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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
101

Autonomous structural health monitoring technique for interplanetary drilling applications using laser doppler velocimeters

Statham, Shannon M. 18 January 2011 (has links)
With the goal to continue interplanetary exploration and search for past or existent life on Mars, software and hardware for unmanned subsurface drills are being developed. Unlike drilling on Earth, interplanetary exploration drills operate with very low available power and require on-board integrated health monitoring systems, with quick-response recovery procedures, under complete autonomous operations. As many drilling faults are not known a priori, Earth-based direction and control of an unmanned interplanetary drilling operation is not practical. Such missions also require advanced robotic systems that are more susceptible to structural and mechanical failures, which motivates a need for structural health monitoring techniques relevant to interplanetary exploration systems. Structural health monitoring (SHM) is a process of detecting damage or other types of defects in structural and mechanical systems that have the potential to adversely affect the current or future performance of these systems. Strict requirements for interplanetary drilling missions create unique research problems and challenges compared with SHM procedures and techniques developed to date. These challenges include implementing sensors and devices that do not interfere with the drilling operation, producing "real-time" diagnostics of the drilling condition, and developing an automation procedure for complete autonomous operations. Thus, the completed thesis work presents basic research leading to the dynamic analysis of rotating structures with specific application to interplanetary subsurface drill systems, and the formulation of an autonomous, real-time, dynamics-based SHM technique for drilling applications. This includes modeling and validating the structural dynamic system, with and without damage or faults, for a prototype interplanetary subsurface drill, exploring the use of Laser Doppler Velocimeter sensors for use in real-time SHM, developing signal filters to remove inherent harmonic components from the dynamic signal of rotating structures, developing an automation procedure with the associated software, and validating the SHM system through laboratory experiments and field tests. The automated dynamics-based structural health monitoring technique developed in this thesis presents advanced research accomplishments leading to real-time, autonomous SHM, and it has been validated on an operating dynamic system in laboratory and field tests. The formulated SHM and drilling operation also met or exceeded all specified requirements. Other major contributions of this thesis work include the formulation and demonstration of real-time, autonomous SHM in rotating structures using Laser Doppler Velocimeter sensors.
102

Rapid simultaneous hypersonic aerodynamic and trajectory optimization for conceptual design

Grant, Michael James 30 March 2012 (has links)
Traditionally, the design of complex aerospace systems requires iteration among segregated disciplines such as aerodynamic modeling and trajectory optimization. Multidisciplinary design optimization algorithms have been developed to efficiently orchestrate the interaction among these disciplines during the design process. For example, vehicle capability is generally obtained through sequential iteration among vehicle shape, aerodynamic performance, and trajectory optimization routines in which aerodynamic performance is obtained from large pre-computed tables that are a function of angle of attack, sideslip, and flight conditions. This numerical approach segregates advancements in vehicle shape design from advancements in trajectory optimization. This investigation advances the state-of-the-art in conceptual hypersonic aerodynamic analysis and trajectory optimization by removing the source of iteration between aerodynamic and trajectory analyses and capitalizing on fundamental linkages across hypersonic solutions. Analytic aerodynamic relations, like those derived in this investigation, are possible in any flow regime in which the flowfield can be accurately described analytically. These relations eliminate the large aerodynamic tables that contribute to the segregation of disciplinary advancements. Within the limits of Newtonian flow theory, many of the analytic expressions derived in this investigation provide exact solutions that eliminate the computational error of approximate methods widely used today while simultaneously improving computational performance. To address the mathematical limit of analytic solutions, additional relations are developed that fundamentally alter the manner in which Newtonian aerodynamics are calculated. The resulting aerodynamic expressions provide an analytic mapping of vehicle shape to trajectory performance. This analytic mapping collapses the traditional, segregated design environment into a single, unified, mathematical framework which enables fast, specialized trajectory optimization methods to be extended to also include vehicle shape. A rapid trajectory optimization methodology suitable for this new, mathematically integrated design environment is also developed by relying on the continuation of solutions found via indirect methods. Examples demonstrate that families of optimal hypersonic trajectories can be quickly constructed for varying trajectory parameters, vehicle shapes, atmospheric properties, and gravity models to support design space exploration, trade studies, and vehicle requirements definition. These results validate the hypothesis that many hypersonic trajectory solutions are connected through fast indirect optimization methods. The extension of this trajectory optimization methodology to include vehicle shape through the development of analytic hypersonic aerodynamic relations enables the construction of a unified mathematical framework to perform rapid, simultaneous hypersonic aerodynamic and trajectory optimization. Performance comparisons relative to state-of-the-art methodologies illustrate the computational advantages of this new, unified design environment.
103

Processor design-space exploration through fast simulation.

