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Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Computer Engineering

Fault And Defect Tolerant Computer Architectures: Reliable Computing With Unreliable Devices, George R. Roelke Iv Sep 2006

Fault And Defect Tolerant Computer Architectures: Reliable Computing With Unreliable Devices, George R. Roelke Iv

Theses and Dissertations

This research addresses design of a reliable computer from unreliable device technologies. A system architecture is developed for a "fault and defect tolerant" (FDT) computer. Trade-offs between different techniques are studied and yield and hardware cost models are developed. Fault and defect tolerant designs are created for the processor and the cache memory. Simulation results for the content-addressable memory (CAM)-based cache show 90% yield with device failure probabilities of 3 x 10(-6), three orders of magnitude better than non fault tolerant caches of the same size. The entire processor achieves 70% yield with device failure probabilities exceeding 10(-6). The required …


Evaluation Of Energy Costs And Error Performance Of Range-Aware Anchor-Free Localization Algorithms For Wireless Sensor Networks, Gustav Julio Jordt Mar 2006

Evaluation Of Energy Costs And Error Performance Of Range-Aware Anchor-Free Localization Algorithms For Wireless Sensor Networks, Gustav Julio Jordt

Theses and Dissertations

This research examines energy and error tradeoffs in Anchor-Free Range-Aware Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) Localization algorithms. A concurrent and an incremental algorithm (Anchor Free Localization (AFL) and Map Growing) are examined under varying network sizes, densities, deployments, and range errors. Despite current expectations, even the most expensive configurations do not expend significant battery life (at most 0.4%), implying little energy can be conserved during localization. Due to refinement, AFL is twice as accurate, using 6 times the communication. For both, node degree affects communication most. As degree increases, Map Growing communication increases, while AFL transmissions drop. Nodes with more neighbors …


An Adaptable Energy-Efficient Medium Access Control Protocol For Wireless Sensor Networks, Justin T. Kautz Mar 2006

An Adaptable Energy-Efficient Medium Access Control Protocol For Wireless Sensor Networks, Justin T. Kautz

Theses and Dissertations

Wireless networks have become ubiquitous recently and therefore their usefulness has also become more extensive. Wireless sensor networks (WSN) detect environmental information with sensors in remote settings. One problem facing WSNs is the inability to resupply power to these energy-constrained devices due to their remoteness. Therefore to extend a WSN's effectiveness, the lifetime of the network must be increased by making them as energy efficient as possible. An energy efficient medium access control (MAC) can boost a WSN's lifetime. This research creates a MAC protocol called Adaptive sensor Medium Access Control (AMAC) which is based on Sensor Medium Access Control …


Power-Scavenging Mems Robots, Daniel J. Denninghoff Mar 2006

Power-Scavenging Mems Robots, Daniel J. Denninghoff

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis includes the design, modeling, and testing of novel, power-scavenging, biologically inspired MEMS microrobots. Over one hundred 500-μm and 990-μm microrobots with two, four, and eight wings were designed, fabricated, characterized. These microrobots constitute the smallest documented attempt at powered flight. Each microrobot wing is comprised of downward-deflecting, laser-powered thermal actuators made of gold and polysilicon; the microrobots were fabricated in PolyMUMPs® (Polysilicon Multi-User MEMS Processes). Characterization results of the microrobots illustrate how wing-tip deflection can be maximized by optimizing the gold-topolysilicon ratio as well as the dimensions of the actuator-wings. From these results, an optimum actuator-wing configuration was …


Evaluation Of A Field Programmable Gate Array Circuit Reconfiguration System, Jason L. Ives Mar 2006

Evaluation Of A Field Programmable Gate Array Circuit Reconfiguration System, Jason L. Ives

Theses and Dissertations

This research implements a circuit reconfiguration system (CRS) to reconfigure a field programmable gate array (FPGA) in response to a faulty configurable logic block (CLB). It is assumed that the location of the fault is known and the CLB is moved according to one of four replacement methods: column left, column right, row up, and row down. Partial reconfiguration of the FPGA is done through the Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) port to produce the desired logic block movement. The time required to accomplish the reconfiguration is measured for each method in both clear and congested areas of the FPGA. …


Supplementing An Ad-Hoc Wireless Network Routing Protocol With Radio Frequency Identification (Rfid) Tags, Leroy S. Willemsen Mar 2006

Supplementing An Ad-Hoc Wireless Network Routing Protocol With Radio Frequency Identification (Rfid) Tags, Leroy S. Willemsen

Theses and Dissertations

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have a broad and varied range of applications, yet all of these are limited by the resources available to the sensor nodes that make up the WSN. The most significant resource is energy. A WSN may be deployed to an inhospitable or unreachable area, leaving it with a non-replenishable power source. This research examines a way of reducing energy consumption by augmenting the nodes with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags that contain routing information. It was expected that RFID tags would reduce the network throughput, the ad hoc on-demand distance vector (AODV) routing traffic sent, and …


Optimal Coverage Of Theater Targets With Small Satellite Constellations, Axel Rendon Mar 2006

Optimal Coverage Of Theater Targets With Small Satellite Constellations, Axel Rendon

Theses and Dissertations

The daylight passes of a low-Earth orbit satellite over a targeted latitude and longitude are optimized by varying the inclination and eccentricity of an orbit at different altitudes. This investigation extends the work by Emery et al, in which the optimal Right Ascension of the Ascending Node was determined for a circular, matched inclination orbit. The optimal values were determined by a numerical research method based on Emery et al's Matlab program. Results indicate that small increases in inclination raise the number of daylight passes up to 33%. These optimal inclinations depend on the satellite semi-major axis. Eccentricity increases also …


Characterization And Design Of High-Level Vhdl I/Q Frequency Downconverter Via Special Sampling Scheme, Jesse P. Somann Mar 2006

Characterization And Design Of High-Level Vhdl I/Q Frequency Downconverter Via Special Sampling Scheme, Jesse P. Somann

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the characterization and implementation of a Special Sampling Scheme (SSS) for In-Phase and Quad-Phase (I/Q) down conversion utilizing top-level, portable design strategies. The SSS is an under-developed signal sampling methodology that can be used with military and industry receiver systems, specifically, United States Air Force (USAF) video receiver systems. The SSS processes a digital input signal-stream sampled at a specified sampling frequency, and down converts it into In-Phase (I) and Quad-Phase (Q) output signal-streams. Using the theory and application of the SSS, there are three main objectives that will be accomplished: characterization of the effects of input, …