Digital Circuits Commons^™

Fitness Plug, Evan Lee Ashley

Computer Engineering

My parents only allowed me to play videogames or watch television for a certain number of minutes or hours per day. By limiting screen time, they encouraged me to be active and find other things to do outside of television or videogames. The Fitness Plug aims to do both by converting time exercised to entertainment time; you can only watch television or play videogames for as long as you have exercised.

Otter Debugger, Keefe Johnson

Computer Engineering

This project is a debugger and programmer for the OTTER CPU, the implementation of the RISC-V ISA used by Cal Poly to teach computer architecture and assembly language in CPE 233/333 and usually implemented on the Basys3 FPGA development board. With this tool, students can quickly program their OTTER with a new/revised RISC-V program binary without resynthesizing the entire FPGA design. They can then use the debugger from a PC to pause/continue/single-step execution and set breakpoints, while inspecting and modifying register and memory contents. This enables real-time debugging of OTTER projects involving custom hardware such as a keyboard and VGA …

Otter Vector Extension, Alexis A. Peralta

Computer Engineering

This paper offers an implementation of a subset of the "RISC-V 'V' Vector Extension", v0.7.x. The "RISC-V 'V' Vector Extension" is the proposed vector instruction set for RISC-V open-source architecture. Vectors are inherently data-parallel, allowing for significant performance increases. Vectors have applications in fields such as cryptography, graphics, and machine learning. A vector processing unit was added to Cal Poly's RISC-V multi-cycle architecture, known as the OTTER. Computationally intensive programs running on the OTTER Vector Extension ran over three times faster when compared to the baseline multi-cycle implementation. Memory intensive applications saw similar performance increases.

Facilitating Mixed Self-Timed Circuits, Alexandra R. Hanson

University Honors Theses

Designers constrain the ordering of computation events in self-timed circuits to ensure the correct behavior of the circuits. Different circuit families utilize different constraints that, when families are combined, may be more difficult to guarantee in combination without inserting delay to postpone necessary events. By analyzing established constraints of different circuit families like Click and GasP, we are able to identify the small changes necessary to either 1) avoid constraints entirely; or 2) decrease the likelihood of necessary delay insertion. Because delay insertion can be tricky for novice designers and because the likelihood of its requirement increases when mixing different …

Analysis And Design Of A Soft Switching Z-Source Boost Dc-Dc Converter, Mahdi Rezvanyvardom, Amin Mirzaei

Emirates Journal for Engineering Research

This paper proposes a high step-up fully soft switched Z-source Boost DC-DC converter, which uses two resonant paths to create soft switching conditions for switches and diodes and also increases the voltage gain. The proposed converter only has one switch, so it has a simple structure. Furthermore, its control circuit remains pulse width modulation. Since soft switching conditions are provided for all switching elements, the converter efficiency is very high. This converter also has all advantages of Z-source converters. The converter is analyzed and simulated in PSPICE software. The results confirm the aforementioned advantages and features of the proposed converter

Analog Versus Digital Guitar Pedals, Shaping Guitar Tones And Sparking Debates, Cameron Karren

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This paper goes into the history of guitar effects, what exactly they are, how they have evolved, and what they are like today. It also presents the results of an experiment that compares perceptions of differences between analog and digital guitar pedals.

Nonlinear Least Squares 3-D Geolocation Solutions Using Time Differences Of Arrival, Michael V. Bredemann

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

This thesis uses a geometric approach to derive and solve nonlinear least squares minimization problems to geolocate a signal source in three dimensions using time differences of arrival at multiple sensor locations. There is no restriction on the maximum number of sensors used. Residual errors reach the numerical limits of machine precision. Symmetric sensor orientations are found that prevent closed form solutions of source locations lying within the null space. Maximum uncertainties in relative sensor positions and time difference of arrivals, required to locate a source within a maximum specified error, are found from these results. Examples illustrate potential requirements …

Heuristic-Based Threat Analysis Of Register-Transfer-Level Hardware Designs, Wesley Layton Ellington

