Impact of power-supply noise on timing in high-frequency microprocessors

This paper analyzes the impact of power-supply noise on the performance of high-frequency microprocessors. First, delay models that take this noise into account are proposed for device-dominated and interconnect-dominated timing paths. For typical circuits, it is shown that the peak of the noise is largely irrelevant and that the average supply voltage during switching is more important. It is then argued that global differential noise can potentially have a greater timing impact than common-mode noise. Finally, realistic values for the model parameters are measured on a 2.53-GHz Pentium4 microprocessor using a 130-nm technology. These values imply that the power-supply noise present on the system board reduces clock frequency by 6.7%. The model suggests that the frequency penalty associated with this power-supply noise will steadily increase and reach 7.6% for the 90-nm technology generation.     

A general enthalpy method for modeling solidification processes

In the present work, a general implicit source-based enthalpy method is presented for the analysis of solidification systems. The proposed approach is both robust and efficient. The performance of the method is illustrated by application to a number of problems taken from recent metallurgical literature.     

Support vector regression for determining the minimum zone sphericity

Several methods have been investigated to determine the deviation of manufactured spherical parts from ideal geometry. One of the most popular is the least squares technique, which is still widely employed in coordinate measuring machines used by industries. The least squares algorithm is optimal under the assumption that the data set is very large and has the inherent disadvantage of overestimating the minimum tolerance zone, resulting sometimes in the rejection of good parts. In addition, it requires that the data be distributed normally. The support vector regression approach alleviates the necessity for these assumptions. While most fitting algorithms in practice today require that the sampled data accurately represent the surface being inspected, support vector regression provides a generalization over the surface. We describe how the concepts of support vector regression can be applied to the determination of tolerance zones of nonlinear surfaces; to demonstrate the unique potential of support vector machine algorithms in the area of coordinate metrology. In specific, we address part quality inspection of spherical geometries.     

Analysis of Caching and Replication Strategies for Web Applications

Developers often use replication and caching mechanisms to enhance Web application performance. The authors present a qualitative and quantitative analysis of state-of-the art replication and caching techniques used to host Web applications. Their analysis shows that selecting the best mechanism depends heavily on data workload and requires a careful review of the application's characteristics. They also propose a technique for Web practitioners to compare different mechanisms' performance on their own     

Phosphorus Fractionation and Sorption in P-enriched Soils of Norway

Phosphorus (P) enrichment can lead to imbalance in nutrient availability and pollution of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Hence studies were carried out to investigate fractionation and sorption of P in eleven P-enriched soils collected from different agro-climatic sites in Norway. Different P fractions viz. total, organic, inorganic (easily soluble P, Fe-P, Al-P, Ca-P and occluded P), P_w (water extractable), and NH₄-lactate extractable P (P_AL) at the beginning and after the completion of the experiments varied widely among the soils studied, indicating a wide variability of P supplying capacity of these soils. Soluble P was positively correlated to Ca-P (r = 0.94; P < 0.001), P_w (r = 0.87; P < 0.001), pH (r = 0.79; P < 0.01) and P_AL (r = 0.79; P < 0.01), whereas it was negatively correlated with ammonium oxalate-extractable Al (Al_ox) (r = ?0.68; P < 0.05). Iron-P was only moderately related to Al_ox(r = 0.64; P < 0.05) and P_ox(r = 0.70; P < 0.05), whereas it was not related to any of the other parameters tested. The α [α = P_ox/(Fe_ox + Al_ox)] was highly correlated with P_AL (r = 0.93; P < 0.001), pH (r = 0.87; P < 0.001), inorganic P (r = 0.80; P < 0.01) and P_w(r = 0.77; P < 0.01) but moderately to total P (r = 0.71; P < 0.05). Adsorption data fitted well to the Langmuir equation for most soils. The P affinity constant (k), adsorption maximum (b) and thus maximum buffering capacity (mbc) and adsorption isotherm of P were highest in the sandy clay soil from Øsaker, which also contained high amounts of Fe, Al and clay particles and the lowest in sandy soil from Vestrålen, which contained very high initial P_ALand the lowest content of Fe, Al, silt and clay among all the soils studied. The P affinity constant (k) was correlated positively and significantly to clay content (r = 0.66; P < 0.05), whereas mbc was correlated positively and significantly to clay content (r = 0.63; P < 0.05) and ammonium oxalate-extractable Fe (Fe_ox) (r = 0.63; P < 0.05). Phosphorus desorption of the soils varied widely depending on the initial P status and texture of the soils. Phosphorus desorbed by NH₄-lactate was many fold higher as compared to CaCl₂ in most soils.     

