Chip Takes a New Reconfigurability Approach
A US company has developed a chip that takes a novel approach to reconfigurability. The as-yet-unnamed chip by ChaoLogix uses a single set of circuits that take advantage of semiconductor performance changes at low voltages to alter their own capabilities quickly and repeatedly.
The circuits could thus provide almost all types of functionality. Users could work with the technology to transform a chip, for example, from one that could be used in a graphics card to one that could function as a memory chip.
The new chips could be used in cell phones or video boards and to enhance existing chipsets, said William Ditto, ChaoLogix's chief technology officer and chair of the Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Florida, where the original research took place.
ChaoLogix has created a technique that, when a logic-gate circuit is in an irregular state at low voltage and a threshold input voltage is applied, can reliably, quickly, and repeatedly reconfigure the circuitry into almost any type of gate. Generally, a chip circuit behaves like a specific type of digital logic gate. But if the input voltage falls below certain levels, the circuit's behavior becomes irregular, switching unpredictably between multiple periodic behaviors.
Engineers typically view these behaviors as uncontrollable, but this is not the case, according to Ditto. Most engineers just don't know how to control them, he explained.
ChaoLogix created a logic gate circuit of up to 30 transistors that, when it is in an irregular state and a threshold input voltage is applied, reliably reconfigures into almost any type of logic gate. The company determined how to use input voltage to control the reconfiguration, Ditto explained.
Users can place various circuitry modules together—yielding larger logic blocks—to create higher-level functions such as matrix operations.
ChaoLogix plans to deliver a set of predefined driver libraries that can function as templates for reconfiguring chip circuits. The driver controls the type of reconfiguration that takes place.
ChaoLogix's technology could reduce overall processor production times and costs by eliminating the need to make expensive, custom-built chips for each type of functionality.
The new chip has advantages over other types of reconfigurable chips. For example, field-programmable gate arrays contain programmable interconnects that can be rewired to perform different functions.
However, FPGAs require a lot of circuitry and thus are large, which is unsuitable for some uses. And because the reconfiguration process is complex, it is also slow. Users thus tend to reconfigure FPGAs only once. Moreover, FPGAs would not be able to reconfigure quickly enough for many purposes.
Many companies are trying and have unsuccessfully attempted to come up with dynamically reconfigurable chips, said analyst Will Strauss with Forward Concepts, a market research firm.
He acknowledged that ChaoLogix's attempt to accomplish this below the gate level is unique but said the company faces challenges to developing a technology with commercial potential. He said a particular issue will be making the chip so that the bulk of potential users—not just those with technical expertise—can program it for functionality and reconfigurability.
He suggested the new chip might be best used in software-defined radios, devices able to play content using multiple video codecs, and hardware that can dynamically route around failing elements.
ChaoLogix expects to have chips ready for commercial release in 18 to 36 months.
W-Direct Promises Improved Wireless Communications
A UK company has developed a fast, cost-efficient, decentralized wireless technology that could be used for roadside, vehicle-to-vehicle, on-campus, and even emergency-related information access.
LastMile Communications' W-Direct technology uses a system of multiple self-contained nodes, each including its own high-speed communications capabilities, and data for access by users. The data could include information about local stores, services, and tourist attractions, as well as blueprints for buildings and other information for emergency personnel.
Nodes could be located anywhere accessible to W-Direct-equipped passersby, such as within lampposts, thereby eliminating the need to build an expensive infrastructure.
Each node offers a cache memory of 2 to 8 Gbytes. Users can request and obtain information directly from a local node, which, if necessary, can get information directly from another node. Therefore, participants don't have to make every request to a central server. The systems could thus function even if a node fails somewhere. And the same information doesn't have to be stored in every node.
A centralized content-management server collects information from content providers for selected nodes, publishes information, formats material for different devices, and pushes content to the nodes. A local managing server monitors and manages nearby nodes and handles functions such as customer billing.
W-Direct uses IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) radio technology—offering maximum data rates of 54 Mbits per second and communication ranges of 30 meters indoors and 100 meters outdoors—for communications with users.
Between nodes, the system uses a proprietary technology that offers data rates of 40 Mbytes per second.
Users access information in W-Direct systems by downloading a free browser that connects the Wi-Fi radio in their handheld device to the radios in nodes.
By relying largely on node-to-node communications and thereby minimizing backhaul connections, W-Direct reduces potential latency problems, according to Charlie Nahabedian, LastMile's vice president of corporate development.
Moreover, W-Direct provides a way for carriers to generate revenue—such as by selling advertising or other promotional information that would appear with the information in nodes—to offset the technology's deployment costs, Nahabedian said.
The UK's University of Abertay will host early W-Direct trials.
Geoffrey Lund, leader of the school's Software Applications Division, said the university is interested in part in evaluating the effectiveness of using the technology to deploy teaching materials to nodes. Officials want to determine whether this and other uses of the system will improve the learning environment, he explained.
W-Direct will be ready for full commercial service by late 2006 or early 2007, according to Nahabedian.
Using a Cell Phone as a Game Controller
New Zealand researchers have developed a technology that turns cell phones running the Symbian operating system into motion-detection game controllers, much like those in Nintendo's new Wii game console.
Developed by the Human Interface Technology Laboratory New Zealand (www.hitlabnz.org/route.php?r=home) at the University of Canterbury, the technology pairs computer vision tracking with overlay graphics, said lab director Mark Billinghurst.
It currently works with AR Tennis, a game that HIT Lab NZ also developed.
A game begins with a player serving a virtual ball by hitting any key on a phone's keypad. Players then swing their handsets to hit the ball across a net. Players know they've hit the ball when they hear a sound and their phone vibrates. The game also has a single-user mode in which players can hit a ball against a virtual wall.
A new technology allows participants to use their mobile phones as game controllers, in this case, to play a specially designed game of video tennis. Source: HIT Lab NZ Standard Symbian-based cell phones—a substantial part of the mobile handsets on the market—need only the HIT Lab NZ software and a camera to become game controllers. This is unlike other augmented-reality systems, which require head-mounted displays and additional expensive hardware.
The HIT Lab NZ software uses a grid to determine the phone's position in space based on information about the device's movements relayed by the camera. The software then superimposes a virtual tennis ball on the court that is displayed on the phone's screen.
Bluetooth short-range wireless technology sends information about serves and volleys between players' phones, according to Billinghurst.
He said tennis is not the best game for the software because the cameras on the phones are too slow. The HIT Lab NZ research team is identifying other games and activities well suited to its technology for use on both current mobile phones, which have relatively slow graphics and limited processing power, and next-generation handsets, which will have more processing power, high-resolution cameras and screens, and 3D graphics chips.
Games based on motion-detection technology are promising, said Pamela Clark-Dickson, an analyst at Market Clarity, a telecommunications consultancy. However, she expressed skepticism about the HIT Lab NZ technology's future because mobile-phone-based motion detection is not as precise as traditional game controllers.
Also, she said, the technology's future will be limited by the number of phones that will have motion-detection technology as a standard feature. Game developers will want to see this before they spend the time and money necessary to develop games that work with mobile phones' limited resources, she stated.
HIT Lab NZ says it expects to finalize a commercial distribution deal for its technology later this year.
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