O foco central desse trabalho é a utilização e aprimoramento de um framework Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCI Express®) para a comunicação de dados em um Espectrômetro Digital de Ressonância Magnética (Digital Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer – DMRS) utilizando o conceito de Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). Esse trabalho foi desenvolvido para servir como base de comunicação para o Espectrômetro Digital de Ressonância Magnética do Centro de Imagens e Espectroscopia in vivo por Ressonância Magnética (CIERMag) devido ao requerimento de altas taxas de transferência dos dados adquiridos. A integração dessa nova comunicação, entre o software e o hardware do espectrômetro, mantém compatibilidade com as interfaces já existentes possibilitando a execução de todas as sequências desenvolvidas sem nenhuma alteração. A incorporação da comunicação PCI Express provê uma solução com um número menor de etapas por transferência em comparação com a comunicação Ethernet. Com isso é possível aumentar o desempenho do sistema e obter taxas de transferência mais elevadas. Para isso, foram feitas mudanças no hardware de forma a torná-lo mais eficiente, reduzindo o número de ciclos de clock por operação e também a quantidade de lógica sintetizada. Além disso, a latência do software durante as transferências também foi reduzida através da utilização de interrupções Message Signaled Interrupt (MSI) e do método Scatter and Gather usado para reduzir a quantidade de cópias de dados na memória principal do computador. Dessa forma, obteve-se, como resultados reais, uma taxa de transferência efetiva (throughput) de 97% do valor máximo da banda possível do barramento PCI Express. / The central focus of this work is the implementation and use of a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCI Express®) framework for data communication on a Digital Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer (DMRS) using the concept of Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). This work is being developed to serve as a communication basis for the magnetic resonance Digital Spectrometer of the Centro de Imagens e Espectroscopia in vivo por Ressonância Magnética (CIERMag) due to demand of high transfer rates of acquired data. The integration of this new communication, between spectrometer software and hardware, keeps compatibility with existing interfaces, making it possible to execute all developed magnetic resonance sequences without any change. The incorporation of PCI Express communication provides solution with a lower number of steps per transfer when compared to Ethernet communication. By this means it\'s possible to increase system performance and, as result, have higher transfer rates. To accomplish that, the number of clock cycles per operation was reduced, so was the synthesized logic. Furthermore, software latency for data transfer was also reduced consequence of MSI interruption implementation and the use of Scatter and Gather method to remove data movement across the computer main memory. Therefore, it was obtained, as measured real result, a throughput value of 97% the theoretical maximum value for the hardware.

Inledning: Som röntgensjuksköterska är det viktigt att ha en bred förståelse över eventuella risker och komplikationer som kan uppträda även efter att patienten har genomgått koronara interventioner. I denna yrkesroll ingår det att inför ingrepp där kontrastmedel ska administreras, ta hänsyn till patientens tillstånd, aktuella prover samt njurvärde. Det finns riskfaktorer där skada för patienten föreligger som bör uppmärksammas. Syfte: Med detta arbete var syftet att undersöka om det finns mindre kända riskfaktorer för kontrastmedelsinducerad njurskada efter koronarangiografi. Metod: Studien genomfördes som en litteraturöversikt där 10 stycken kvantitativa, vetenskapliga artiklar analyserades. Resultat: I denna studie kunde författarna urskilja fyra mindre kända riskfaktorer som inte nämns under nationella rekommendationer. Slutsats: Bakomliggande sjukdomar behöver inte alltid vara orsaken till utvecklad kontrastmedelsinducerad njurskada. Det kan finnas andra faktorer som även orsakar detta även om mer forskning inom området behövs. / Background: In the job as a radiographer it’s important to know of and have a good understanding of possible risks and complications which can occur to a patient after a completed coronary intervention. Working as a radiographer there will be administration of contrast media and consideration for the patient’s status, current blood tests and renal function is of utmost importance. There are risk factors where kidney injury is at hand and need to be observed. Purpose: Examine if there are risk factors for contrastmedia induced kidney injury which are not currently under national recommendations for administering contrast media. Method: This study was conducted as a literature review where 10 scientific articles of quantitative model were analyzed. Results: The authors of this study identified four risk factors not mentioned in the national recommendations. Conclusions: Underlying morbidity is not always a predictor of contrast media induced kidney injury. There can be other factors causing this pathologic state even though further research is required.

Term project describes ultrasound measurements. Describes a devices and measurement principe of ultrasound contrast agents. Part of this work is a measurement program