Energy and Trust Management Framework for MANET using Clustering Algorithm

In General, Mobile Ad-Hoc Network (MANET) has limited energy resources, and it cannot recharge itself. This research goal focuses on building a power management scheme that saves energy in the MANET. Due to power instability, there is a chance that cluster heads fail and function incorrectly in cluster-based routing. As a result, instability occurs with the cluster heads while collecting data and communicating with others effectively. This work focuses on detecting the unstable cluster heads, which are replaced by other nodes implementing the envisaged self-configurable cluster mechanism. A self-configurable cluster mechanism with a k-means protocol approach is proposed to designate cluster heads effectively. The proposed k-means procedure is based on periodic irregular cluster head rotations or altering the number of clusters. We also propose a trust management mechanism in this research to detect and avoid MANET vulnerabilities. Because of the continuously changing topology and limited resources (power, bandwidth, computing), the trust management algorithm should only use local data. Consequently, compared to traditional protocols, the proposed approach with the k-means procedure and its experimental results show lower power usage and provide an optimal system for trust management.

     

Mobility in granular materials upon cyclic loading

We investigate the ability to move of large objects—referred to as intruders—embedded in a granular material and subjected to cyclic loadings. A discrete element method is used to simulate the dynamics response of intruders subjected to a vertical uplift cyclic force, exploring a wide range of loading magnitudes and frequencies. The analysis of the intruder and grains displacements over many cycles reveals three mobility regimes. In the first two regimes, called confined and failure the intruder either do not significantly move or consistently moves upward after each cycles. We introduce a physically based model considering an inertial drag force to rationalise the existence of these regimes depending on the loading frequency and magnitude. We further evidence a third intermediate regime of creep, where intruder trajectories exhibit long periods of confinement punctuated by shorter periods of sustained uplift motion. Finally, we observe unexpected failures at low loading magnitudes and specific frequencies, which we attribute to a process of elasto-inertial resonance. These results highlight the important differences in the mobility of intruders upon constant and cyclic loadings.     

Extraction of S‐parameters from time domain reflectometry and transmission measurements using rational functions

The extraction of the broad band S‐parameter response from transient reflection and transmission measurements is discussed. The proposed method uses the generalized pencil‐of‐function method, recursive deconvolution, and calibration structures to obtain a response using rational functions. A low loss printed circuit board plane and a lossy thin film plane are characterized to capture the two‐port S‐parameters. The results are compared with network analyzer measurements. The effects of the measurement parameters such as the sampling interval, time window, and number of averages are shown. The effect of time jitter on the extracted frequency response is quantified through repeated measurements. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 13: 74–85, 2003.     

Layered reasoning for randomized distributed algorithms

This paper adopts the communication closed layer (CCL) concept of Elrad and Francez to the formal reasoning of randomized distributed algorithms. We do so by enriching probabilistic automata (PA) with a layered composition operator, an intermediate between parallel and sequential composition. Layered composition is used to establish probabilistic counterparts of the CCL laws that exploit independence and/or precedence conditions between the constituent PA. The probabilistic CCL laws enable partial order (po-) equivalence when layered composition is replaced by sequential composition. Such po-equivalence induces a purely syntactic partial-order state space reduction via layered separation in compositions of PA while preserving probabilistic next-free linear-time properties. The feasibility of such layered separation is demonstrated on a randomized mutual exclusion algorithm by Kushilevitz and Rabin, complementing an algebraic approach (for analyzing this algorithm) by McIver, Gonzalia, Cohen, and Morgan.