1,358 research outputs found
Private Equity and Leveraged Buyouts in Italy. To Prohibit or Not to Prohibit, That is the Question
No full textThe purpose of the study by S. Zambelli is two-fold.
First, the paper discusses the evolution of the Private Equity (PE) market in Italy, in relation to several changes in regulation (especially with reference to the financial assistance rule for a share-buyback purpose).
Second, the paper empirically analyzes the economic impact of a new PE and LBO reform on financial markets and investor behavior (effective from January 2004).
The empirical analysis underlying the paper is based on a novel and new database, hand-collected by the Author via a survey methodology, which consists of 162 PE transactions carried out during the 1999-2006 period.
The economic impact of the new PE reform includes a comprehensive analysis of the entire private equity cycle, with a special focus on the following issues:
- Impact on the private equity market;
- Impact on the deal structure and forms of finance;
- Impact on the adoption of convertible securities;
- Impact on the governance of the target;
- Impact on the evaluation process of the target firm.
The Italian private equity and buyout market, whose transactions were previously prohibited and only recently legalized, offers a unique example in order to evaluate the impact of the new LBO law on investors' behavior
ELECTRICAL CHARACTERIZATION, PHYSICS, MODELING AND RELIABILITY OF INNOVATIVE NON-VOLATILE MEMORIES
No full textEnclosed in this thesis work it can be found the results of a three years long research
activity performed during the XXIV-th cycle of the Ph.D. school in Engineering Science of
the Università degli Studi di Ferrara. The topic of this work is concerned about the
electrical characterization, physics, modeling and reliability of innovative non-volatile
memories, addressing most of the proposed alternative to the floating-gate based
memories which currently are facing a technology dead end. Throughout the chapters of
this thesis it will be provided a detailed characterization of the envisioned replacements for
the common NOR and NAND Flash technologies into the near future embedded and
MPSoCs (Multi Processing System on Chip) systems. In Chapter 1 it will be introduced the
non-volatile memory technology with direct reference on nowadays Flash mainstream,
providing indications and comments on why the system designers should be forced to
change the approach to new memory concepts. In Chapter 2 it will be presented one of the
most studied post-floating gate memory technology for MPSoCs: the Phase Change
Memory. The results of an extensive electrical characterization performed on these
devices led to important discoveries such as the kinematics of the erase operation and
potential reliability threats in memory operations. A modeling framework has been
developed to support the experimental results and to validate them on projected scaled
technology. In Chapter 3 an embedded memory for automotive environment will be shown:
the SimpleEE p-channel memory. The characterization of this memory proven the
technology robustness providing at the same time new insights on the erratic bits
phenomenon largely studied on NOR and NAND counterparts. Chapter 4 will show the
research studies performed on a memory device based on the Nano-MEMS concept. This
particular memory generation proves to be integrated in very harsh environment such as
military applications, geothermal and space avionics. A detailed study on the physical
principles underlying this memory will be presented. In Chapter 5 a successor of the
standard NAND Flash will be analyzed: the Charge Trapping NAND. This kind of memory
shares the same principles of the traditional floating gate technology except for the storage
medium which now has been substituted by a discrete nature storage (i.e. silicon nitride
traps). The conclusions and the results summary for each memory technology will be
provided in Chapter 6. Finally, on Appendix A it will be shown the results of a recently
started research activity on the high level reliability memory management exploiting the
results of the studies for Phase Change Memories
Improving 3D NAND Flash Memories Reliability: a Cross-Layer Perspective
No full textThe 3D NAND Flash memory technology is the main building block of storage architectures such as multimedia cards and Solid-State Drives. Applications ranging from mobile to high-performance computing are continuously calling for an increased storage density, requiring massive scaling efforts at the device and array level. This leads to a natural degradation of the functional metrics of the technology while exposing new reliability issues that jeopardize the inherent memory trade-off with performance. A simple device optimization would be insufficient to tackle the problem. In this work, we show through some case studies how a cross-layer approach spanning from devices and circuits to system-level optimizations is mandatory for future storage systems development
Editorial for the special issue on flash memory devices
No full textFlash memory devices represented a breakthrough in the storage industry since their inception in the mid-1980s, and innovation is still ongoing after more than 35 years. This Special Issue provides insight on and advancements in Flash memory devices
Machine Learning and Non-volatile Memories
No full textThis book presents the basics of both NAND flash storage and machine learning, detailing the storage problems the latter can help to solve. At a first sight, machine learning and non-volatile memories seem very far away from each other. Machine learning implies mathematics, algorithms and a lot of computation; non-volatile memories are solid-state devices used to store information, having the amazing capability of retaining the information even without power supply. This book will help the reader understand how these two worlds can work together, bringing a lot of value to each other. In particular, the book covers two main fields of application: analog neural networks (NNs) and solid-state drives (SSDs).
After reviewing the basics of machine learning in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 shows how neural networks can mimic the human brain; to accomplish this result, neural networks have to perform a specific computation called vector-by-matrix (VbM) multiplication, which is particularly power hungry. In the digital domain, VbM is implemented by means of logic gates which dictate both the area occupation and the power consumption; the combination of the two poses serious challenges to the hardware scalability, thus limiting the size of the neural network itself, especially in terms of the number of processable inputs and outputs. Non-volatile memories (phase change memories in Chapter 3, resistive memories in Chapter 4, and 3D flash memories in Chapter 5 and Chapter 6) enable the analog implementation of the VbM (also called “neuromorphic architecture”), which can easily beat the equivalent digital implementation in terms of both speed and energy consumption.