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 26-29, 1998 / Town & Country Resort Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / The Space Sensing & Vehicle Control Branch of the Air Force Research Laboratory and Voss Scientific, Albuquerque, NM, are developing an advanced PC and COTS-based satellite telemetry processing, analysis and display system known as the PC-Satellite Telemetry Server (PC-STS). This program grew out of a need to develop less expensive, more capable, more flexible, and expandable solutions to the satellite telemetry analysis requirements of the Air Force. Any new system must employ industry standard, open architecture, network and database protocols allowing for easy growth and migration to new technologies, as they become available. Thus, the PC-STS will run on standard personal computers and the Windows NT operating system. The focus of this work and this paper is the Telemetry Server component, and in particular, the custom-built decommutation board. The decommution board will be capable of processing frame formatted and CCSDS packet telemetry. It will be capable of fully decommutating telemetry data, converting raw data to engineering units, and providing this data to the Telemetry Server host. Time tagged engineering units or minor frames of telemetry will be transmitted to the Telemetry Server processor via on-board memory buffers. The decom board uses the PCI bus, programmable DSPs, considerable on-board memory, and a SCSI bus for local archiving. This paper presents the general architecture of the PC-STS, and discusses specific design considerations. These include trade-offs made during the design of the board’s hardware and software, operational specifications, and graphical user interfaces to program, monitor, and control the board.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 27-30, 1997 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / There is a continuing need in the aerospace industry for lower cost and more maintainable telemetry data processing systems that can deliver a high level of performance. While systems based on the Intel family of x86 processors and Microsoft operating systems have seen increasing use in lower performance and portable applications, UNIX/VME based systems have been necessary to achieve required performance in higher end, multi-stream applications. Recent developments in the computer industry now promise lower cost alternative to these systems. With currently available technology, it is now possible to provide a powerful distributed processor architecture based entirely on commercial products. The system takes advantage of the latest of Intel Pentium processors, the PCI bus, 100BaseT Fast Ethernet, Microsoft Windows NT, ActiveX technology and NT servers. The architecture offers both current and future cost advantages for test facilities which must support a diverse set of requirements and which must maintain and support systems for many years.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 22-25, 2001 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Many high-performance, reconfigurable data functions can now be integrated into a single PCI circuit board, making possible low-cost and complex systems using PCs or UNIX workstations. FPGA and PCI technologies are an excellent match to telemetry applications where commercial off-the-shelf solutions are desired, but customization is common and performance critical. A Multifunction Telemetry I/O (MFT) module was designed to exploit these technologies for both flight test and space telemetry ground systems. The reconfigurability of the module has facilitated evolutionary hardware enhancements as well as custom applications. These enhancements have been used both as building blocks for system integrators and for commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) graphic setup, processing, archiving, and display software. The MFT module includes a standard set of telemetry functions: up to two bit synchronizers, an IRIG time decoder, and two independent telemetry serial input and output channels. The MFT module is also available on a 6U VME board. This paper describes some of the proven capabilities and applications of this module.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 22-25, 2001 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) is continually looking for methods to reduce cost and schedule while keeping the quality of work high. MSFC is NASA’s lead center for space transportation and microgravity research. When supporting NASA’s programs several decisions concerning the avionics system must be made. Usually many trade studies must be conducted to determine the best ways to meet the customer’s requirements. When deciding the flight data system, one of the first trade studies normally conducted is the determination of the data bus architecture. The schedule, cost, reliability, and environments are some of the factors that are reviewed in the determination of the data bus architecture. Based on the studies, the data bus architecture could result in a proprietary data bus or a commercial data bus. The cost factor usually removes the proprietary data bus from consideration. The commercial data bus architecture’s range from Versa Module Euro card (VME) to Compact PCI to STD 32 to PC 104. If cost, schedule and size are prime factors, VME is usually not considered. If the prime factors are cost, schedule, and size then Compact PCI, STD 32 and PC 104 are the choices for the data bus architecture. MSFC’s center director has funded a study from his discretionary fund to determine an optimal low cost commercial data bus architecture. The goal of the study is to functionally and environmentally test Compact PCI, STD 32 and PC 104 data bus architectures. This paper will summarize the results of the data bus architecture study.

Thesis (M. Eng. and S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, June 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 89). / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / This thesis project involves the architecture, implementation, and verification of a high bandwidth, low cost ASIC digital logic core that is compliant with the PCI Express to PCIX Bridge Specification. The core supports PCI Express and PCIX transactions, x16 PCI Express link widths, 32 and 64-bit PCIX link widths, all PCI Express and PCIX packet sizes, transaction ordering and queuing, relaxed ordering, flow control, and buffer management. Performance and area are optimized at the architectural and logic levels. The core is approximately 27K gate count, runs at a maximum of 250 MHz, and is synthesized to a current standard technology. This thesis explores PCI Express, PCIX, and PCI technologies, architectural design, development of Verilog and Vera models, thorough module-level verification, the development of a PCI Express/PCIX system verification environment, synthesis, static timing analysis, and performance and area evaluations. The work has been completed in IBM Microelectronics in Burlington, Vermont as part of the MIT VI-A Program. / by Margaret J. Chong. / M.Eng.and S.B.

The PCI technology is well established for reducing the consumption of economic and environmentally expensive coke in blast furnace iron-making. Often, coal blends show unexpected combustion performance which cannot be explained on the basis of individual coal properties particularly coal rank and volatile matter. Several coals were combusted in this study under controlled conditions in a drop tube furnace. Fixed bed reactor, XRD, SEM and BET analyses were used to understand the mechanism of combustion of coal blends. Burnout of the coal blends did not change linearly with volatile matter of blends. The study demonstrated that combustion behaviour of coal blends was influenced by several properties of individual coals and cannot be estimated by using any single coal parameter. Carbon structure of coal as well as the interaction of volatile matter of individual coals was found to have a strong influence on the burnout of coal blends. Pet-cokes were generally found to burn with a greater difficulty. Carbon structure of pet-cokes was found to have a significant effect on the burnout such that coal blends with highly ordered pet-coke indicated lower burnout. The study shows that up to 10% of pet coke did not change the burnout of PCI blends significantly. As far as combustion is concerned, the drop tube furnace test provides a reasonable distinction of the effect of coal properties for PCI application.

Mannheim, Univ., Diss., 2004.