Digital Circuits Commons^™

Analog Sorting Using Pulse Width Modulation, Riley C. Olson

Computer Engineering

As time goes on, computers become more and more powerful. However, as processing time becomes less of a limiting factor for computing tasks, power consumption takes its place for many tasks. This paper proposes and tests a new method for sorting analog signals. This new sorting method converts analog signals into Pulse Width Modulated(PWM) signals of varying duty cycle , which are then sorted by a simple network of combinational logic, and then converted to a normal binary representation. In order to implement this new method, multiple circuits had to be designed and and tested to ensure their functionality and …

Roborodentia Robot: Treadbot, Stephen C. Schmidt

Computer Science and Software Engineering

This document is a summary of my contest entry to the 2018 Cal Poly Roborodentia competition. It is meant to be a process overview and design outline of the mechanical, electrical, and software components of my robot.

Arm Mke1xf Mcu Replatform, Nathan Hong, Derek Lung, Japsimran Singh, Bevin Tang

Computer Engineering

After Cal Poly Racing’s electrical team began to hit the technical limits of the ADC and other I/O features of the current 8-bit Atmel AT90 microcontroller unit, it became clear that an upgrade was due. This replatforming project takes the functionalities of the old, 8-bit architecture, and aims to provide a 32-bit version using the ARM MKE1xF MCU. With the idea of having a working PCB as a stretch goal, the scope of the library development was limited to enable base functionality. Thus, the only libraries developed were for the Timer, ADC, SPI, UART, and CAN. Additionally, this document discusses …

Comparison Of Data Transfer Alternatives In Asynchronous Circuits, Mark Howard

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Digital integrated circuits (ICs) have become progressively complex in their functionality. This has sped up the demand for asynchronous architectures, which operate without any clocking scheme, considering new challenges in the timing of synchronous systems. Asynchronous ICs have less stringent environmental constraints and are capable of maintaining reliable operation in extreme environments, while also enjoying potential benefits such as low power consumption, high modularity, and improved performance. However, when the traditional bus architecture of synchronous systems is applied to asynchronous designs, handshaking protocols required for asynchronous circuit operation result in significantly increased power consumption, offsetting the low power benefit of …

Automatic Testing In The United States Air Force, Pearson Wade

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The need for standardized Automatic Testing Equipment in the United States Department of Defense has brought about new policies and procedures within entities like the United States Air Force. The diversity and lifespan of systems such as jets, missiles, drones, and other electronics have brought on the need for a new system known as the Versatile Depot Automatic Test Station, or VDATS. The VDATS handles the automatic testing of replaceable digital circuits from different systems. I was introduced to this system firsthand during my time as an intern at Tinker AFB, Oklahoma. This new standardized approach to testing a diverse …

Security Analysis Of The Uconn Husky One Card, Trevor Phillips

Honors Scholar Theses

The “Husky One Card” is the name given to student IDs at the University of Connecticut. It can identify students, faculty, and staff in a variety of situations. The One Card is used for meal plans, Husky Bucks (an equivalent of money, but valid only in the Storrs area), residence hall/ university facility access, and student health services. The current Husky One Card consists of a picture identification on the front and a standard 1-dimensional barcode and 3-track magnetic strip on the back.

The goal of this thesis is to investigate the feasibility of cloning Husky One Cards, the ease …

Silicon Compilation And Test For Dataflow Implementations In Gasp And Click, Swetha Mettala Gilla

Dissertations and Theses

Many modern computer systems are distributed over space. Well-known examples are the Internet of Things and IBM's TrueNorth for deep learning applications. At the Asynchronous Research Center (ARC) at Portland State University we build distributed hardware systems using self-timed computation and delay-insensitive communication. Where appropriate, self-timed hardware operations can reduce average and peak power, energy, latency, and electromagnetic interference. Alternatively, self-timed operations can increase throughput, tolerance to delay variations, scalability, and manufacturability.

The design of complex hardware systems requires design automation and support for test, debug, and product characterization.

