Sustainable Global Resources Of Seaweeds Volume 1, 2022
The global seaweed market is currently valued at USD $11 billion annually and utilizes about 29 m... more The global seaweed market is currently valued at USD $11 billion annually and utilizes about 29 million tonnes of seaweed (dry weight) for a variety of applications (Ferdouse et al., Globefish Res Programme 124:I, 2018). By 2025 the global market is estimated to reach USD $30.2 billion dollars (Bloomberg, Seaweed Cultivation Market worth $30.2 billion by 2025. Retrieved 06/08/2021, 2021, from https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/2020-10-15/seaweed-cultivation-market-worth-30-2-billion-by-2025-exclusive-report-by-marketsandmarkets, 2020). The current Australian seaweed market is valued at US$3 million, which is relatively small, contributing only 0.03% to the global market. However, the Blue Economy CRC and Marine Bioproducts CRC together have resulted in a public/private funding of nearly AUD $600 million over the past 3 years with the aim of expanding towards a billion-dollar seaweed market in Australia within the next decade. Furthermore, a recent CSIRO Data 61 report identified ’Microalgal and Macroalgal Resources’ as an emerging growth sector, specifically in the state of Queensland (Naughtin et al., A New Chapter: Opportunities to seed new industries for Queensland over the coming decade. CSIRO and Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, pp 1–85, 2021). Currently, most of the seaweeds on the Australian market are imported, and this sector has seen a rapid expansion from 2005 to 2017. This growth highlights the increasing demand for seaweed products in Australia and potential for the expansion of domestic producers. International seaweed markets are also expanding rapidly at a rate of 12% and so offer significant export opportunities (IMARC, Seaweed Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2021-2026. Retrieved 06/08/2021, 2021, from https://www.imarcgroup.com/seaweed-market, 2021). Despite the huge domestic biodiversity of seaweeds and their use by First Nations peoples, the commercialisation of native seaweed products has been limited. To date, seaweed cultivation and research has been broadly managed by the Department of Aquaculture and Marine Sciences, and more recently this has expanded to specific organisations (e.g. CSIRO, AgriFutures, ASI) and an increasing number of universities (e.g. the combined marine cooperative research centers (CRCs) have been approved for a total of AUD $580 million development over the next 10 years for marine bioproduct development and the blue economy with a consortium of ~100 industry, government and research partners). These collaborative networks with seaweed production companies provide evidence of a growing interest and demand for seaweed-based products in Australia and internationally. The two major seaweeds cultivated in Australia today comprise Durvillaea potatorum and Undaria pinnatifida. D. potatorum (commonly known as Bull Kelp) is a native brown seaweed species, which is collected primarily on King Island (Tasmania). Sustainable harvesting both generates an income of about AUD $2.63 million annually and helps preserve kelp forest ecosystems, motivating further research and sustainable cultivation. Both species are widely used to produce thickening agents for the food and cosmetics industry. In Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria there are currently a number of promising seaweed-based research projects developing seaweed-based products ranging from 3D bio-printing technology, livestock feed (methane emissions mitigation) and optimisation of seaweed mariculture systems. This chapter reviews current trends and future perspectives of seaweed-based products in the Australian market, highlighting the limitation of import and export restrictions and the importance of expanding investments into research on native strains. A growing domestic Australian seaweed industry not only offers to create regional jobs and reduce the cost of imports but has significant opportunities to become an export industry, extending value chains in the near future.
This thesis develops the theory, algorithms and data structures for adaptive sampling of parametr... more This thesis develops the theory, algorithms and data structures for adaptive sampling of parametric functions, which can represent the shapes and motions of physical objects. For the first time, ensured methods are derived for determining collisions and other interactions for a broad class of parametric functions. A new data structure, called a surface network, is developed for the collision algorithm and for other sampling problems in computer graphics. A surface network organizes a set of parametric samples into a hierarchy. Surface networks are shown to be good for rendering images, for approximating surfaces, and for modeling physical environments. The basic notion of a surface network is generalized to higher-dimensional problems such as collision detection. We may think of a two-dimensional network covering a three-dimensional solid, or an n-dimensional network embedded in a higher-dimensional space. Surface networks are applied to the problems of adaptive sampling of static p...
