An energy-efficient cloud system with novel dynamic resource allocation methods

The Journal of Supercomputing - In the last decade, cloud computing has brought enormous changes to people’s lives. Cloud computing gives a client-driven computational model. In this case,...     

Exposed Die-Top Encapsulation Molding for an Improved High- Performance Flip Chip BGA Package

The recent advancement in high- performance semiconductor packages has been driven by the need for higher pin count and superior heat dissipation. A one-piece cavity lid flip chip ball grid array (BGA) package with high pin count and targeted reliability has emerged as a popular choice. The flip chip technology can accommodate an I/O count of more than five hundreds500, and the die junction temperature can be reduced to a minimum level by a metal heat spreader attachment. None the less, greater expectations on these high-performance packages arose such as better substrate real estate utilization for multiple chips, ease in handling for thinner core substrates, and improved board- level solder joint reliability. A new design of the flip chip BGA package has been looked into for meeting such requirements. By encapsulating the flip chip with molding compound leaving the die top exposed, a planar top surface can be formed. A, and a flat lid can then be mounted on the planar mold/die top surface. In this manner the direct interaction of the metal lid with the substrate can be removed. The new package is thus less rigid under thermal loading and solder joint reliability enhancement is expected. This paper discusses the process development of the new package and its advantages for improved solder joint fatigue life, and being a multichip package and thin core substrate options. Finite-element simulations have been employed for the study of its structural integrity, thermal, and electrical performances. Detailed package and board-level reliability test results will also be reported     

Use of radial forces for fault detection in tapping

A model-based method for fault detection in tapping based on torque and radial forces is proposed. The method allows the identification of faults typical of a tapping operation including axial misalignment, tap runout, tooth breakage both singly and together. The validation experiments have been run on aluminum 356 workpieces for different combinations of process faults. Results have shown that the model predictions are in good agreement with the experimental radial force and torque signals under various fault conditions.     

A new approach to study organic solar cell using Lambert W-function

Organic photovoltaic solar cells bear an important potential of development in the search for low-cost modules for the production of domestic electricity. One of the main differences between inorganic and organic solar cells is that photo-excitation in these materials does not automatically lead to the generation of free charge carriers, but to bind electron–hole pairs (exciton) with a binding energy of about 0.4 eV. Till now various numerical methods using approximations have been reported to study different aspects of organic solar cells. For the first time an accurate method using Lambert W-function is presented to study different parameters of organic solar cells.     

Oxidation of Silicon Carbide in Environments Containing Potassium Salt Vapor

At high temperatures in clean oxidizing environments, SiC forms a very protective SiO₂ film, but, in environments containing low levels of gaseous alkali salt contaminants or where condensed salts may deposit on the surface, the resistance of the film is significantly reduced. Oxidation kinetics of SiC were measured by continuous thermogravimetric analysis in a controlled environment containing CO₂, H₂O, and O₂ plus low levels of potassium-containing salts. Potassium was found to be incorporated into the SiO₂ scale and to significantly change its transport properties and its morphology. The rate of scale formation was found to increase directly in proportion to K in the scale. A change in mechanism was observed when water vapor was added to the reacting gas stream.     

Differential pixel-based low-power and high-speed implementation of DCT for on-board satellite image processing

Low-power and high-speed discrete cosine transform (DCT) implementation of the images captured by the satellites presents a hardware design problem. The cost of the DCT implementation is dominated by the complexity of the multiplication of input data (image) with the DCT matrix. The techniques for minimising the complexity of multiplication by employing a differential pixel method are presented. In the proposed method 8times8 blocks of input image matrix are considered, the difference between the adjacent pixels is calculated and those differential pixels are used in DCT transformation. Synthesis results on 0.18 mum CMOS technology show that the proposed method gives an average of 13.2% reduction in power consumption and 10.9% improvement in speed over the conventional method. The proposed method can also be combined with the common subexpression elimination method for further reduction.     

Implementations of a four-level mechanical architecture for fault-tolerant robots

This paper describes a fault tolerant mechanical architecture with four levels devised and implemented in concert with NASA (Tesar, D. & Sreevijayan, D., Four-level fault tolerance in manipulator design for space operations. In First Int. Symp. Measurement and Control in Robotics (ISMCR '90), Houston, Texas, 20–22 June 1990.) Subsequent work has clarified and revised the architecture. The four levels proceed from fault tolerance at the actuator level, to fault tolerance via in-parallel chains, to fault tolerance using serial kinematic redundancy, and finally to the fault tolerance multiple arm systems provide. This is a subsumptive architecture because each successive layer can incorporate the fault tolerance provided by all layers beneath. For instance a serially-redundant robot can incorporate dual fault-tolerant actuators. Redundant systems provide the fault tolerance, but the guiding principle of this architecture is that functional redundancies actively increase the performance of the system. Redundancies do not simply remain dormant until needed. This paper includes specific examples of hardware and/or software implementation at all four levels.     

Relationship of provider characteristics to outcomes, process, and costs of care for community-acquired pneumonia

OBJECTIVES: The authors describe the relation of provider characteristics to processes, costs, and outcomes of medical care for elderly patients hospitalized for community-acquired pneumonia. METHODS: Using Medicare claims data, Medicare beneficiaries discharged from Pennsylvania hospitals during 1990 with community-acquired pneumonia were identified. Claims data were used to ascertain mortality, readmissions, use of procedures and physician consultations, and the costs of care. The relationship of these measures to provider characteristics was analyzed using regression techniques to adjust for patient characteristics, including comorbidity and microbial etiology. RESULTS: Among 22,294 pneumonia episodes studied, 30-day mortality was 17.0%. After adjusting for patient characteristics, 30-day mortality and readmission rates were unrelated to hospital teaching status or urban location or to physician specialty. Use of procedures and physician consultations was more common and costs were 11% higher among patients discharged from teaching hospitals compared with nonteaching hospitals. Similarly, costs were 15% higher at urban hospitals compared with rural hospitals. General internists and medical subspecialists used more procedures and had higher costs than family practitioners. CONCLUSIONS: Processes and costs of care for community-acquired pneumonia varied by provider characteristics, but neither mortality nor readmission rates did. These differences cannot be explained by clinical variables in the database. Further studies should determine whether less costly patterns of care for pneumonia, and perhaps other conditions, could replace more costly ones without compromising patient outcomes.     

Investigation of rectangular solid-core photonic crystal fiber as temperature sensor

Microsystem Technologies - In this article, a rectangular solid-core photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is proposed as temperature sensor. The air-holes of the PCF have been filled with Ethyl alcohol...