This thesis focuses on design compilation and test support for dataflow …

Toward Biologically-Inspired Self-Healing, Resilient Architectures For Digital Instrumentation And Control Systems And Embedded Devices, Shawkat Sabah Khairullah

Theses and Dissertations

Digital Instrumentation and Control (I&C) systems in safety-related applications of next generation industrial automation systems require high levels of resilience against different fault classes. One of the more essential concepts for achieving this goal is the notion of resilient and survivable digital I&C systems. In recent years, self-healing concepts based on biological physiology have received attention for the design of robust digital systems. However, many of these approaches have not been architected from the outset with safety in mind, nor have they been targeted for the automation community where a significant need exists. This dissertation presents a new self-healing digital …

Real Time And High Fidelity Quadcopter Tracking System, Tyler Mckay Hall

Computer Engineering

This project was conceived as a desired to have an affordable, flexible and physically compact tracking system for high accuracy spatial and orientation tracking. Specifically, this implementation is focused on providing a low cost motion capture system for future research. It is a tool to enable the further creation of systems that would require the use of accurate placement of landing pads, payload acquires and delivery. This system will provide the quadcopter platform a coordinate system that can be used in addition to GPS.

Field research with quadcopter manufacturers, photographers, agriculture and research organizations were contact and interviewed for information …

Design And Simulation Of An 8-Bit Successive Approximation Register Charge-Redistribution Analog-To-Digital Converter, Sumit K. Verma

Electrical Engineering Theses

The thesis initially investigates the history of the monolithic ADCs. The next chapter explores the different types of ADCs available in the market today. Next, the operation of a 4-bit SAR ADC has been studied. Based on this analysis, an 8-bit charge-redistribution SAR ADC has been designed and simulated with Multisim (National Instruments, Austin, TX). The design is divided into different blocks which are individually implemented and tested. Level-1 SPICE MOSFET models representative of 5μm devices were used wherever individual MOSFETs were used in the design. Finally, the power dissipation during the conversion period was also estimated. The supply voltage …

Measurement Of Speed Of Sound Profile Using Laaces Balloon, Zhuang Li, Brett Schaefer, Brian Schaefer, William Dever, Tyler Morgan, Matthew Foltz

2017 Academic High Altitude Conference

The goal of this mission is to test the speed of sound at different altitudes and ultimately at a maximum height of 100,000 feet (30 km). In conjunction with this testing, environmental parameters including temperature, pressure, and humidity are measured and used to calculate the speed of sound to compare to the measured results. The team constructed the payload “Dorothy” using polystyrene foam due to its lightweight and thermal isolation property. An ultrasonic sensor with a reflection mirror were installed outside payload box to measure speed of sound. All the sensors were calibrated. Software for the project was developed in …

One-To-Cloud One-Time Pad Data Encryption: Introducing Virtual Prototyping With Pspice, Paul Tobin, Lee Tobin, Roberto Gandia Blanquer Dr, Michael Mckeever, Jonathan Blackledge

Conference papers

In this paper, we examine the design and application of a one-time pad encryption system for protecting data stored in the Cloud. Personalising security using a one-time pad generator at the client-end protects data from break-ins, side-channel attacks and backdoors in public encryption algorithms. The one-time pad binary sequences were obtained from modified analogue chaos oscillators initiated by noise and encoded client data locally. Specific ``one-to-Cloud'' storage applications returned control back to the end user but without the key distribution problem normally associated with one-time pad encryption. Development of the prototype was aided by ``Virtual Prototyping'' in the latest version …

Skin Tone Tracking Device (Chromaband), Ziyang Bian

Computer Engineering

It’s long been said that your skin is a window into your health and with many illnesses the first signs of trouble actually show up in your skin. So if we have this natural warning system, then why isn’t anyone able to effectively use it to predict changes in our health? The problem is that currently there is no reliable way to accurately measure the change in skin tone and how these changes may or may not change with variations in health. This project’s aim is to design and develop a device that will record the changes in a user’s …

Poly Drop, Zachary T. Scott, Lilly J. Paul

Computer Engineering

Poly Drop is a software interface to control an Open Drop digital micro-fluidics system. We obtained a hardware system from Gaudi labs. Our task was to create a Graphical User Interface that made the control of the device easier and more automated for better testing. We created software that had 3 parts: a control GUI, arduino code to control the hardware, and Image Analysis that gives the user information such as location and color of liquid drops as they move across the electrode grid of the Open Drop system. The GUI was developed using Java Swing. The communication between the …