This paper describes the “SeaweedPaddock” system to profitably grow and harvest open-ocean Sargas... more This paper describes the “SeaweedPaddock” system to profitably grow and harvest open-ocean Sargassum sp. as a sustainable source of macroalgal biomass and biofuel. The US Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) initiated the MacroAlgae Research Inspiring Novel Energy Research (MARINER) program to develop technologies to eventually sustainably harvest macroalgae at 80 per dry metric ton (DMT). The University of Southern Mississippi team is characterizing an unmoored SeaweedPaddock; analyses include tow speed and energy required to avoid hazards, farm design to minimize biomass loss, economical harvesting, and nutrient supply. Initial results indicate that nighttime “smart towing” could allow the SeaweedPaddock system to produce macroalgae at full scale at costs below the ARPA-E goal provided that Sargassum grows at sufficient rates during the day after having been confined all night in a moving fence and that sufficient nutrients are made available. C...
Biological and thermochemical sanitization of source-separated human solid waste (HSW) are effect... more Biological and thermochemical sanitization of source-separated human solid waste (HSW) are effective technologies for unsewered communities. While both methods are capable of fecal pathogen sterilization, the agronomically-beneficial properties of waste sanitized between methods remains unclear. Therefore, this study compared recovery and quality of soil amendments produced by compostation, torrefaction, and pyrolysis of HSW, established their financial value, and quantified tradeoffs between product value and conversion efficiency. Temperature and associated mass losses significantly affected the physical and chemical properties of thermochemically-treated HSW. Thermophilic composting, a biological sanitation method practiced in informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya, produced an amendment that contained between 16 and 858-fold more plant-available nitrogen (N; 214.5 mg N/kg) than HSW pyrolyzed between 300 and 700°C (0.2-15.2 mg N/kg). Conversely, HSW pyrolyzed at 600°C had four-fold higher plant-available phosphorus (P; 3117 mg P/kg) and five-fold higher plant-available potassium (K; 7403 mg K/kg) than composted HSW (716 mg P/kg and 1462 mg K/kg). Wide variation between international fertilizer prices on the low end and regional East African prices on the high end resulted in broadspaced quantiles for the value of agronomic components in HSW amendments. Phosphorus and K comprised a disproportionate amount of the value, 52-87%, compared to plant-available N, which contributed less than 2%. The total value of treated HSW, summed across all agronomic components per unit weight amendment, was greatest for thermochemically-treated HSW at 600°C, averaging 220 USD/Mg, more than four-fold that of composted HSW, 53 USD/Mg. In contrast, torrefaction provided the highest monetary value per unit weight feedstock, 144 USD/Mg, as low heating temperatures engender minimal mass loss and higher nutrient densities per unit weight feedstock, compared to composted or pyrolyzed HSW. When benchmarked against total N, P, and K of eight commonly-applied organic amendments, including sewage-sludge (Milorganite), compost, and alfalfa meal, HSW pyrolyzed at 700°C was of greatest value per unit weight of amendment, 365 USD/Mg, compared to 89 USD/Mg for composted HSW, and contained 2.9% total N (0.5 mg available N/kg), 3.1% total P (7640 mg available P/kg), 3.5% total K (17,671 mg available K/kg).