Khan, Taj Muhammad 12 May 2011 (has links) (PDF)
Simulation is a vital tool used by architects to develop new architectures. However, because of the complexity of modern architectures and the length of recent benchmarks, detailed simulation of programs can take extremely long times. This impedes the exploration of processor design space which the architects need to do to find the optimal configuration of processor parameters. Sampling is one technique which reduces the simulation time without adversely affecting the accuracy of the results. Yet, most sampling techniques either ignore the warm-up issue or require significant development effort on the part of the user.In this thesis we tackle the problem of reconciling state-of-the-art warm-up techniques and the latest sampling mechanisms with the triple objective of keeping the user effort minimum, achieving good accuracy and being agnostic to software and hardware changes. We show that both the representative and statistical sampling techniques can be adapted to use warm-up mechanisms which can accommodate the underlying architecture's warm-up requirements on-the-fly. We present the experimental results which show an accuracy and speed comparable to latest research. Also, we leverage statistical calculations to provide an estimate of the robustness of the final results.
104

Systolic design space exploration of EEA-based inversion over binary and ternary fields

Hazmi, Ibrahim 29 August 2018 (has links)
Cryptographic protocols are implemented in hardware to ensure low-area, high speed and reduced power consumption especially for mobile devices. Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) is the most commonly used public-key cryptosystem and its performance depends heavily on efficient finite field arithmetic hardware. Finding the multiplicative inverse (inversion) is the most expensive finite field operation in ECC. The two predominant algorithms for computing finite field inversion are Fermat’s Little Theorem (FLT) and Extended Euclidean Algorithm (EEA). EEA is reported to be the most efficient inversion algorithm in terms of performance and power consumption. This dissertation presents a new reformulation of EEA algorithm, which allows for speedup and optimization techniques such as concurrency and resource sharing. Modular arithmetic operations over GF(p) are introduced for small values of p, observing interesting figures, particularly for modular division. Whereas, polynomial arithmetic operations over GF(pm) are discussed adequately in order to examine the potential for processes concurrency. In particular, polynomial division and multiplication are revisited in order to derive their iterative equations, which are suitable for systolic array implementation. Consequently, several designs are proposed for each individual process and their complexities are analyzed and compared. Subsequently, a concurrent divider/multiplier-accumulator is developed, while the resulting systolic architecture is utilized to build the EEA-based inverter. The processing elements of our systolic architectures are created accordingly, and enhanced to accommodate data management throughout our reformulated EEA algorithm. Meanwhile, accurate models for the complexity analysis of the proposed inverters are developed. Finally, a novel, fast, and compact inverter over binary fields is proposed and implemented on FPGA. The proposed design outperforms the reported inverters in terms of area and speed. Correspondingly, an EEA-based inverter over ternary fields is built, showing the lowest area-time complexity among the reported inverters. / Graduate
105