Electrical Engineering Theses and Dissertations

The development of globalized semiconductor manufacturing processes and supply chains has lead to an increased interest in hardware security as new types of hardware based attacks, called hardware Trojans, are being observed in industrial and military electronics. To combat this, a technique was developed to help analyze hardware designs at the register-transfer-level (RTL) and locate points of interest within a design that might be vulnerable to attack. This method aims to eventually enable the creation of an end-to-end design hardening solution that analyzes existing designs and suggests countermeasures for potential Trojan attacks. The method presented in this work uses a …

Design Of Hardware With Quantifiable Security Against Reverse Engineering, Shahrzad Keshavarz

Doctoral Dissertations

Semiconductors are a 412 billion dollar industry and integrated circuits take on important roles in human life, from everyday use in smart-devices to critical applications like healthcare and aviation. Saving today's hardware systems from attackers can be a huge concern considering the budget spent on designing these chips and the sensitive information they may contain. In particular, after fabrication, the chip can be subject to a malicious reverse engineer that tries to invasively figure out the function of the chip or other sensitive data. Subsequent to an attack, a system can be subject to cloning, counterfeiting, or IP theft. This …

Dual-Axis Solar Tracker, Bryan Kennedy

All Undergraduate Projects

Renewable energies, and fuels that are not fossil fuel-based, are one of the prolific topics of debate in modern society. With climate change now becoming a primary focus for scientists and innovators of today, one of the areas for the largest amount of potential and growth is that of the capturing and utilization of Solar Energy. This method involves using a mechanical system to track the progression of the sun as it traverses the sky throughout the day. A dual-axis solar tracker such as the one designed and built for this project, can follow the sun both azimuthally and in …

Annual Report 2019-2020, Depaul University College Of Computing And Digital Media

CDM Annual Reports

LETTER FROM THE DEAN

As I write this letter wrapping up the 2019-20 academic year, we remain in a global pandemic that has profoundly altered our lives. While many things have changed, some stayed the same: our CDM community worked hard, showed up for one another, and continued to advance their respective fields. A year that began like many others changed swiftly on March 11th when the University announced that spring classes would run remotely. By March 28th, the first day of spring quarter, we had moved 500 CDM courses online thanks to the diligent work of our faculty, staff, …

Implementation Of A Hierarchical, Embedded, Cyber Attack Detection System For Spi Devices On Unmanned Aerial Systems, Jeremy J. Price

Theses and Dissertations

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) create security concerns as their roles expand in commercial, military, and consumer spaces. The need to secure these systems is recognized in the architecture for a Hierarchical, Embedded, Cyber Attack Detection (HECAD) system. HECAD passively monitors the communication between a flight controller and all its peripherals like sensors and actuators. It ensures the functionality of a UAS is within the set of defined behavior and reports all potential problems, whether the errors were caused by cyber attacks or other physical faults. A portion of the design for Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) devices on board a flight …

Systematic Model-Based Design Assurance And Property-Based Fault Injection For Safety Critical Digital Systems, Athira Varma Jayakumar

Theses and Dissertations

With advances in sensing, wireless communications, computing, control, and automation technologies, we are witnessing the rapid uptake of Cyber-Physical Systems across many applications including connected vehicles, healthcare, energy, manufacturing, smart homes etc. Many of these applications are safety-critical in nature and they depend on the correct and safe execution of software and hardware that are intrinsically subject to faults. These faults can be design faults (Software Faults, Specification faults, etc.) or physically occurring faults (hardware failures, Single-event-upsets, etc.). Both types of faults must be addressed during the design and development of these critical systems. Several safety-critical industries have widely adopted …

A Morphable Fpga Soft Processor Using Llvm Infrastructure Targeting Low-Power Application-Specific Embedded Systems, Ehsan Ali

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

The reconfigurable computing (RC) aims to combine the flexibility of General-Purpose Processor (GPP) with performance of Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC). There are several architectures proposed since RC's inception in 1960s, but all have failed to become mainstream. The main factor preventing RC to become common practice is its requirement for implementers of algorithms (programmers) to be familiar with hardware design. In RC, a hardened processor cooperates with a dynamic reconfigurable Hardware Accelerator (HA) which is implemented on Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The HA implements crucial software kernel on hardware to increase performance and its design demands digital circuit expertise. …