Special Q&A video: http://youtu.be/NGcd-34La8o Biochar production, processing, sales and rese... more Special Q&A video: http://youtu.be/NGcd-34La8o Biochar production, processing, sales and research using a BiG char rotary hearth kiln: Josiah Hunt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNruR6brsn4 A photographic journey through the Hawaiian Mahogany Inc. Biochar Pilot Program’s operations. From feedstock to farm, with lots of twists and turns in between. The operation involves harvesting biomass trees from the plantation where the facility is located, chipping them, drying them, and charring them. Also included is sharing the heat with the co-located grass drying operation, post-processes of the biochar materials before sale, and marketing efforts including research and education. Extending the Frontiers of High-Moisture Feedstocks for Biochar Reactors: Brian Von Herzen, The Climate Foundation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPDPKuVkiBc The Climate Foundation and Stanford University developed a prototype biochar reactor for high-moisture content materials such as human solid waste (HSW). The reactor architecture is intended to sanitize waste from hundreds of people per day, and to be deployed in developing nations and operate with neither external electric power nor external water supply. A further goal is to produce biochar for use in agriculture. Here we report on a larger reactor that Climate Foundation is developing for field trials in Nairobi, Kenya in early 2014. Reactor construction and operation will be discussed, along with demonstration results. We expect this scaled biochar reactor to produce electricity and process heat as well as biochar. Portable Rotary Kilns for Farmers & Foresters: Ralph Coates, Amaron Energy (presented by Eric Eddings of Amaron Energy) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv-yweB6Suo Amaron Energy has developed a novel biomass pyrolysis technology based on a rotary reactor concept. Many different feedstocks have been tested, and both torrefaction and pyrolysis operating modes are feasible. This mobile unit can process P-J wood at remote locations near where it is harvested, and fits inside a 20 ft. long shipping container mounted on a trailer. Bio-oil yields ranged from47% to 55%, bio-char yields ranged from 25% to 32% and a typical bio-char carbon content was 73%. Amaron is currently working on scaling up to a larger commercial size unit using a 20-inch diameter rotary reactor that will have the capacity to process 10 tons of biomass per day. Harnessing the Power of Biochar for Clean Energy & Healthy Soils: Tom Grissom, International Tech Corp Carbon neutral power generation is a key path forward in the supply of biochar. Pyrolysis, in the proper form, can use waste feed-stocks and convert them into energy. The Thermal Recovery Unit(TRU) is heated by natural gas, biodiesel or other fuels. For every BTU of fuel put into the system, we can get 8 BTUs out, with a feedstock of woody biomass at or below 15% moisture content. If the system is heated by natural gas, we can extend the life of that fossil fuel by 800 percent, making it an ideal conservation technology. The output of the TRU has no particulate and the harmful greenhouse gasses are destroyed by a thermal oxidizer. The TRU can efficiently recover the heat produced from the thermal degradation of the syngas. All of the solids are collected as biochar, a sequestered form of stable carbon. The TRU makes a very nice biochar, usually in the 85% carbon range. Temperature and residence time, in the system, can be controlled by a touch-screen control panel. This continuous pyrolysis system can process between 1000 and 6000 lbs an hour of feed-stock. This will provide biochar producers with a proven, commercially viable option
IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems, 1998
This paper describes an application in high-performance signal processing using reconfigurable co... more This paper describes an application in high-performance signal processing using reconfigurable computing engines: a 250-MHz cross correlator for radio astronomy. Experimental results indicate that complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) field programmable gate arrays (FPGA's) can perform useful computation at 250 MHz. The notion of an "event horizon" for FPGA's leads to clear design constraints for highspeed application developers, and can be applied to a variety of real-time signal processing algorithms. Recent estimates indicate that higher performance FPGA's available early in 1998 can attain speeds of over 300 MHz using 20% fewer logic elements than current designs. The results of this design work provide important clues on how to improve FPGA architectures for signal processing at hundreds of MHz. Direct routing channels between logic elements can significantly increase performance. Routing architectures with four-way symmetry allow for rotations and reflections of subcircuits needed for optimal packing density. Experimental results indicate that clock buffering often limits the top speed of the FPGA. Wave pipelining of clock distribution network may improve FPGA performance. Index Terms-Correlators, event horizon, field programmable gate array, manual partitioning and placement, programmable logic, real-time signal processing.
