1,500 research outputs found
A general design methodology for synchronous early-completion-prediction adders in Nano-CMOS DSP architectures
No full textSynchronous early-completion-prediction adders (ECPAs) are used for high clock rate and high-precision DSP datapaths, as they allow a dominant amount of single-cycle operations even if the worst-case carry propagation delay is longer than the clock period. Previous works have also demonstrated ECPA advantages for average leakage reduction and NBTI effects reduction in nanoscale CMOS technologies. This paper illustrates a general systematic methodology to design ECPA units, targeting nanoscale CMOS technologies, which is not available in the current literature yet. The method is fully compatible with standard VLSI macrocell design tools and standard adder structures and includes automatic definition of critical test patterns for postlayout verification. A design example is included, reporting speed and power data superior to previous works. © 2013 Mauro Olivieri and Antonio Mastrandrea
A force-based equivalent frame element for push-over analysis of masonry structures
No full textA new macro-element based on the equivalent frame approach is presented to analyze the nonlinear structural response of masonry panels under monotonic lateral loadings. A nonlinear elastic response is assumed for the masonry material and the sectional response of the beam is derived performing analytical integration. A two-node equilibrated force-based (FB) beam finite element (FE) is formulated. The FE is composed of a central flexible part, characterized by a no-tension constitutive relationship, and a lumped nonlinear shear hinge arranged in series, in order to capture the main flexural and shear nonlinear mechanisms characterizing the masonry panel response. Some applications on experimental prototypes are presented, showing a very satisfactory agreement between the numerical results and the experimental outcomes
Grand canonical ensemble of weighted networks
No full textThe cornerstone of statistical mechanics of complex networks is the idea that the links, and not the nodes, are the effective particles of the system. Here, we formulate a mapping between weighted networks and lattice gases, making the conceptual step forward of interpreting weighted links as particles with a generalized coordinate. This leads to the definition of the grand canonical ensemble of weighted complex networks. We derive exact expressions for the partition function and thermodynamic quantities, both in the cases of global and local (i.e., node-specific) constraints on the density and mean energy of particles. We further show that, when modeling real cases of networks, the binary and weighted statistics of the ensemble can be disentangled, leading to a simplified framework for a range of practical applications
AppropinQuo: a platform emulator for exploring the approximate memory design space
No full textIn this work we present AppropinQuo, a flexible and configurable emulator for embedded platforms with approximate memory. The emulator includes models of the effects of approximate memory circuits and architectures, that depend on the internal structure and organization of the cells. The ability to emulate a complete platform, including CPU, peripherals and hardware-software interactions, is particularly important since it allows to execute the application as on the real board, reproducing the effects of errors on output. In fact, output quality is related not only to error rate but it also depends on the application, implementation and its data representation.AppropinQuo allows to run actual applications and operating system as on the physical platform, to analyze the behavior and to expose the effects of specific approximate memory circuits and architectures on output quality. By exploring the design space regarding approximate memories, a complete characterization of the application is possible, as a step toward the determination of the trade-off between saved energy and output quality (energy quality tradeoff)
Customizable vector acceleration in extreme-edge computing. A risc-v software/hardware architecture study on VGG-16 implementation
No full textComputing in the cloud-edge continuum, as opposed to cloud computing, relies on high performance processing on the extreme edge of the Internet of Things (IoT) hierarchy. Hardware acceleration is a mandatory solution to achieve the performance requirements, yet it can be tightly tied to particular computation kernels, even within the same application. Vector-oriented hardware acceleration has gained renewed interest to support artificial intelligence (AI) applications like convolutional networks or classification algorithms. We present a comprehensive investigation of the performance and power efficiency achievable by configurable vector acceleration subsystems, obtaining evidence of both the high potential of the proposed microarchitecture and the advantage of hardware customization in total transparency to the software program
An equilibrated macro-element for nonlinear analysis of masonry structures
No full textA new macro-element based on the equivalent frame approach is presented to analyze the nonlinear in-plane structural response of masonry panels under lateral loadings. A nonlinear elastic response is assumed for the masonry material, limiting the focus to the case of monotonic loading condition, typical of push-over analysis. The sectional response of the beam is determined performing analytical integration, without resorting to a fiber approach. A two-node force-based (FB) beam finite element (FE) is formulated, where the resultant stress components are exactly interpolated along the beam axis. The beam FE is composed of a central flexible element, characterized by a no-tension constitutive relationship, and a lumped nonlinear shear hinge arranged in series. Hence, it is possible to capture the main flexural and shear nonlinear mechanisms typical of a masonry panel response. An efficient solution algorithm is developed, based on a consistent element state determination procedure. Some applications on simple panels and on experimental walls with openings are presented, showing a very satisfactory agreement between the numerical and the experimental results, both in terms of global push-over curves and local distributions of damaging paths
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