On chip novel video streaming system for bi-network multicasting protocols

In the past three decades, tremendous Ethernet-related research has been done, which has led to today's ubiquitous Ethernet technology. On the other hand, with the emergence of new network needs, a new protocol, the IEEE 1394 standard serial bus (or Firewire) was introduced. Firewire is suitable for high-quality audio/video applications which do not perform well in the best-effort-based Ethernet technology. However, since Firewire is a serial bus, it has harsh cable length limitations as compared to Ethernet capabilities.In this paper, we present a novel on-chip system that receives Firewire video and transmits it in multicast mode using Ethernet protocol. A major advantage of this novel system is to utilize the existing Ethernet infrastructure to extend the range of Firewire video streaming to reach remote nodes and make it even accessible to nodes with a single Ethernet interface. This will have tremendous impact on Firewire applications such as deploying Firewire cameras in big-scale security-sensitive buildings or industrial facilities with image-based remote quality control.This novel chip utilizes the concept of Ethernet multicasting transmission mode for video streaming. The proposed chip design converts the IEEE 1394 isochronous traffic to the Ethernet multicast frame format via two off-chip asynchronous write and read buffers.The goal of this research is to design an On Chip Novel Video Streaming System that avoids performance bottlenecks in the software protocol conversion of these two important network protocols. The author decided to study these two networks because of their broad use and cable power provisioning capabilities. The novel system design is implemented using a customized field programmable gate array (FPGA), which enables the integration of various system components on one chip. The designed prototype is studied using both network monitoring tools and analytical techniques, to verify its function and compare it with the existing approaches.Performance measures show that the On Chip Novel Video Streaming System consumes less than 21 mW of power for 100 Mbps and 82 mW of power for 1 Gbps, and utilizes 57% of a Xilinx Spartan 2-100E-6FT256 FPGA resources. Hence, it is possible to incorporate further extensions. Experimental results show that 88% of the network utilization can be achieved, due to the use of the customized, FPGA-based design of bi-network traffic conversion.     

Simultaneous hyperaccumulation of arsenic and antimony in Cretan brake fern: Evidence of plant uptake and subcellular distributions

Arsenic (As) and antimony (Sb) show similar chemical properties and often present together in sulfide ores. Currently, phenomenon of co-contamination of As and Sb at some sites of the world has been increasingly emerged. The present study was conducted to explore the potential of Pteris cretica L. (Cretan brake fern), an arsenic (As) hyperaccumulator, to simultaneously accumulate As and Sb under hydroponic conditions. Arsenic was imposed at medium and high levels of 5 mg L^− 1 and 20 mg L^− 1, while Sb was imposed either single or co-presence with As at medium and high levels of 10 mg L^− 1 and 20 mg L^− 1, with no As and Sb addition as the control. The single and interactive effects of As and Sb on their uptake and subcellular distributions were analyzed. Cretan brake fern could accumulate high concentrations of As and Sb, with the highest concentrations of As and Sb been recorded as 1677.2 mg kg^− 1 and 1516.5 mg kg^− 1 in the fronds, respectively. Arsenic and Sb were found mainly in cytosol, while less in cell wall and cytoplasmic organelles. Sb uptake by Cretan brake fern was enhanced with increasing As levels, which was accompanied with an increase of Sb but a decrease of As in cytosol fractions. Arsenic uptake was slightly enhanced whereas suppressed when Sb was co-present in a medium and high level, respectively; however, in both conditions, As was found to be decreased in cytosol of the above ground parts as fronds and stems of Cretan brake fern. The results demonstrate Cretan brake fern can simultaneously hyperaccumulate As and Sb, thus is valued in phytoremediation of As and Sb co-contamination.     

