Praveen Vishakantaiah

friends..check out this link..its about 6 core x86..micro processor
http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=334886&chkFlg=

regards
Rajesh

Hands-on Computing: How Multi-Touch Screens Could Change the Way We Interact with Computers and Each Other

Article by Stuart F. Brown in Scientific American.

Reviewed by Vamshidar Reddy Rajannagari.

Technology has made our life easier. Computers which were in the size of a room are now available as digital watches. Computers’ processing speeds have multiplied. The way we interface with the computers is also changing. The Mouse has made the interfacing in graphical mode possible where keyboard was not so comfortable to use. Then we moved into another generation, where both of those interfacing devices are being replaced by touch screens. The article describes the multi-touch screens; an advancement in the touch screen technology. Also the article describes the technical aspects behind the working of multi-touch screens. Finally, it speaks about the applicability of multi-touch screens in the near future.

Touch screens are two-way interfacing screens. The screen acts like an output device as well as an input device. The inputs are given by touching the icons on the screen with finger tips. Multi-touch screen are the advancement into the touch screen technology. In the Multi-touch screens the randomly moving finger can be sensed where it’s not possible in the normal touch screens, as stated by Jeff Han in Scientific American. The function is similar to the Apples’ iPhone in which the images can be zoomed in or out by moving the two fingers away and closer respectively. The technology behind the multi-touch screens is discussed in detail later in this article.

Advancing much more into the multi-touch technology the article describes about the screens that respond to multiple finger inputs at the same time. It also describes how multiple users can use the same screen at the same time without interfering with each other.

The power-houses in the technology have also entered into the business of the touch-screens. Microsoft and Mitsubishi are about to release their products with embedded multi-touch screens in their products. The article describes the Microsoft’s Surface computers and the Mitsubishi’s Diamond Touch table. Microsoft is to design smaller computers very soon in the future, which are multi-touch and they called the screen to be used as ‘Surface’. So they are looking ahead to name those computers as ‘Surface Computers’. According to them, the surface computers will be powered with Windows Vista. Mitsubishi’s Diamond Touch table can be used for business meetings or conferences. According to Mitsubishi, the table itself acts as a multi-touch screen with a computer backing it up.

Extreme engineering is done to achieve the multi-touch screens. According to Han, it is necessary to achieve the sensing of finger tips with fine resolution for the touch screens. In order to achieve the sensing of a randomly moving finger he used an acrylic sheet. The acrylic sheets work as the capacitors. These sheets have eliminated the intense wiring under the screen. The light travels through the sheet similar to that it travels in optical fiber- Total internal Reflection (TIR). When the input is made using the finger the light reflects off the sheet where the finger is touched. So, this way the position is tracked using the cameras.

The multi-touch screen can be made more interactive. It can be made to sense the variation in pressure that is being applied. According to Han, instead of coding the complex software, he wants to develop the hardware for it. The pressure sensing polymer has been designed for this. The polymer flexes when a pressure is applied, which is sensed by the reflecting light. The amount of pressure is recognized with the reflected light’s intensity. According to the pressure that is applied the sensor can be made to select whether it needs to just select the folder or display the contents of the folder in the computer. This way we can increase the controls on the screen with just the touch of the fingers.

I believe that in the near future the multi-touch screens will replace the mouse and the keyboard. The architects and the painters will be happy with the technology. They can just design or paint on the computer screen as they do on a paper; but with more controls and using better interactive software. This way they could present their imagination easily. There might be a change in the communication between the people. I think they can use the touch screen establish the conferences in much interactive way where people involve a lot more than before. I also think that there might be a revolution in the Gaming industry. With the multi-touch screens that are providing more controls utilizing all the ten fingers at a time, the games will be more advanced and interesting and surely gaming people will like it. According to me the touch screens will hold a position in the future.

Though the touch-screens are revolutionary, there are certain problems associated with them. The screens are very sensitive devices. So, I think they need much more maintenance. The concept of Total-Internal-Reflection is used; so the optical design should be very accurate. A small deflection of light rays from the expected path can lead to errors.

This article describes the multi-touch screens, which is the state-of-the-art. The designers and researchers are required to maintain the rights by taking the patents for the designs of multi-touch screens. The design architecture of the acrylic sheet and the implementation of hardware should be registered. The only way to use the property is by licensing and the designer must be paid according to the contract. This way the designer will be credited for his intensive work behind the technology.

RAM for FREE ..article review..

