Image signal processors (ISPs) are specialized circuits in cameras that help rapidly process image data. ISPs provide white balance, geometric correction and other functions that make an image suitabl...
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Energy efficiency is important in mobile electronics such as smart phones and tablets because of their size and reliance on battery power. At the same time, these kinds of devices must perform increas...
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In computer memory there is a tradeoff between capacity (how much data can be stored) and latency (how quickly it can be accessed). To achieve a balance, typical memory systems employ a hierarchy of d...
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Given the ever increasing amount of “big data” available, new analysis and processing tools are needed to fully leverage it. Big data is challenging to manage, requiring sophisticated mechanisms a...
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Computer programs access memory using virtual addresses, which are translated by hardware into unique physical addresses that locate the data in the cache or memory. The set of virtual addresses acces...
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High-performance computers may employ two processor systems having very different architectures, such as a CPU (computer processing unit) and a GPU (graphic processing unit). The ability of a GPU to h...
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The lignin in corn stalks makes it difficult to process for biomass and harder for animals to digest. Levels are especially high in the tough outer ‘rind’ and vascular bundles of the stem. For th...
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Most biological processes involve multiple proteins interacting with each other. While the principles governing protein-protein interactions are not fully understood, it is known that a small subset o...
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High frequency (HF), very high frequency (VHF) and ultrahigh frequency (UHF) bands have long been used for many different communication systems, particularly in military applications. Standard monopol...
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In a multicore processor, the different cores share a common clock timing and operate at a synchronized frequency. Such processors are fast because their cores can work in parallel to execute differen...
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As circuit density increases, power efficiency has become a design priority for high-performance and low-power processors. Better energy efficiency means faster speeds and longer battery life. One te...
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In the field of quantum computing, the performance of quantum bits (‘qubits’) has advanced rapidly in recent years. A truly scalable system requires the ability to rapidly and accurately m...
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Some extremely complex tasks – like sorting very large databases or factoring large numbers – are challenging for classical computers. Quantum computers can solve such problems because they use qu...
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Hardware accelerators improve computer performance by allowing the main processor to off-load certain tasks, for example, processing floating-point or graphics calculations. The accelerator is designe...
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It is widely accepted that future processor technology will suffer from some degree of failure due to core aging. This failure leads to device faults. Anticipating faults before they occur can help th...
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Energy consumption is a major constraint in computer design because of factors like power costs, operating life and heat. The tradeoff between energy consumption and performance is managed to some deg...
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Quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) are semiconductor lasers that provide light in the mid- and far-infrared wavelength ranges. They are designed so that the generated light is transverse-magnetic (TM) pola...
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In recent years, statistical imaging reconstruction has been introduced in clinics by different computed tomography (CT) manufacturers as a means to reduce radiation dose levels. Essentially, the meth...
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A branch predictor is a digital circuit that attempts to direct traffic in an instruction stream. Branching is usually implemented with a conditional jump instruction, and branches may be ‘taken’ ...
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A traveling wave tube (TWT) is a vacuum electronic device that acts as a microwave amplifier capable of providing high gain and high output power. TWTs are used in many wireless devices like radar sys...
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Logic gates are the building blocks of integrated circuits. They use multiple transistors to receive and interpret voltage inputs, then provide outputs. Future generations of integrated circuit micr...
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Cell phones, radar and other wireless communication systems use high power solid-state amplifiers to boost and transmit signals. These amplifiers function in the radiofrequency (RF) and microwave rang...
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In a computer, an input-output memory management unit (IOMMU) may be positioned between the physical memory and I/O devices such as disk drives. The IOMMU provides the I/O devices with virtual address...
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Computer processors typically include a number of central processing unit (CPU) cores for executing instructions. Each core is capable of reading and executing a sequence of instruction code, or ‘th...
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Executing different portions of a program in parallel on different processors is known as parallelism. While this can boost how fast a program is executed, increased parallelism is not always benefici...
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