The Following Robot, Juan D. Cerda, Matthew S. Kwan, Vi M. Le

Computer Engineering

The objective of this project is to design, build, and test an autonomous robot with an associated Android application. The robot uses on board inertial measurement sensors (magnetometer, accelerometer, gyroscope) and coordinates itself through Bluetooth communication with the similar built­in measurement sensors on the Android phone to mimic and follow movement. The Following Robot incorporates the same basic movement functionality as a typical RC car. The robot follows the user’s phone through an application on one’s phone. This application accesses the phone’s accelerometer and gyroscope data and translates into appropriate conversions. Methods of tracking and calculating distance or angular displacement …

General-Purpose Digital Filter Platform, Michael Cheng

Electrical Engineering

This senior project provides a platform for high-speed, general-purpose digital filter implementation. EE 459 currently implements digital filters using reprogrammable digital signal processor boards. These aging digital signal processors serially calculate each difference equation term. Operating at 1 Mega-sample per second, the new general-purpose platform simultaneously processes at least ten digital filtering difference equation coefficients. The platform also features an audio jack input and BNC connectors for viewing input and output signals. The filter digitizes single channel audio signals at 44.1 kHz sampling rate with 16-bit precision or 1 MHz sampling at 8-bit precision. The new reprogrammable platform includes a …

Solid State Drive, Shaun A. Steele

Electrical Engineering

This project documents the design and implementation of a solid state drive (SSD). SSDs are a non-volatile memory storage device that competes with hard disk drives. SSDs rely on flash memory, a type of non-volatile memory that is electrically erased and programmed. The appeal of SSDs lies in the fact that they allow a fast, reliable, and durable memory storage device. The goal of this project is to have a working external SSD built from scratch.

Project Pradio, Trigg T. La Tour

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper examines the design and manufacturing of a device that allows two or more users to share a wireless audio stream. Effectively, this allows a group of people to listen to the same audio in a synchronized manner. The product was unable to be completed in the allotted time. Regardless, significant progress was made and valuable insight into the circuit board design process was gained.

Automation In Entertainment: Concept, Design, And Application, Ryan Thally

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The focus of this thesis is to explore the automation technology used in the modern entertainment industry. Upon completion of my thesis, I will deliver a working prototype of the chosen technology and present its capabilities in a choreographed show.

On The Development Of A One-Time Pad Generator For Personalising Cloud Security, Paul Tobin, Lee Tobin, Michael Mckeever, Jonathan Blackledge

Conference papers

Cloud computing security issues are being reported in newspapers, television, and on the Internet, on a daily basis. Furthermore, in 2013, Edward Snowden alleged backdoors were placed in a number of encryption systems by the National Security Agency causing confidence in public encryption to drop even further. Our solution allows the end-user to add a layer of unbreakable security by encrypting the data locally with a random number generator prior to uploading data to the Cloud. The prototype one-time pad generator is impervious to cryptanalysis because it generates unbreakable random binary sequences from chaos sources initiated from a natural noise. …

Asynchronous Data Processing Platforms For Energy Efficiency, Performance, And Scalability, Liang Men

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The global technology revolution is changing the integrated circuit industry from the one driven by performance to the one driven by energy, scalability and more-balanced design goals. Without clock-related issues, asynchronous circuits enable further design tradeoffs and in operation adaptive adjustments for energy efficiency. This dissertation work presents the design methodology of the asynchronous circuit using NULL Convention Logic (NCL) and multi-threshold CMOS techniques for energy efficiency and throughput optimization in digital signal processing circuits. Parallel homogeneous and heterogeneous platforms implementing adaptive dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) based on the observation of system fullness and workload prediction are developed for balanced …

A System For Monitoring And Managing Indoor Air Quality And Environmental Conditions, Ali Ibrahim

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The quality of indoor air depends on different types of pollutant sources existing in a semi-enclosed environment. The sources can be biological, chemical, or toxic pollutants. These sources can cause health issues and discomfort for occupants. One of the indicators of poor indoor air quality is Carbon Dioxide (CO₂). CO₂ can be used to indicate the indoor air exchange rate. The lack of air exchange means higher levels of CO₂. High levels of indoor particulates can also be an indication of poor air quality. Due to the lack of fresh air, air circulation, and air …

Communications System Using Signal Modulation, William C. Barott

Publications

A communication method and system for communication utilizing modulation of digital signals, such as by targets and/or by use of low-complexity tags is presented. Targets may include any device or object that may alter signals, and tags can include a device with the ability to reflect and/or alter the properties of the signals and, in doing so, impose specific modulations on or alterations of such signals. Modulations can be sensed or detected using a receiver or receivers implementing processing algorithms derived from passive radar detection operations or other processes.