Digital approach for the design of statistical analog data acquisition on SoCs

Souza Junior, Adao Antonio de January 2005 (has links)
With the current demand for mixed-signal SoCs, an increasing number of designers are looking for ADC architectures that can be easily implemented over digital substrates. Since ADC performance is strongly dependent upon physical and electrical features, it gets more difficult for them to benefit from more recent technologies, where these features are more variable. This way, analog signal acquisition is not allowed to follow an evolutionary trend compatible with Moore’s Law. In fact, such trend shall get worst, since newer technologies are expected to have more variable characteristics. Also, for a matter of economy of scale, many times a mixed-signal SoC presents a good amount of idle processing power. In such systems it is advantageous to employ more costly digital signal processing provided that it allows a reduction in the analog area demanded or the use of less expensive analog blocks, able to cope with process variations and uncertainty. Besides the technological concerns, other factors that impact the cost of the design also advise to transfer problems from the analog to the digital domain whenever possible: design automation and self-test requirements, for instance. Recent surveys indicate that the total cost in designer hours for the analog blocks of a mixed-signal system can be up to three times the cost of the digital ones. This manuscript explores the concept of bottom-up analog acquisition design, using statistical sampling as a way to reduce the analog area demanded in the design of ADCs within mixed-signal systems. More particularly, it investigates the possibility of using digital modeling and digital compensation of non-idealities to ease the design of ADCs. The work is developed around three axes: the definition of target applications, the development of digital compensation algorithms and the exploration of architectural possibilities. New methods and architectures are defined and validated. The main notions behind the proposal are analyzed and it is shown that the approach is feasible, opening new paths of future research. Keywords:
106

An approach for embedded software generation based in declarative alloy models / Uma abordagem para geração de software embarcado baseada em modelos declarativos alloy

Specht, Emilena January 2008 (has links)
Este trabalho propõe uma nova abordagem para o desenvolvimento de sistemas embarcados, através da combinação da abstração e propriedades de verificação de modelos da linguagem declarativa Alloy com a ampla aceitação de Java na indústria. A abordagem surge no contexto de que a automação de software no domínio embarcado tornou-se extremamente necessária, uma vez que atualmente a maior parte do tempo de desenvolvimento é gasta no projeto de software de produtos tão restritos em termos de recursos. As ferramentas de automação de software embarcado devem atender a demanda por produtividade e manutenibilidade, mas respeitar restrições naturais deste tipo de sistema, tais como espaço de memória, potência e desempenho. As ferramentas de automação de projeto lidam com produtividade e manutenibilidade ao permitir especificações de alto nível, tarefa difícil de atender no domínio embarcado devido ao comportamento misto de muitas aplicações embarcadas. Abordagens que promovem meios para verificação formal também são atrativas, embora geralmente sejam difíceis de usar, e por este motivo não são de grande auxílio na tarefa de reduzir o tempo de chegada ao mercado do produto. Através do uso de Alloy, baseada em lógica de primeira-ordem, é possível obter especificações em altonível e verificação formal de modelos com uma única linguagem. Este trabalho apresenta a poderosa abstração proporcionada pela linguagem Alloy em aplicações embarcadas, assim como regras para obter automaticamente código Java a partir de modelos Alloy. A geração de código Java a partir de modelos Alloy, combinada a uma ferramenta de estimativa, provê exploração de espaço de projeto, atendendo assim as fortes restrições do projeto de software embarcado, o que normalmente não é contemplado pela engenharia de software tradicional. / This work proposes a new approach for embedded software development, by combining the abstraction and model verification properties of the Alloy declarative language with the broad acceptance in industry of Java. The approach comes into play since software automation in the embedded domain has become a major need, as currently most of the development time is spent designing software for such hardconstrained resources products. Design automation tools for embedded systems must meet the demand for productivity and maintainability, but constraints such as memory, power and performance must still be considered. Design automation tools deal with productivity and maintainability by allowing high-level specifications, which is hard to accomplish on the embedded domain due to the mixed behavior nature of many embedded applications. Approaches that provide means for formal verification are also attractive, but their usage is usually not straightforward, and for this reason they are not that helpful in dealing with time-tomarket constraints. By using Alloy, based in first-order logic, it is possible to obtain high-level specifications and formal model verification with a single language. This work shows the powerful abstraction provided by the Alloy language for embedded applications, as well as rules for obtaining automatically Java code from Alloy models. The Java source code generation from Alloy models, combined with an estimation tool, provides design space exploration to match tight embedded software design constraints, what is usually not taken into account by standard software engineering techniques.
107

Model driven engineering methodology for design space exploration of embedded systems / Metodologia de engenharia dirigida por modelos para exploração do espaço de projeto de sistemas embarcados / Modellgetriebene entwicklungsmethodik für die entwurfsraumexploration von eingebetteten systeme

