av en produkt ska utvecklas finns uppgifter så som att välja komponenter, frågor gällande mönsterkorts layout och en utvärdering av leverantörs källor. Tillverkningen av prototypen inkluderar utvärdering av produktions metoder för att effektivisera tillverkning och verifiering.

This master’s thesis is based on the idea to extend a point-to-point 10 Gbps Ethernet cryptoto a multi-point 10 Gbps Ethernet crypto. The multi-point extension is targeted for a fictiveproduct called Krypet. Extending Krypet to multi-point can be seen as creating a distributed Ethernet switch wherethe ports are Krypet units and the information passed between the ports is encrypted. Problems that occur when this extension is designed are identified and analysed. Some problemexamples are address lookup, session changes and packet switching. Different solutions to the identified problems are presented and these are compared anddiscussed. Requirements on the whole multi-point extension are determined and an architecturebased on the solutions is designed. The architecture is implemented and the resultof the implementation is discussed. The implementation successfully extends the system tomulti-point support and satisfies most of the determined requirements.

Τα ασύρματα δίκτυα που βασίζονται στο πρότυπο ΙΕΕΕ 802.11 είναι σήμερα από τα πλέον δημοφιλή παγκοσμίως. Παρόλη την ευρεία διάδοσή τους υπάρχει σημαντικό πρόβλημα όσον αφορά την ασφάλεια των δεδομένων που διακινούνται εντός του δικτύου. Αρχικά, στο πρότυπο οριζόταν μία μόνο μέθοδος για την ασφάλεια των πληροφοριών, που ονομάζεται WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) και βασίζεται στον αλγόριθμο κρυπτογράφησης RC4. Ήδη από το 2000 το WEP έχει αποδειχθεί ανεπαρκές και οι προσπάθειες για την αύξηση του επιπέδου της ασφάλειας οδήγησαν πρόσφατα στο πρότυπο ΙΕΕΕ 802.11i. Το πρότυπο ορίζει μία νέα μέθοδο, που εγγυάται την ασφάλεια των δεδομένων στο MAC επίπεδο. Ονoμάζεται CCMP και βασίζεται στον αλγόριθμο κρυπτογράφησης AES (Advanced Encryption Standard). Το CCMP παρέχει εμπιστευτικότητα (confidentiality), επικύρωση (authentication), ακεραιότητα (integrity) και προστασία από την επανάληψη πακέτων (replay protection). Βασίζεται στη χρήση του αλγόριθμου κρυπτογράφησης AES σε κατάσταση λειτουργίας CCM. Το CCM συνδυάζει την κατάσταση λειτουργίας CTR (Counter mode) για εμπιστευτικότητα και την CBC (Cipher Block Chaining mode) για επικύρωση και ακεραιότητα. Το CCM προστατεύει την ακεραιότητα τόσο των δεδομένων του πακέτου, όσο και συγκεκριμένων τμημάτων της επικεφαλίδας του πακέτου. Η επεξεργασία που γίνεται στο CCMP από τον αλγόριθμο AES χρησιμοποιεί μέγεθος κλειδιού 128-bit και μέγεθος μπλοκ 128-bit. Μετά την επεξεργασία από το CCMP το μέγεθος του πακέτου έχει επεκταθεί κατά 16 bytes, 8 bytes για την επικεφαλίδα του CCMP και 8 bytes για την ψηφιακή υπογραφή MIC (Message Integrity Code). Τα δεδομένα του πακέτου και το MIC μεταδίδονται κρυπτογραφημένα, αφού προστεθεί η αρχική επικεφαλίδα του πακέτου και η επικεφαλίδα του CCMP. Στα πλαίσια της διπλωματικής μελετήθηκαν διάφορες αρχιτεκτονικές για την υλοποίηση του συστήματος κρυπτογράφησης/αποκρυπτογράφησης σύμφωνα με το CCMP. Οι αρχιτεκτονικές αυτές παρουσιάζουν διαφορετικά χαρακτηριστικά όσον αφορά την επιφάνεια, την ταχύτητα λειτουργίας και το συνολικό throughput. Η υλοποίηση και ο έλεγχος ορθής λειτουργίας των σχεδιασμών έγινε σε τεχνολογία FPGA Spartan-3 της εταιρίας Xilinx. / Today, wireless networks IEEE 802.11 are very popular. Despite their worldwide deployment there is significant problem, as far as the security of the data exchanged through the network, is concerned. Initially, there was only one method defined for the security of information, called WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy). WEP is based on the RC4 encryption algorithm. It is proven, since 2000, that WEP provides insufficient security and recent research efforts in the direction of a more secure solution have led to IEEE 802.11i standard. A new method, applied in the MAC layer, which provides a higher level of security, is defined in this standard. This method is called CCMP and is based on the AES encryption algorithm (Advanced Encryption Standard). CCMP provides confidentiality, authentication, integrity check and replay protection. It uses AES in the CCM mode of operation. CCM combines the CTR (Counter) and CBC (Cipher Block Chaining) modes of operation, for confidentiality and authentication/integrity, respectively. CCM protects the integrity of plaintext data, as well as selected portions of the IEEE MAC header. CCMP processing uses AES with 128-bit encryption key and 128-bit block size. CCMP extends the original packet size by 16 bytes; 8 bytes for the CCMP header and 8 bytes for the digital signature called MIC (Message Integrity Code). Plaintext data and MIC are encrypted and the original MAC header, as well as the CCMP header is included in the packet before transmission. Various architectures for the implementation of an encryption/decryption system based on CCMP were studied. These architectures have different characteristics concerning area overhead, minimum clock period and overall throughput. Circuits were implemented and verified using Xilinx’s Spartan-3 FPGA technology.

We present fpga-ToPSS (Toronto Publish/ Subscribe System), an efficient FPGA-based middleware platform geared towards high-frequency and low-latency event processing. fpga-ToPSS is built over reconfigurable hardware---FPGAs---to achieve line-rate processing by exploiting unprecedented degrees of parallelism and potential for pipelining,only available through custom-built, application-specific and low-level logic design. Furthermore, our middleware solution hosts an event processing engine that is built on a hardware-based packet processor and Boolean expression matcher. Our middleware vision extends to a wide range of applications including real-time data analytics, intrusion detection, algorithmic trading, targeted advertisement, and (complex) event processing.

We present fpga-ToPSS (Toronto Publish/ Subscribe System), an efficient FPGA-based middleware platform geared towards high-frequency and low-latency event processing. fpga-ToPSS is built over reconfigurable hardware---FPGAs---to achieve line-rate processing by exploiting unprecedented degrees of parallelism and potential for pipelining,only available through custom-built, application-specific and low-level logic design. Furthermore, our middleware solution hosts an event processing engine that is built on a hardware-based packet processor and Boolean expression matcher. Our middleware vision extends to a wide range of applications including real-time data analytics, intrusion detection, algorithmic trading, targeted advertisement, and (complex) event processing.

We develop a new fully-automated transistor sizing tool for FPGAs that features area, delay and wire load modeling enhancements over prior work to improve its accuracy in advanced process nodes. We then use this tool to investigate a number of FPGA circuit design related questions in a 22nm process. We find that building FPGAs out of transmission gates instead of the currently dominant pass-transistors, whose performance and reliability are degrading with technology scaling, yields FPGAs that are 15% larger but are 10-25% faster depending on the allowable level of "gate boosting''. We also show that transmission gate FPGAs with a separate power supply for their gate terminal enable a low-voltage FPGA with 50% less power and good delay. Finally, we show that, at a possible cost in routability, restricting the portion of a routing channel that can be accessed by a logic block input can improve delay by 17%.