A 4-MB on-chip L2 cache for a 90-nm 1.6-GHz 64-bit microprocessor

A 4-MB L2 data cache was implemented for a 64-bit 1.6-GHz SPARC(r) RISC microprocessor. Static sense amplifiers were used in the SRAM arrays and for global data repeaters, resulting in robust and flexible timing operation. Elimination of the global clock grid over the SRAM array saves power, enabled by combining the clock information with array select signals. Redundancy was implemented flexibly, with shift circuits outside the main data array for area efficiency. The chip integrates 315 million transistors and uses an 8-metal-layer 90-nm CMOS process.     

A study on the degree of deliberation and meditation of cyber poll respondents for nuclear-related decision making

Public participation is essential in each step of the nuclear-related decision-making process. Recently, the electronic systems using the Internet have become quite popular, and have emerged as a good medium for communicating with the public. In this study, a comprehensive utilization of electronic public participation was used to analyze public opinion on a given nuclear-related decision-making process. The degree of deliberation and meditation of the public participating in an electronic poll survey was evaluated, and the decision-making factors representing the personal characteristics of the poll respondents such as age, income, education, residence, degree of knowledge and concern were carefully incorporated when preparing the poll-survey questionnaire for its evaluation. Fuzzy analysis was used to assess and aggregate the responses to each decision-making factor. As a case study, this procedure was used to analyzing public opinion on the location of a low-level radioactive waste disposal facility on the campus of Seoul National University. The results show that there is a tendency of respondents who are on the negative side of the argument to be more deliberate and meditative in their decision-making process than those on the positive side. Knowledge and residence were found to be important decision-making factors.     

A design advisor for the optimal inspection of circularity tolerance

In the wake of growing importance for quality and the need to reduce inspection costs simultaneously, the need for a scientific method of selecting an optimum inspection strategy for coordinate measuring machine (CMM) based inspection has become very important. The inspection error resulting from CMM inspection is greatly affected by the profile irregularities and the sampling strategy, which includes sample size, sampling methods, and algorithms used for form evaluation. This paper describes a system that can recommend an optimal inspection plan based on the needs of the user. A design of experiments (DOE) based approach is used to relate the inspection error with sampling strategies. Surface irregularities are included in the form of lobes formed on the profile. A new two-way model is proposed that works in both directions between the sampling strategy and the performance metrics. The results indicate that the number of lobes and the sampling method used have little impact on the inspection error, while the sample size and form evaluation algorithms have a significant influence. An inspection plan advisor is presented, which provides an inspection plan based on the estimated shape and acceptable measurement error.     

BioFET sensor for detection of albumin in urine

Characterisation of a BioFET for detection of albumin in a mixture of human urine is presented. To avoid electrolyte effect of the urine, it was measured in PBS (phosphate buffer saline) at a fixed pH after albumin binding. The drain current was modulated by the albumin bound to the anti-albumin immobilised on the gate surface of the BioFET. The current variation ratio was likely to be proportional to the concentration of the albumin in the range 50-250 mg/1. The results show the feasibility of the BioFET as a urinary albumin sensor.     

Polygonal extrusion

A sweeping operation called polygonal extrusion is defined to improve the modeling power of CSG-based modeling. It is assumed that a 2D cross-sectional polygon (sweeping polygon) moves in space while its containing plane is kept orthogonal to the tangent direction of the trajectory curve, a planar polygonal chain having no self-intersections. The objective of the paper is to compute the boundary of the swept volume of the sweeping polygon as a set of polygons (or triangles). The most significant challenge to accomplishing this objective is the problem of trimming the swept volume. To solve the trimming problem, 2D-curve offsetting methods are employed. Two algorithms are presented for polygonal extrusion that are based on different offsetting methods, the Voronoi diagram and PWID offset. The proposed algorithms have been implemented and tested with various examples. Published online: 28 January 2003     

A tolerant approach to reconstruct topology from unorganized trimmed surfaces

Presented in this paper is a topology reconstruction algorithm from a set of unorganized trimmed surfaces. Error-prone small geometric elements are handled to give proper topological information. It gives complete topology to topologically complete models, and it is also tolerant to incomplete models. The proposed algorithm is vertex-based in that clues for topological information are searched from the set of vertices first, not from that of edges.     

Austenitizing treatment influence on the electrochemical corrosion behavior of 0.3C-14Cr-3Mo martensitic stainless steel

Effects of austenitizing treatment temperatures on aqueous corrosion properties of martensitic stainless steels were investigated by electrochemical tests (potentiodynamic test, potentiostatic test and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy), and surface analyses (optical microscopy and XRD). The results of potentiodynamic test revealed that the breakdown potential increased with the increased austenitizing temperature, indicating increased relative resistance to initiation of localized corrosion. EIS measurements showed that MSS3 (1030 °C) exhibits larger polarization resistance value than MSS1 (970 °C) and MSS2 (1000 °C) at passive and breakdown states. This was caused by decreasing the amount of Cr-rich M₂₃C₆ carbide which acts as preferential sites for pitting corrosion.