Self-sum- and -difference-frequency mixing in GdAl(3)(BO(3))(4):Nd(3+) for generation of tunable ultraviolet and infrared radiation

We exploited Nd(3+) laser emission at 1061.9 nm ((4)F(3/2)?(4)I(11/2) channel) in a self-chi((2)) active GdAl(3)(BO(3))(4):Nd(3+) laser crystal. UV radiation was obtained from a 1.8% yield from self-sum-frequency mixing: 1/pump + 1/1061.9 = 1/UV, during pumping in the Nd(3+) (4)G(5/2)-(2)G(7/2) levels near 588 nm. The UV tunability had a range of 378-382 nm. We have demonstrated, for the first time to our knowledge, generation of coherent IR radiation from a self-difference-frequency mixing laser: 1/pump - 1/1061.9 = 1/IR. We got a 0.5% yield and tunability in the 1305-1365-nm range.     

Design metal-dot based QCA circuits using SPICE model

This paper proposes a SPICE model development methodology for quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) cells and presents a SPICE model for QCA cells. The model is validated by simulating the basic logic gates such as inverter and majority voter. The proposed model makes it possible to design and simulate QCA combinational circuits and hybrid circuits of QCA and other NANO devices using SPICE. In the second half part of the paper, SET and QCA co-design methodology is proposed and SET is used as a readout interface of the QCA cell array. The SET and QCA hybrid circuit is a promising nano-scale solution.     

A monolithic low-power high-voltage driver for bistable LCDs

A complete low-power high-voltage driver for a 80×104 passive-matrix bistable LCD is integrated in a 0.7 μm CMOS smart-power technology. It features 100 V driving capability on all row and column outputs and comprises all necessary digitally programmable high-voltage generators and multiplexers to synthesize the required complex high-voltage waveforms from a 3 V battery. An original level-shifter design for the high-voltage multiplexers and a dedicated architecture for the programmable high-voltage generators yield an extremely low internal power consumption below 10 mW for the entire driver chip.     

Optical properties of Dy ions in sodium gadolinium tungstates crystal

Dy³⁺-doped NaGd(WO₄)₂ crystal with sizes of about Φ20×40 mm² was grown by the Czochralski technique along the (0 0 1) orientation. Polarized absorption spectra, fluorescence spectra, and fluorescence decay curve of Dy³⁺-doped NaGd(WO₄)₂ have been recorded at room temperature. Based on the Judd-Ofelt (J-O) theory, the intensity parameters from the measured line strengths were evaluated. The J-O parameters were used to predict radiative transition probabilities, radiative lifetimes and branching ratios for various excited levels of Dy³⁺-doped NaGd(WO₄)₂ crystal. The luminescent quantum efficiency of the ⁴F_9/2 level was determined to be approximately 63% for this material. The emission cross-section of the ⁴F_9/2→⁶H_13/2 transition was estimated by using the Füchtbauer-Ladengurg method.     

Growth and optical property of ZnWO4: Er crystal

Good quality crystals ZnWO₄ activated with Er³⁺ have been grown by means of Czochralski method and characterized using optical spectroscopy techniques. XRD, absorption spectra, fluorescence spectrum are presented and the Judd-Ofelt intensity parameters Ω₂, Ω₄, and Ω₆ are obtained to be 6.76×10^-20, 0.37×10^-20, and 0.50×10^-20 cm², respectively. Along crystallographic axes, refractive indices are presented. The fluorescence decay time of the ⁴I_13/2 level has also been investigated and shows an exponential behavior with a lifetime value of 5.52 ms. The crystal is potentially used for green and infrared eye-safe lasers.     

Scaling of analog LDPC decoders in sub-100 nm CMOS processes

Analog implementations of digital error control decoders, generally referred to as analog decoding, have recently been proposed as an energy and area competitive methodology. Despite several successful implementations of small analog error control decoders, little is currently known about how this methodology scales to smaller process technologies and copes with the non-idealities of nano-scale transistor sizing. A comprehensive analysis of the potential of sub-threshold analog decoding is examined in this paper. It is shown that mismatch effects dominated by threshold mismatch impose firm lower limits on the sizes of transistors. The effect of various forms of leakage currents is also investigated and minimal leakage current to normalizing currents are found using density evolution and control simulations. Finally, the convergence speed of analog decoders is examined via a density evolution approach. The results are compiled and predictions are given which show that process scaling below 90 nm processes brings no advantages, and, in some cases, may even degrade performance or increase required resources.