A digital correlating spectrometer is described for radio astronomy based on a custom GaAs digiti... more A digital correlating spectrometer is described for radio astronomy based on a custom GaAs digitizer and a custom micropipelined CMOS correlator. The digitizer quantizes at 2 gigasamples per second (Gs/s) and 2-b resolution. A GaAs demultiplexer distributes the data into eight parallel streams of 250 Ms/s each. The CMOS correlator operates at 250 Ms/s using 20 mW per correlator lag. The correlator output is processed on a host microcomputer to create a 1-GHz spectrum of the input signal that can be displayed interactively. An 8 X 9-mm chip is being developed in a 2-pm process that contains 320 correlator lags. The design is partitioned into GaAs and CMOS components according to the required throughput at each stage of the system. The fastest signals (2 GHz) are kept on the chip level to minimize delay, crosstalk, system noise, and power consumption. Moderate-speed signals (250 MHz) are driven by GaAs components. CMOS components are used where highspeed outputs are not required. A strong synergy between the correlator architecture and micropipelined CMOS technology improves the performance by an order of magnitude compared to existing designs. Preliminary correlator chips have been built and tested at 250 Ms/s; final chips are under design.
CMOS technology trends are forcing system designers to use multiple processors on a single die to... more CMOS technology trends are forcing system designers to use multiple processors on a single die to meet power performance objectives. Power performance optimization also leads to heterogeneous combinations of processors, DSP units, ASSPs and FPGAs. Both of these trends exacerbate the crisis in software productivity. New tools, languages and implementation techniques must be utilized to ensure achievement of time-to-market objectives for today's system-on-chip designs. Several examples are included to illustrate the problems, issues and opportunities as systems on chips drive towards hundreds of concurrent processes. These issues and their successful resolution are expected to cut across hardware and software boundaries and pervade the electronics industry as the drive for power performance continues over the coming decade
Sustainable Global Resources Of Seaweeds Volume 1, 2022
The global seaweed market is currently valued at USD $11 billion annually and utilizes about 29 m... more The global seaweed market is currently valued at USD $11 billion annually and utilizes about 29 million tonnes of seaweed (dry weight) for a variety of applications (Ferdouse et al., Globefish Res Programme 124:I, 2018). By 2025 the global market is estimated to reach USD $30.2 billion dollars (Bloomberg, Seaweed Cultivation Market worth $30.2 billion by 2025. Retrieved 06/08/2021, 2021, from https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/2020-10-15/seaweed-cultivation-market-worth-30-2-billion-by-2025-exclusive-report-by-marketsandmarkets, 2020). The current Australian seaweed market is valued at US$3 million, which is relatively small, contributing only 0.03% to the global market. However, the Blue Economy CRC and Marine Bioproducts CRC together have resulted in a public/private funding of nearly AUD $600 million over the past 3 years with the aim of expanding towards a billion-dollar seaweed market in Australia within the next decade. Furthermore, a recent CSIRO Data 61 report identified ’Microalgal and Macroalgal Resources’ as an emerging growth sector, specifically in the state of Queensland (Naughtin et al., A New Chapter: Opportunities to seed new industries for Queensland over the coming decade. CSIRO and Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, pp 1–85, 2021). Currently, most of the seaweeds on the Australian market are imported, and this sector has seen a rapid expansion from 2005 to 2017. This growth highlights the increasing demand for seaweed products in Australia and potential for the expansion of domestic producers. International seaweed markets are also expanding rapidly at a rate of 12% and so offer significant export opportunities (IMARC, Seaweed Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2021-2026. Retrieved 06/08/2021, 2021, from https://www.imarcgroup.com/seaweed-market, 2021). Despite the