Oliveira, Marcio Ferreira da Silva January 2013 (has links)
Heutzutage sind wir von Geräten umgeben, die sowohl Hardware wie auch Software- Komponenten beinhalten. Diese Geräte unterstützen ein breites Spektrum an verschiedenen Domänen, so zum Beispiel Telekommunikation, Luftfahrt, Automobil und andere. Derartige Systeme sind überall aufzufinden und werden als Eingebettete Systeme bezeichnet, da sie zur Informationsverarbeitung in andere Produkte eingebettet werden, wobei die Informationsverarbeitung des eingebetteten Systems jedoch nicht die bezeichnende Funktion des Produkts ist. Die ständig zunehmende Komplexität moderner eingebettete Systeme erfordert die Verwendung von mehreren Komponenten um die Funktionen von einem einzelnen System zu implementieren. Eine solche Steigerung der Funktionalität führt jedoch ebenfalls zu einem Wachstum in der Entwurfs-Komplexität, die korrekt und effizient beherrscht werden muss. Neben hohen Anforderungen bezüglich Leistungsaufnahme, Performanz und Kosten hat auch Time-to-Market-Anforderungen großen Einfluss auf den Entwurf von Eingebetteten Systemen. Design Space Exploration (DSE) beschreibt die systematische Erzeugung und Auswertung von Entwurfs-Alternativen, um die Systemleistung zu optimieren und den gestellten Anforderungen an das System zu genügen. Bei der Entwicklung von Eingebetteten Systemen, speziell beim Platform-Based Design (PBD) führt die zunehmende Anzahl von Design-Entscheidungen auf mehreren Abstraktionsebenen zu einer Explosion der möglichen Kombinationen von Alternativen, was auch für aktuelle DSE Methoden eine Herausforderung darstellt. Jedoch vermag üblicherweise nur eine begrenzte Anzahl von Entwurfs-Alternativen die zusätzlich formulierten nicht-funktionalen Anforderungen zu erfüllen. Darüber hinaus beeinflusst jede Entwurfs- Entscheidung weitere Entscheidungen und damit die resultierenden Systemeigenschaften. Somit existieren Abhängigkeiten zwischen Entwurfs-Entscheidungen und deren Reihenfolge auf dem Weg zur Implementierung des Systems. Zudem gilt es zwischen einer spezifischen Heuristik für eine bestimmte DSE, welche zu verbesserten Optimierungsresultaten führt, sowie globalen Verfahren, welche ihrerseits zur Flexibilität hinsichtlich der Anwendbarkeit bei verschiedenen DSE Szenarien beitragen, abzuwägen. Um die genannten Herausforderungen zu lösen wird eine Modellgetriebene Entwicklung (englisch Model-Driven Engineering, kurz MDE) Methodik für DSE vorgeschlagen. Für diese Methodik wird ein DSE-Domain-Metamodell eingeführt um relevante DSEKonzepte wie Entwurfsraum, Entwurfs-Alternativen, Auswertungs- und Bewertungsverfahren, Einschränkungen und andere abzubilden. Darüber hinaus modelliert das Metamodell verschiedenen DSE-Frage- stellungen, was zur Verbesserung der Flexibilität der vorgeschlagenen Methodik beiträgt. Zur Umsetzung von DSE-Regeln, welche zur Steuerung, Einschränkung und Generierung der Ent- wurfs-Alternativen genutzt werden, finden Modell-zu-Modell-Transformationen Anwendung. Durch die Fokussierung auf die Zuordnung zwischen den Schichten in einem PBDAnsatz wird eine neuartige Entwurfsraumabstraktion eingeführt, um multiple Entwurfsentscheidungen als singuläres DSE Problem zu repräsentieren. Diese auf dem Categorial Graph Product aufbauende Abstraktion entkoppelt den Explorations-Algorithmus vom Entwurfsraum und ist für Umsetzung in automatisierte Werkzeugketten gut geeignet. Basierend auf dieser Abstraktion profitiert die DSE-Methode durch die eingeführte MDEMethodik als solche und ermöglicht nunmehr neue Optimierungsmöglichkeiten sowie die Verbesserung der Integration von DSE in Entwicklungsprozesse und die Spezifikation von DSE-Szenarien. / Atualmente dispositivos contendo hardware e software são encontrados em todos os lugares. Estes dispositivos prestam suporte a uma varieadade de domínios, como telecomunicações, automotivo e outros. Eles são chamados “sistemas embarcados”, pois são sistemas de processamento montados dentro de produtos, cujo sistema de processamento não faz parte da funcionalidade principal do produto. O acréscimo de funções nestes sistemas implica no aumento da complexidade de seu projeto, o qual deve ser adequadamente gerenciado, pois além de requisitos rigorosos em relação à dissipação de potência, desempenho e custos, a pressão sobre o prazo para introdução de um produto no mercado também dificulta seu projeto. Exploração do espaço de projeto (DSE) é a atividade sistemática de gerar e avaliar alternativas de projetos, com o objetivo de otimizar suas propriedades. No desenvolvimento de sistemas embarcados, especialmente