Prosense, Johnny Favazza Ii, Casey Glasgow, Matt Epperson

Computer Engineering

This project aims to gather advanced data sets from MEMS sensors and GPS and deliver it to the user, who can capitalize on the data. The once negligible half-degree difference of your board barreling down a wave can be recorded from a gyro and exploited for the perfect turn. The exact speed dreaded by longboarders where speed wobbles turn into a road rash can be analysed and consequently avoided. Ascertaining the summit of your flight using combined GPS sensors from the ski ramp allows for the correct timing of tricks. When it comes to pursuing excellence in professional sports, amateur …

El Capitán: Cal Poly Rose Float Digital Drive System, Gregory Raffi Baghdikian

Computer Engineering

In today’s world of smartphones, self-driving cars, and internet-connected coffee makers, it seems as if computers are contained in everything around us. These “embedded systems” have become critical components of our lives, improving everything about the things they control, from cost, to speed, to simplicity. One area that embedded systems has hardly gained a foothold is in the world of floatbuilding. Most of the floats in the Tournament of Roses Parade, including the one built jointly by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly Pomona, are technologically very simple, using mostly analog components and rudimentary discrete digital logic to …

Musictrakr, Benjamin Lin

Computer Engineering

MusicTrackr is an IoT device that musicians attach to their instruments. The device has a start and stop button that allows users to record their playing sessions. Each recorded session is sent wirelessly to a cloud database. An accompanying website displays all of the recorded sessions, organized by date. After picking a specific date, the user can view graphs showing total practice time and average session length as well play back any recordings during that date. In addition, the user may add comments to any specific date or recording. Lastly, the user may tag a specific date with a color …

Pinpoint: Location Beacon And Tracking, Ezequiel Lopez Iii

Computer Engineering

The purpose of Pinpoint was to create a device that can collect and transmit location information for multiple users on a wireless network. The device would be used to keep track of and communicate with other users nearby. The final design includes a touchscreen display as a graphical user interface (GUI), an XBee RF module for wireless networking, a GPS receiver for location tracking, and a Programmable System on a Chip (PSoC) to control the modules.

Achieving A Better Balance Between Productivity And Performance On Fpgas Through Heterogeneous Extensible Multiprocessor Systems, Abazar Sadeghian

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) were first introduced circa 1980, and they held the promise of delivering performance levels associated with customized circuits, but with productivity levels more closely associated with software development. Achieving both performance and productivity objectives has been a long standing challenge problem for the reconfigurable computing community and remains unsolved today. On one hand, Vendor supplied design flows have tended towards achieving the high levels of performance through gate level customization, but at the cost of very low productivity. On the other hand, FPGA densities are following Moore's law and and can now support complete multiprocessor …

System And Method For Identifying Electrical Properties Of Integrate Circuits, Mary Y. Lanzerotti

AFIT Patents

A new method for displaying electrical properties for integrated circuit (IC) layout designs provides for improved human visualization of those properties and comparison of as designed layout design parameters to as specified layout design parameters and to as manufactured layout parameters. The method starts with a circuitry as designed layout in a first digital format, extracts values for electrical properties from that circuitry as designed layout then annotates those values back into the first digital format. The annotated circuitry as designed layout is then converted from the first digital format to a second digital format that can be converted to …

Formal Modeling And Verification Of Delay-Insensitive Circuits, Hoon Park

Dissertations and Theses

Einstein's relativity theory tells us that the notion of simultaneity can only be approximated for events distributed over space. As a result, the use of asynchronous techniques is unavoidable in systems larger than a certain physical size. Traditional design techniques that use global clocks face this barrier of scale already within the space of a modern microprocessor chip. The most common response by the chip industry for overcoming this barrier is to use Globally Asynchronous Locally Synchronous (GALS) design techniques. The circuits investigated in this thesis can be viewed as examples of GALS design. To make such designs trustworthy it …