huge domestic biodiversity of seaweeds and their use by First Nations peoples, the commercialisation of native seaweed products has been limited. To date, seaweed cultivation and research has been broadly managed by the Department of Aquaculture and Marine Sciences, and more recently this has expanded to specific organisations (e.g. CSIRO, AgriFutures, ASI) and an increasing number of universities (e.g. the combined marine cooperative research centers (CRCs) have been approved for a total of AUD $580 million development over the next 10 years for marine bioproduct development and the blue economy with a consortium of ~100 industry, government and research partners). These collaborative networks with seaweed production companies provide evidence of a growing interest and demand for seaweed-based products in Australia and internationally. The two major seaweeds cultivated in Australia today comprise Durvillaea potatorum and Undaria pinnatifida. D. potatorum (commonly known as Bull Kelp) is a native brown seaweed species, which is collected primarily on King Island (Tasmania). Sustainable harvesting both generates an income of about AUD $2.63 million annually and helps preserve kelp forest ecosystems, motivating further research and sustainable cultivation. Both species are widely used to produce thickening agents for the food and cosmetics industry. In Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria there are currently a number of promising seaweed-based research projects developing seaweed-based products ranging from 3D bio-printing technology, livestock feed (methane emissions mitigation) and optimisation of seaweed mariculture systems. This chapter reviews current trends and future perspectives of seaweed-based products in the Australian market, highlighting the limitation of import and export restrictions and the importance of expanding investments into research on native strains. A growing domestic Australian seaweed industry not only offers to create regional jobs and reduce the cost of imports but has significant opportunities to become an export industry, extending value chains in the near future.
This thesis develops the theory, algorithms and data structures for adaptive sampling of parametr... more This thesis develops the theory, algorithms and data structures for adaptive sampling of parametric functions, which can represent the shapes and motions of physical objects. For the first time, ensured methods are derived for determining collisions and other interactions for a broad class of parametric functions. A new data structure, called a surface network, is developed for the collision algorithm and for other sampling problems in computer graphics. A surface network organizes a set of parametric samples into a hierarchy. Surface networks are shown to be good for rendering images, for approximating surfaces, and for modeling physical environments. The basic notion of a surface network is generalized to higher-dimensional problems such as collision detection. We may think of a two-dimensional network covering a three-dimensional solid, or an n-dimensional network embedded in a higher-dimensional space. Surface networks are applied to the problems of adaptive sampling of static p...
This paper describes the “SeaweedPaddock” system to profitably grow and harvest open-ocean Sargas... more This paper describes the “SeaweedPaddock” system to profitably grow and harvest open-ocean Sargassum sp. as a sustainable source of macroalgal biomass and biofuel. The US Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) initiated the MacroAlgae Research Inspiring Novel Energy Research (MARINER) program to develop technologies to eventually sustainably harvest macroalgae at 80 per dry metric ton (DMT). The University of Southern Mississippi team is characterizing an unmoored SeaweedPaddock; analyses include tow speed and energy required to avoid hazards, farm design to minimize biomass loss, economical harvesting, and nutrient supply. Initial results indicate that nighttime “smart towing” could allow the SeaweedPaddock system to produce macroalgae at full scale at costs below the ARPA-E goal provided that Sargassum grows at sufficient rates during the day after having been confined all night in a moving fence and that sufficient nutrients are made available. C...