em Projeto Baseado em Plataformas (PBD), metodologias de DSE atuais são desafiadas pelo crescimento do número de decisões de projeto, o qual implica na explosão da combinação de alternativas. Porém, somente algumas destas resultam em projetos que atedem os requisitos nãofuncionais. Além disso, as decisões influenciam umas às outras, de forma que a ordem em que estas são tomadas alteram a implementação final do sistema. Outro desafio é o balanço entre flexibilidade da metodologia e seu desempenho, pois métodos globais de otimização são flexíveis, mas apresentam baixo desempenho. Já heurísticas especialmente desenvolvidas para o cenário de DSE em questão apresentam melhor desempenho, porém dificilmente são aplicáveis a diferentes cenários. Com o intuito de superar os desafios é proposta uma metodologia de projeto dirigido por modelos (MDE) adquada para DSE. Um metamodelo do domínio de DSE é definido para representar conceitos como espaço de projeto, métodos de avaliação e restrições. O metamodelo também representa diferentes problemas de DSE aprimorando a flexibilidade da metodologia. Regras de transformações de modelos implementam as regras de DSE, as quais são utilizadas para restringir e guiar a geração de projetos alternativos. Restringindo-se ao mapeamento entre camadas no PBD é proposta uma abstração para representar o espaço de projeto. Ela representa múltiplas decisões de projeto envolvidas no mapeamento como um único problema de DSE. Esta representação é adequada para a implementação em ferramentas automática de DSE e pode beneficiar o processo de DSE com uma abordagem de MDE, aprimorando a especificação de cenários de DSE e sua integração no processo de desenvolvimento. / Nowadays we are surrounded by devices containing hardware and software components. These devices support a wide spectrum of different domains, such as telecommunication, avionics, automobile, and others. They are found anywhere, and so they are called Embedded Systems, as they are information processing systems embedded into enclosing products, where the processing system is not the main functionality of the product. The ever growing complexity in modern embedded systems requires the utilization of more components to implement the functions of a single system. Such an increasing functionality leads to a growth in the design complexity, which must be managed properly, because besides stringent requirements regarding power, performance and cost, also time-to-market hinders the design of embedded systems. Design Space Exploration (DSE) is the systematic generation and evaluation of design alternatives, in order to optimize system properties and fulfill requirements. In embedded system development, specifically in Platform-Based Design (PBD), current DSE methodologies are challenged by the increasing number of design decisions at multiple abstraction levels, which leads to an explosion of combination of alternatives. However, only a reduced number of these alternatives leads to feasible designs, which fulfill non-functional requirements. Moreover, each design decision influences subsequent decisions and system properties, hence there are inter-dependencies between design decisions, so that the order decisions are made matters to the final system implementation. Furthermore, there is a trade-off between heuristics for specific DSE, which improves the optimization results, and global optimizers, which improve the flexibility to be applied in different DSE scenarios. In order to overcome the identified challenges an MDE methodology for DSE is proposed. For this methodology a DSE Domain metamodel is proposed to represent relevant DSE concepts such as design space, design alternatives, evaluation method, constraints and others. Moreover, this metamodel represents different DSE problems, improving the flexibility of the proposed framework. Model transformations are used to implement DSE rules, which are used to constrain, guide, and generate design candidates. Focusing on the mapping between layers in a PBD approach, a novel design space abstraction is provided to represent multiple design decisions involved in the mapping as a single DSE problem. This abstraction is based on Categorical Graph Product, decoupling the exploration algorithm from the design space and being well suited to be implemented in automatic exploration tools. Upon this abstraction, the DSE method can benefit from the MDE methodology, opening new optimization opportunities, and improving the DSE integration into the development process and specification of DSE scenarios.
108