SSDs and flash memories are strictly coupled together; as 3D flash scales, there is a significant amount of work that has to be done in order to optimize the overall performances of SSDs. Machine learning has emerged as a viable solution in many stages of this process. After introducing the main flash reliability issues, Chapter 7 shows both supervised and un-supervised machine learning techniques that can be applied to NAND. In addition, Chapter 7 deals with algorithms and techniques for a pro-active reliability management of SSDs. Last but not least, the last section of Chapter 7 discusses the next challenge for machine learning in the context of the so-called computational storage.
No doubt that machine learning and non-volatile memories can help each other, but we are just at the beginning of the journey; this book helps researchers understand the basics of each field by providing real application examples, hopefully, providing a good starting point for the next level of development
A cross-layer approach for new reliability-performance trade-offs in MLC NAND flash memories
No full textIn spite of the mature cell structure, the memory controller architecture of Multi-level cell (MLC) NAND Flash memories is evolving fast in an attempt to improve the uncorrected/miscorrected bit error rate (UBER) and to provide a more flexible usage model where the performance-reliability trade-off point can be adjusted at runtime. However, optimization techniques in the memory controller architecture cannot avoid a strict trade-off between UBER and read throughput. In this paper, we show that co-optimizing ECC architecture configuration in the memory controller with program algorithm selection at the technology layer, a more flexible memory sub-system arises, which is capable of unprecedented trade-offs points between performance and reliabilit
La relazione di cura nel rispetto della dignità individuale. Interruzione dei trattamenti, cure palliative e formazione del personale
No full textCosa rimarrà dall’esperienza della pandemia? È questa la domanda che ha condotto una saggia riflessione di tre professori dell’Università di Bologna che mette in luce un importante aspetto, imprescindibile per la buona pratica medica, ma posto in secondo piano e oscurato durante l’emergenza sanitaria: l’etica. Il volume contiene uno sguardo d’insieme, ragionato, imparziale, esente da influenze politiche, intorno al quale gravitano considerazioni, insegnamenti e amarezze per ciò che non si è potuto, ma che si sarebbe dovuto fare durante l’emergenza pandemica e che deve necessariamente essere recuperato, ossia “prendersi cura” del malato e superare l’approccio basato sulla semplice “cura”. Gli autori del volume intervengono sul tema dell’etica congiuntamente a quello della solidarietà, puntando l’attenzione sulla partecipazione emotiva del malato in termini di qualità della relazione e della comunicazione tra medico e paziente, soprattutto nel contesto di progressiva virtualizzazione della medicina. Gli studi e le riflessioni proposti nel testo rappresentano il punto di partenza di un percorso etico da intraprendere con una prospettiva giuridico-sanitaria, attraverso il quale sarà possibile acquisire la consapevolezza che la figura professionale del medico deve essere restaurata e preparata ad affrontare il cambiamento in atto nel sistema della tutela sanitaria
Religioni e politica in Andrea Zambelli: un capitolo del machiavellismo nella cultura lombarda pre-unitaria
No full textAndrea Zambelli (1794-1861) – Politics Legislation and Sciences professor, Rector of Pavia University – is an outstanding author in the context of liberal culture of Lombardy, which is the framework of Cattaneo’s federalism and of political reflections before Unification. Zambelli maintains a close relationship with Machiavelli’s thought. The essay Alcune Considerazioni sul libro del Principe di Macchiavelli, published in Milan in 1841, was often proposed as an introduction to some editions of the Segretario Fiorentino’s works, between the second half of the 19th century and the first twenty years of the following. Zambelli, who is regarded as one of the most prominent scholars who worked on Machiavelli’s thought during the Risorgimento – by Cavalli, Villari, Croce, Curcio, Procacci – is remembered for works where the analysis and the criticism of historical-religious matters from a political point of view can be consistently found, such as the treatise Delle differenze politiche fra i popoli antichi e moderni (in two books, the former deals with war, the latter with religion) and the essays Di alcune moderne utopie and Sull’influenza politica dell’Islamismo. Zambelli’s work about Machiavelli is relevant for its modern approach, aiming to carry out a reshaping of the historical character of the political tradition during the Renaissance, into a wider European context.
Andrea Zambelli (1794-1861), an outstanding author in the context of the liberal culture of Lombardy, framework of Cattaneo’s federalism and of polit-ical reflections before Unification, maintains a close relationship with Machi-avelli’s thought. Alcune Considerazioni sul libro del Principe di Macchiavelli is relevant for its modern approach, reshaping the historical character of the political tradition in the Renaissance into a wider European context. Zambel-li, one of the most prominent scholars who worked on Machiavelli’s thought during the Risorgimento, is remembered for his analysis and criticism of his-torical-religious matters from a political point of view in his Delle differenze politiche fra i popoli antichi e moderni and Sull’influenza politica dell’Islamismo
SSD Reliability Assessment and Improvement
No full textSolid State Drives (SSDs) are one of the electronic systems with the highest development rate in the last decade [1]. Their adoption as a hard disk drive (HDD) replacement in hyper scale environments like cloud computing and big data servers, as well as in consumer electronics, is relentless
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