Biological and thermochemical sanitization of source-separated human solid waste (HSW) are effect... more Biological and thermochemical sanitization of source-separated human solid waste (HSW) are effective technologies for unsewered communities. While both methods are capable of fecal pathogen sterilization, the agronomically-beneficial properties of waste sanitized between methods remains unclear. Therefore, this study compared recovery and quality of soil amendments produced by compostation, torrefaction, and pyrolysis of HSW, established their financial value, and quantified tradeoffs between product value and conversion efficiency. Temperature and associated mass losses significantly affected the physical and chemical properties of thermochemically-treated HSW. Thermophilic composting, a biological sanitation method practiced in informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya, produced an amendment that contained between 16 and 858-fold more plant-available nitrogen (N; 214.5 mg N/kg) than HSW pyrolyzed between 300 and 700°C (0.2-15.2 mg N/kg). Conversely, HSW pyrolyzed at 600°C had four-fold higher plant-available phosphorus (P; 3117 mg P/kg) and five-fold higher plant-available potassium (K; 7403 mg K/kg) than composted HSW (716 mg P/kg and 1462 mg K/kg). Wide variation between international fertilizer prices on the low end and regional East African prices on the high end resulted in broadspaced quantiles for the value of agronomic components in HSW amendments. Phosphorus and K comprised a disproportionate amount of the value, 52-87%, compared to plant-available N, which contributed less than 2%. The total value of treated HSW, summed across all agronomic components per unit weight amendment, was greatest for thermochemically-treated HSW at 600°C, averaging 220 USD/Mg, more than four-fold that of composted HSW, 53 USD/Mg. In contrast, torrefaction provided the highest monetary value per unit weight feedstock, 144 USD/Mg, as low heating temperatures engender minimal mass loss and higher nutrient densities per unit weight feedstock, compared to composted or pyrolyzed HSW. When benchmarked against total N, P, and K of eight commonly-applied organic amendments, including sewage-sludge (Milorganite), compost, and alfalfa meal, HSW pyrolyzed at 700°C was of greatest value per unit weight of amendment, 365 USD/Mg, compared to 89 USD/Mg for composted HSW, and contained 2.9% total N (0.5 mg available N/kg), 3.1% total P (7640 mg available P/kg), 3.5% total K (17,671 mg available K/kg).
Special Q&A video: http://youtu.be/NGcd-34La8o Biochar production, processing, sales and rese... more Special Q&A video: http://youtu.be/NGcd-34La8o Biochar production, processing, sales and research using a BiG char rotary hearth kiln: Josiah Hunt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNruR6brsn4 A photographic journey through the Hawaiian Mahogany Inc. Biochar Pilot Program’s operations. From feedstock to farm, with lots of twists and turns in between. The operation involves harvesting biomass trees from the plantation where the facility is located, chipping them, drying them, and charring them. Also included is sharing the heat with the co-located grass drying operation, post-processes of the biochar materials before sale, and marketing efforts including research and education. Extending the Frontiers of High-Moisture Feedstocks for Biochar Reactors: Brian Von Herzen, The Climate Foundation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPDPKuVkiBc The Climate Foundation and Stanford University developed a prototype biochar reactor for high-moisture content materials such as human solid waste (HSW). The reactor architecture is intended to sanitize waste from hundreds of people per day, and to be deployed in developing nations and operate with neither external electric power nor external water supply. A further goal is to produce biochar for use in agriculture. Here we report on a larger reactor that Climate Foundation is developing for field trials in Nairobi, Kenya in early 2014. Reactor construction and operation will be discussed, along with demonstration results. We expect this scaled biochar reactor to produce electricity and process heat as well as biochar. Portable Rotary Kilns for Farmers & Foresters: Ralph Coates, Amaron Energy (presented by Eric Eddings of Amaron Energy) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv-yweB6Suo Amaron Energy has developed a novel biomass pyrolysis technology based on a rotary reactor concept. Many different feedstocks have been tested, and both torrefaction and pyrolysis operating modes are feasible. This mobile unit can process P-J wood at remote locations near where it is harvested, and fits inside a 20 ft. long shipping container mounted on a trailer. Bio-oil yields ranged from47% to 55%, bio-char yields ranged from 25% to 32% and a typical bio-char carbon content was 73%. Amaron is currently working on scaling up to a larger commercial size unit using a 20-inch diameter rotary reactor that will have the capacity to process 10 tons of biomass per day. Harnessing the Power of Biochar for