RAM FOR FREE…

Lei Yang, Robert P. Dick, Haris Lekatsas, and Srimat Chandrakar

Reviewed By Rajesh

Memory, often the Random access memory (RAM), forms one of the major components of the computer. It, to an extent, defines the performance of the computer. In the early seventies, computers used a RAM which had a capacity which was a ten thousandth of what we use today. The technology is zooming in a lane without an impasse. Advancements in VLSI have led to the miniaturization of electronic circuits. We use computers in every nook and corner of our daily activities, for instance mobile phones, PDAs, microwave ovens and also elevators. The main point of focus made in the given article “RAM for Free” by Lei Yang, Robert P. Dick, Haris Lekatsas, and Srimat Chandrakar is on the re-usability of the RAM by using algorithms for compressing data and vice-versa.

With the advent of fabrication technology, we have devices whose sizes are of the order of micro-meters or even nanometre. The drastic fall in the costs of memory devices haven’t been of great help in the overall cost reduction of a machine .This is mainly due to tremendous increase in the demand for faster memory by the newer software. In this article, a possible solution is provided. Data compression concept has been the author’s core idea. Different algorithms, problems, solution and finally its application are discussed.

The major parameters considered in the design of the embedded system were taken to be power consumption and response time. RAM is fast, has relatively a fractional response time when compared to the secondary memory. The author in this article mainly deals with a method that enhances the memory utilization by using the Lempel-Ziv-Oberhumer algorithm (LZO). The algorithm selection was the initial step, then a method had to be devised for decompressing the compressed data in the memory.

The author found success in the above mentioned compression technique when it was implemented over a PDA’s Linux operating system. Here the data was compressed and stored on RAM itself. By doing so, a fraction of the RAM was only used up. This saved a lot of memory and remaining portion could be effectively utilized for other software allocation. The authors came up with another algorithm which was intended to improve the speed and increase the degree of compression. This algorithm was similar to the one invented by Jon Louis Bentley of Bell labs.

The modified algorithm used a technique similar to Morse code, i.e; it used shorter codes for frequently occurring code and longer ones for infrequent ones. To identify the patterns for different codes a dictionary was built dynamically. This was updated with changes in the more frequently occurring patterns. The compressed data was the main source for the dictionary. Though the algorithm didn’t beat out other algorithms ,as it couldn’t compress certain files like imaging files, it could still compress data up to 60%, and the operational speed wasn’t affected much. Hence an embedded system could save up half its memory or in other words we have simply added an additional RAM without practically adding one for free.

In January 2007, the author mentions that they had applied for patent and named their technique as CRAMES, short for Compressed RAM for Embedded System. CRAMES faced a few initial hiccups in identifying the compressed data’s source, but the authors together solved it by keeping a record of the compressed data and application to which it belonged. CRAMES was tested on a mobile phone board. It worked well even after data compression.

Initially the authors had the idea of implementing their idea (CRAMES) only on embedded systems, but work was also done to implement CRAMES on general purpose computers. As today we see that computers are designed with more than a processor at cost of lesser cache sizes. So CRAMES could be a possible solution for this problem. The use of CRAM concept would not only enhance memory usage but also reduce the expense of adding an additional RAM.

In my opinion, this concept would drastically impact the ongoing technological advancements in a positive nature. I appreciate the concept of data compression which has led to economical use of memory. The first major advantage is the cost reduction. Secondly, we are able to store more data especially in smaller devices like PDA, mobile phones, MP3 players...Etc. Lastly, credit should be given to the contributors who had devised algorithms like LZO and the pattern matching algorithms designed at BELL labs, as these algorithms were the stepping stones for CRAMES.

PS: This is the first article I've ever reviewed.

source: http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/aug08/6479

How to start it all!!!

Hi there,
Many must be thinking what basic knowledge do we need to start up with VLSI??
well... The basics are always required to be pretty strong..as VLSI is an advanced topic in electroncis..
One needs to go through the following subjects before they can try out VLSI
1. DIGITAL DESIGN (the abc of logic levels, logic design and others stuffs about logical operations)
2. Electronic devices ( pn diodes, BJT, FET, and mosfets.)
This should be sufficient to a great extent..

Introduciton

Friends,
This is a blog for all the newcomers in the field of VLSI/ MICROELECTRONICS.(oh my god .. i forgot to mention the experts too..their suggestions and solutions would be of great help to all of us)
I felt we need a place where we could share our ideas, doubts etc..which may be even meaningless..so that we could learn something from others too.. As I am also new to this field..
I am at present doing my master in VLSI at New mexico state university..
Hope this would help many other rookies like me...
regards.
Rajesh