Digital approach for the design of statistical analog data acquisition on SoCs

Souza Junior, Adao Antonio de January 2005 (has links)
With the current demand for mixed-signal SoCs, an increasing number of designers are looking for ADC architectures that can be easily implemented over digital substrates. Since ADC performance is strongly dependent upon physical and electrical features, it gets more difficult for them to benefit from more recent technologies, where these features are more variable. This way, analog signal acquisition is not allowed to follow an evolutionary trend compatible with Moore’s Law. In fact, such trend shall get worst, since newer technologies are expected to have more variable characteristics. Also, for a matter of economy of scale, many times a mixed-signal SoC presents a good amount of idle processing power. In such systems it is advantageous to employ more costly digital signal processing provided that it allows a reduction in the analog area demanded or the use of less expensive analog blocks, able to cope with process variations and uncertainty. Besides the technological concerns, other factors that impact the cost of the design also advise to transfer problems from the analog to the digital domain whenever possible: design automation and self-test requirements, for instance. Recent surveys indicate that the total cost in designer hours for the analog blocks of a mixed-signal system can be up to three times the cost of the digital ones. This manuscript explores the concept of bottom-up analog acquisition design, using statistical sampling as a way to reduce the analog area demanded in the design of ADCs within mixed-signal systems. More particularly, it investigates the possibility of using digital modeling and digital compensation of non-idealities to ease the design of ADCs. The work is developed around three axes: the definition of target applications, the development of digital compensation algorithms and the exploration of architectural possibilities. New methods and architectures are defined and validated. The main notions behind the proposal are analyzed and it is shown that the approach is feasible, opening new paths of future research. Keywords:
109

An approach for embedded software generation based in declarative alloy models / Uma abordagem para geração de software embarcado baseada em modelos declarativos alloy

Specht, Emilena January 2008 (has links)
Este trabalho propõe uma nova abordagem para o desenvolvimento de sistemas embarcados, através da combinação da abstração e propriedades de verificação de modelos da linguagem declarativa Alloy com a ampla aceitação de Java na indústria. A abordagem surge no contexto de que a automação de software no domínio embarcado tornou-se extremamente necessária, uma vez que atualmente a maior parte do tempo de desenvolvimento é gasta no projeto de software de produtos tão restritos em termos de recursos. As ferramentas de automação de software embarcado devem atender a demanda por produtividade e manutenibilidade, mas respeitar restrições naturais deste tipo de sistema, tais como espaço de memória, potência e desempenho. As ferramentas de automação de projeto lidam com produtividade e manutenibilidade ao permitir especificações de alto nível, tarefa difícil de atender no domínio embarcado devido ao comportamento misto de muitas aplicações embarcadas. Abordagens que promovem meios para verificação formal também são atrativas, embora geralmente sejam difíceis de usar, e por este motivo não são de grande auxílio na tarefa de reduzir o tempo de chegada ao mercado do produto. Através do uso de Alloy, baseada em lógica de primeira-ordem, é possível obter especificações em altonível e verificação formal de modelos com uma única linguagem. Este trabalho apresenta a poderosa abstração proporcionada pela linguagem Alloy em aplicações embarcadas, assim como regras para obter automaticamente código Java a partir de modelos Alloy. A geração de código Java a partir de modelos Alloy, combinada a uma ferramenta de estimativa, provê exploração de espaço de projeto, atendendo assim as fortes restrições do projeto de software embarcado, o que normalmente não é contemplado pela engenharia de software tradicional. / This work proposes a new approach for embedded software development, by combining the abstraction and model verification properties of the Alloy declarative language with the broad acceptance in industry of Java. The approach comes into play since software automation in the embedded domain has become a major need, as currently most of the development time is spent designing software for such hardconstrained resources products. Design automation tools for embedded systems must meet the demand for productivity and maintainability, but constraints such as memory, power and performance must still be considered. Design automation tools deal with productivity and maintainability by allowing high-level specifications, which is hard to accomplish on the embedded domain due to the mixed behavior nature of many embedded applications. Approaches that provide means for formal verification are also attractive, but their usage is usually not straightforward, and for this reason they are not that helpful in dealing with time-tomarket constraints. By using Alloy, based in first-order logic, it is possible to obtain high-level specifications and formal model verification with a single language. This work shows the powerful abstraction provided by the Alloy language for embedded applications, as well as rules for obtaining automatically Java code from Alloy models. The Java source code generation from Alloy models, combined with an estimation tool, provides design space exploration to match tight embedded software design constraints, what is usually not taken into account by standard software engineering techniques.
110