Clean Energy & Healthy Soils: Tom Grissom, International Tech Corp Carbon neutral power generation is a key path forward in the supply of biochar. Pyrolysis, in the proper form, can use waste feed-stocks and convert them into energy. The Thermal Recovery Unit(TRU) is heated by natural gas, biodiesel or other fuels. For every BTU of fuel put into the system, we can get 8 BTUs out, with a feedstock of woody biomass at or below 15% moisture content. If the system is heated by natural gas, we can extend the life of that fossil fuel by 800 percent, making it an ideal conservation technology. The output of the TRU has no particulate and the harmful greenhouse gasses are destroyed by a thermal oxidizer. The TRU can efficiently recover the heat produced from the thermal degradation of the syngas. All of the solids are collected as biochar, a sequestered form of stable carbon. The TRU makes a very nice biochar, usually in the 85% carbon range. Temperature and residence time, in the system, can be controlled by a touch-screen control panel. This continuous pyrolysis system can process between 1000 and 6000 lbs an hour of feed-stock. This will provide biochar producers with a proven, commercially viable option
IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems, 1998
This paper describes an application in high-performance signal processing using reconfigurable co... more This paper describes an application in high-performance signal processing using reconfigurable computing engines: a 250-MHz cross correlator for radio astronomy. Experimental results indicate that complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) field programmable gate arrays (FPGA's) can perform useful computation at 250 MHz. The notion of an "event horizon" for FPGA's leads to clear design constraints for highspeed application developers, and can be applied to a variety of real-time signal processing algorithms. Recent estimates indicate that higher performance FPGA's available early in 1998 can attain speeds of over 300 MHz using 20% fewer logic elements than current designs. The results of this design work provide important clues on how to improve FPGA architectures for signal processing at hundreds of MHz. Direct routing channels between logic elements can significantly increase performance. Routing architectures with four-way symmetry allow for rotations and reflections of subcircuits needed for optimal packing density. Experimental results indicate that clock buffering often limits the top speed of the FPGA. Wave pipelining of clock distribution network may improve FPGA performance. Index Terms-Correlators, event horizon, field programmable gate array, manual partitioning and placement, programmable logic, real-time signal processing.
A digital correlating spectrometer is described for radio astronomy based on a custom GaAs digiti... more A digital correlating spectrometer is described for radio astronomy based on a custom GaAs digitizer and a custom micropipelined CMOS correlator. The digitizer quantizes at 2 gigasamples per second (Gs/s) and 2-b resolution. A GaAs demultiplexer distributes the data into eight parallel streams of 250 Ms/s each. The CMOS correlator operates at 250 Ms/s using 20 mW per correlator lag. The correlator output is processed on a host microcomputer to create a 1-GHz spectrum of the input signal that can be displayed interactively. An 8 X 9-mm chip is being developed in a 2-pm process that contains 320 correlator lags. The design is partitioned into GaAs and CMOS components according to the required throughput at each stage of the system. The fastest signals (2 GHz) are kept on the chip level to minimize delay, crosstalk, system noise, and power consumption. Moderate-speed signals (250 MHz) are driven by GaAs components. CMOS components are used where highspeed outputs are not required. A strong synergy between the correlator architecture and micropipelined CMOS technology improves the performance by an order of magnitude compared to existing designs. Preliminary correlator chips have been built and tested at 250 Ms/s; final chips are under design.
CMOS technology trends are forcing system designers to use multiple processors on a single die to... more CMOS technology trends are forcing system designers to use multiple processors on a single die to meet power performance objectives. Power performance optimization also leads to heterogeneous combinations of processors, DSP units, ASSPs and FPGAs. Both of these trends exacerbate the crisis in software productivity. New tools, languages and implementation techniques must be utilized to ensure achievement of time-to-market objectives for today's system-on-chip designs. Several examples are included to illustrate the problems, issues and opportunities as systems on chips drive towards hundreds of concurrent processes. These issues and their successful resolution are expected to cut across hardware and software boundaries and pervade the electronics industry as the drive for power performance continues over the coming decade
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Papers by Brian Herzen