Low-Cost Near Infrared Diffuse Optical Imaging System, Mohammed Z. Shakil, Chen Xu

Publications and Research

Diffuse Optical Tomography (DOT) and Optical Spectroscopy using near-infrared (NIR) diffused light has demonstrated great potential for the initial diagnosis of tumors and in the assessment of tumor vasculature response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The NIR technique utilizes intrinsic hemoglobin contrast, which is directly related to tumor angiogenesis development, a key process required for tumor growth and metastasis. The NIR diffuse tomography holds great promise in distinguishing early-stage invasive breast cancers from benign lesions. This technique also provides insight into tumor metabolism and tumor hypoxia, important indicators of tumor response to various forms of therapy. Currently, the high cost of the …

Evaluation And Analysis Of Null Convention Logic Circuits, John Davis Brady

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Integrated circuit (IC) designers face many challenges in utilizing state-of-the-art technology nodes, such as the increased effects of process variation on timing analysis and heterogeneous multi-die architectures that span across multiple technologies while simultaneously increasing performance and decreasing power consumption. These challenges provide opportunity for utilization of asynchronous design paradigms due to their inherent flexibility and robustness.

While NULL Convention Logic (NCL) has been implemented in a variety of applications, current literature does not fully encompass the intricacies of NCL power performance across a variety of applications, technology nodes, circuit scale, and voltage scaling, thereby preventing further adoption and utilization …

Improved Study Of Side-Channel Attacks Using Recurrent Neural Networks, Muhammad Abu Naser Rony Chowdhury

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Differential power analysis attacks are special kinds of side-channel attacks where power traces are considered as the side-channel information to launch the attack. These attacks are threatening and significant security issues for modern cryptographic devices such as smart cards, and Point of Sale (POS) machine; because after careful analysis of the power traces, the attacker can break any secured encryption algorithm and can steal sensitive information.

In our work, we study differential power analysis attack using two popular neural networks: Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). Our work seeks to answer three research questions(RQs):

RQ1: Is it …

Algorithms And Circuits For Analog-Digital Hybrid Multibeam Arrays, Paboda Viduneth A. Beruwawela Pathiranage

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Fifth generation (5G) and beyond wireless communication systems will rely heavily on larger antenna arrays combined with beamforming to mitigate the high free-space path-loss that prevails in millimeter-wave (mmW) and above frequencies. Sharp beams that can support wide bandwidths are desired both at the transmitter and the receiver to leverage the glut of bandwidth available at these frequency bands. Further, multiple simultaneous sharp beams are imperative for such systems to exploit mmW/sub-THz wireless channels using multiple reflected paths simultaneously. Therefore, multibeam antenna arrays that can support wider bandwidths are a key enabler for 5G and beyond systems.

In general, N- …

Time-Difference Circuits: Methodology, Design, And Digital Realization, Shuo Li

Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis presents innovations for a special class of circuits called Time Difference (TD) circuits. We introduce a signal processing methodology with TD signals that alters the target signal from a magnitude perspective to time interval between two time events and systematically organizes the primary TD functions abstracted from existing TD circuits and systems. The TD circuits draw attention from a broad range of application fields. In addition, highly evolved complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology suffers from various problems related to voltage and current amplitude signal processing methods. Compared to traditional analog and digital circuits, TD circuits bring several compelling features: …

Improving 3d Printed Prosthetics With Sensors And Motors, Rachel Zarin

Honors Projects

A 3D printed hand and arm prosthetic was created from the idea of adding bionic elements while keeping the cost low. It was designed based on existing models, desired functions, and materials available. A tilt sensor keeps the hand level, two motors move the wrist in two different directions, a limit switch signals the fingers to open and close, and another motor helps open and close the fingers. All sensors and motors were built on a circuit board, programmed using an Arduino, and powered by a battery. Other supporting materials include metal brackets, screws, guitar strings, elastic bands, small clamps, …