arXiv subjects

Darran Nathan

Publications and source records attributed to Darran Nathan.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2004

A Self-Reconfigurable Computing Platform Hardware Architecture

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) have recently been increasingly used for highly-parallel processing of compute intensive tasks. This paper introduces an FPGA hardware platform architecture that is PC-based, allows for fast reconfiguration over the PCI bus, and retains a simple physical hardware design. The design considerations are first discussed, then the resulting system architecture designed is illustrated. Finally, experimental results on the FPGA resources utilized for this design are presented.

cs.AR↗

arXiv2004

Utilizing Reconfigurable Hardware Processors via Grid Services

Computational grids typically consist of nodes utilizing ordinary processors such as the Intel Pentium. Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are able to perform certain compute-intensive tasks very well due to their inherent parallel architecture, often resulting in orders of magnitude speedups. This paper explores how FPGAs can be transparently exposed for remote use via grid services, by integrating the Proteus Software Platform with the Globus Toolkit 3.0.

cs.DC↗

arXiv2004

Exposing Software Defined Radio Functionality To Native Operating System Applications via Virtual Devices

Many reconfigurable platforms require that applications be written specifically to take advantage of the reconfigurable hardware. In a PC-based environment, this presents an undesirable constraint in that the many already available applications cannot leverage on such hardware. Greatest benefit can only be derived from reconfigurable devices if even native OS applications can transparently utilize reconfigurable devices as they would normal full-fledged hardware devices. This paper presents how Proteus Virtual Devices are used to expose reconfigurable hardware in a transparent manner for use by typical native OS applications.

cs.AR↗

arXiv2004

A High-Level Reconfigurable Computing Platform Software Frameworks

Reconfigurable computing refers to the use of processors, such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), that can be modified at the hardware level to take on different processing tasks. A reconfigurable computing platform describes the hardware and software base on top of which modular extensions can be created, depending on the desired application. Such reconfigurable computing platforms can take on varied designs and implementations, according to the constraints imposed and features desired by the scope of applications. This paper introduces a PC-based reconfigurable computing platform software frameworks that is flexible and extensible enough to abstract the different hardware types and functionality that different PCs may have. The requirements of the software platform, architectural issues addressed, rationale behind the decisions made, and frameworks design implemented are discussed.

cs.AR↗

arXiv2004

DAB Content Annotation and Receiver Hardware Control with XML

The Eureka-147 Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) standard defines the 'dynamic labels' data field for holding information about the transmission content. However, this information does not follow a well-defined structure since it is designed to carry text for direct output to displays, for human interpretation. This poses a problem when machine interpretation of DAB content information is desired. Extensible Markup Language (XML) was developed to allow for the well-defined, structured machine-to-machine exchange of data over computer networks. This article proposes a novel technique of machine-interpretable DAB content annotation and receiver hardware control, involving the utilisation of XML as metadata in the transmitted DAB frames.

cs.GL↗