Génération rapide d'accélerateurs matériels par synthèse d'architecture sous contraintes de ressources / High-level synthesis for fast generation of hardware accelerators under resource constraints

Prost-Boucle, Adrien 08 January 2014 (has links)
Dans le domaine du calcul générique, les circuits FPGA sont très attrayants pour leur performance et leur faible consommation. Cependant, leur présence reste marginale, notamment à cause des limitations des logiciels de développement actuels. En effet, ces limitations obligent les utilisateurs à bien maîtriser de nombreux concepts techniques. Ils obligent à diriger manuellement les processus de synthèse, de façon à obtenir une solution à la fois rapide et conforme aux contraintes des cibles matérielles visées.Une nouvelle méthodologie de génération basée sur la synthèse d'architecture est proposée afin de repousser ces limites. L'exploration des solutions consiste en l'application de transformations itératives à un circuit initial, ce qui accroît progressivement sa rapidité et sa consommation en ressources. La rapidité de ce processus, ainsi que sa convergence sous contraintes de ressources, sont ainsi garanties. L'exploration est également guidée vers les solutions les plus pertinentes grâce à la détection, dans les applications à synthétiser, des sections les plus critiques pour le contexte d'utilisation réel. Cette information peut être affinée à travers un scénario d'exécution transmis par l'utilisateur.Un logiciel démonstrateur pour cette méthodologie, AUGH, est construit. Des expérimentations sont menées sur plusieurs applications reconnues dans le domaine de la synthèse d'architecture. De tailles très différentes, ces applications confirment la pertinence de la méthodologie proposée pour la génération rapide et autonome d'accélérateurs matériels complexes, sous des contraintes de ressources strictes. La méthodologie proposée est très proche du processus de compilation pour les microprocesseurs, ce qui permet son utilisation même par des utilisateurs non spécialistes de la conception de circuits numériques. Ces travaux constituent donc une avancée significative pour une plus large adoption des FPGA comme accélérateurs matériels génériques, afin de rendre les machines de calcul simultanément plus rapides et plus économes en énergie. / In the field of high-performance computing, FPGA circuits are very attractive for their performance and low consumption. However, their presence is still marginal, mainly because of the limitations of current development tools. These limitations force the user to have expert knowledge about numerous technical concepts. They also have to manually control the synthesis processes in order to obtain solutions both fast and that fulfill the hardware constraints of the targeted platforms.A novel generation methodology based on high-level synthesis is proposed in order to push these limits back. The design space exploration consists in the iterative application of transformations to an initial circuit, which progressively increases its rapidity and its resource consumption. The rapidity of this process, along with its convergence under resource constraints, are thus guaranteed. The exploration is also guided towards the most pertinent solutions thanks to the detection of the most critical sections of the applications to synthesize, for the targeted execution context. This information can be refined with an execution scenarion specified by the user.A demonstration tool for this methodology, AUGH, has been built. Experiments have been conducted with several applications known in the field of high-level synthesis. Of very differen sizes, these applications confirm the pertinence of the proposed methodology for fast and automatic generation of complex hardware accelerators, under strict resource constraints. The proposed methodology is very close to the compilation process for microprocessors, which enable it to be used even by users non experts about digital circuit design. These works constitute a significant progress for a broader adoption of FPGA as general-purpose hardware accelerators, in order to make computing machines both faster and more energy-saving.

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