Thousand-Core Chips [Roundtable]

The 2007 Design Automation Conference (DAC) had a special session entitled "1000 Core Chips," which was organized by Radu Marculescu (Carnegie Mellon University) and Li-Shiuan Peh (Princeton University). This session examined some of the ramifications of multicore chip design from four perspectives: technology, architecture, programming, and design automation. In this roundtable, held immediately following the conference session, the presenters expounded on the future of multicore chips with respect to education, programming languages, operating systems, and design automation.     

A delay model for router microarchitectures

This article introduces a router delay model that takes into account the pipelined nature of contemporary routers and proposes pipelines matched to the specific flow control method employed. Given the type of flow control and router parameters, the model returns router latency in technology-independent units and the number of pipeline stages as a function of cycle time. We apply this model to derive realistic pipelines for wormhole and virtual-channel routers and compare their performance. Contrary to the conclusions of previous models, our results show that the latency of a virtual channel router doesn't increase as we scale the number of virtual channels up to 8 per physical channel. Our simulation results also show that a virtual-channel router gains throughput of up to 40 % over a wormhole router     

Synergizing spatial and temporal texture

Temporal texture accounts for a large proportion of motion commonly experienced in the visual world. Current temporal texture techniques extract primarily motion-based features for recognition. We propose a representation where both the spatial and the temporal aspects of texture are coupled together. Such a representation has the advantages of improving efficiency as well as retaining both spatial and temporal semantics. Flow measurements form the basis of our representation. The magnitudes and directions of the normal flow are mapped as spatiotemporal textures. These textures are then aggregated over time and are subsequently analyzed by classical texture analysis tools. Such aggregation traces the history of a motion which can be useful in the understanding of motion types. By providing a spatiotemporal analysis, our approach gains several advantages over previous implementations. The strength of our approach was demonstrated in a series of experiments, including classification and comparisons with other algorithms.     

Mechanical and tribological behavior of alumina and alumina‐CNT reinforced hybrid unsaturated polyester composites

Micro‐ and nano‐scale wear behavior of alumina vis‐á‐vis alumina‐carbon nanotube‐reinforced hybrid composites has been studied. In comparison to the pristine alumina, the alumina‐carbon nanotube hybrid reinforcement resulted in reduced scratch depth and lower frictional coefficient. Addition of carbon nanotube has effectively modified the pristine alumina into a superior wear resistant filler. POLYM. COMPOS., 37:1577–1586, 2016. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Dual material gate junctionless tunnel field effect transistor

This paper proposes a junctionless tunnel field effect transistor (JLTFET) with dual material gate (DMG) structure and the performance was studied on the basis of energy band profile modulation. The two-dimensional simulation was carried out to show the effect of conduction band minima on the abruptness of transition between the ON and OFF states, which results in low subthreshold slope (SS). Appropriate selection of work function for source and drain side gate metal of a double metal gate JLTFET can also significantly reduce the subthreshold slope (SS), OFF state leakage and hence gives improved I _ON/I _OFF.     

Minimization of exit burr in face milling of medium carbon steel by exit edge beveling

Elimination, or reduction, of burrs formed during machining is drawing focus of manufacturers and researchers since long or suppressing a burr regarding its formation or removal of it through a suitable deburring process. Deburring is an extra process often required to undertake, and it involves additional time and cost. Presence of burr may cause several problems, such as difficulty in assembly, dimensional inaccuracy, injury to the operator, etc. Like other industries, avoidance of burr on milled component surfaces in railways is of concern. In the present investigation, formation of burr in face milling is tried to reduce by beveling the exit edge of blocks of medium carbon steel (45C8) which is widely used in railways for manufacture of different components. Cutting conditions are also varied to observe the effect on burr formation. It is observed that at an exit edge bevel angle of 15°, negligible burr is formed at most of the cutting conditions undertaken, and hence, recommended.     

Crack and wear behavior of SiC particulate reinforced aluminium based metal matrix composite fabricated by direct metal laser sintering process

In this investigation, crack density and wear performance of SiC particulate (SiCp) reinforced Al-based metal matrix composite (Al-MMC) fabricated by direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) process have been studied. Mainly, size and volume fraction of SiCp have been varied to analyze the crack and wear behavior of the composite. The study has suggested that crack density increases significantly after 15 volume percentage (vol.%) of SiCp. The paper has also suggested that when size (mesh) of reinforcement increases, wear resistance of the composite drops. Three hundred mesh of SiCp offers better wear resistance; above 300 mesh the specific wear rate increases significantly. Similarly, there has been no improvement of wear resistance after 20 vol.% of reinforcement. The scanning electron micrographs of the worn surfaces have revealed that during the wear test SiCp fragments into small pieces which act as abrasives to result in abrasive wear in the specimen.     

Modeling of plasma spray coating process using statistical regression analysis

This study aimed to correlate outputs of a plasma spray coating process with its input parameters. Central composite design of experiments had been followed to conduct the experiments on plasma spray coating process, in order to collect its input–output data. The effects of four input parameters, namely primary gas flow rate, stand-off distance, powder flow rate, and arc current on three outputs (responses), such as thickness, porosity, and microhardness of the coatings, had been studied using non-linear statistical regression analysis. Such an analysis yielded the response equations, and viability of these equations had been tested on a set of experimentally obtained cases. The above four process parameters were found to have varying influences on different responses. However, all the above three responses were found to be significantly dependent on primary gas flow rate.     

Influence of solvent composition and degree of reaction on the formation of surface microtopography in a thermoset siloxane-urethane system

The effects of solvent composition and degree of reaction prior to film formation leading to the formation of a biphasic microtopographical surface in a crosslinked siloxane-urethane coating system were explored. For the solvent composition study, a D-optimal mixture design study was carried out using methyl n-amyl ketone (MAK), toluene, ethyl 3-ethoxypropionate (EEP), butyl acetate (BA) and isopropyl alcohol (IPA) as solvents. The study revealed that the presence of slow evaporating solvents MAK, EEP and the absence of fast evaporating solvent IPA in the solvent composition with a minimal amount of BA favored formation of a structured surface. Control over the domain size could be obtained by varying the MAK:EEP ratio in solvent compositions having a fixed amount of BA. The effect of mixing time on the formation of surface domains was studied. At short mixing times (<2 h) and long mixing times (>7 h), no surface phase separation is observed, while at intermediate times a ‘window’ was found where surface microdomains of similar size are generated. Doubling the level of catalyst halves the mixing time required to generate surfaces with microdomains. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies with energy dispersive X-ray mapping and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) were done in order to understand the development of the phases in the PDMS-polyurethane system.     

Synthesis of Nanocrystalline FeS2 with Increased Band Gap for Solar Energy Harvesting

In this paper,we have reported the synthesis of FeS2 of higher band gap energy（2.75 eV） by using capping reagent and its successive application in organic-inorganic based hybrid solar cells.Hydrothermal route was adopted for preparing iron pyrite（FeS2） nanoparticles with capping reagent PEG-400.The quality of synthesized FeS2 material was confirmed by X-ray diffraction,field emission scanning electron microscopy,transmission electron microscopy,Fourier transform infrared,thermogravimetric analyzer,and Raman study.The optical band gap energy and electro-chemical band gap energy of the synthesized FeS2 were investigated by UV-vis spectrophotometry and cyclic voltammetry.Finally band gap engineered FeS2 has been successfully used in conjunction with conjugated polymer MEHPPV for harvesting solar energy.The energy conversion efficiency was obtained as 0.064%with a fill-factor of 0.52.