CHAIRMAN.S MESSAGE

-P. Suresh Chander Pal (suresh372001@yahoo.co.in)

Greetings to you. It is heartening to hear from members, their appreciation of the informative monthly technical lectures by eminent speakers, organized by IEEE Madras section and the reactivation / inauguration of student branches, by the section chair, at various Engineering Colleges in Tamil Nadu. The Communication of our section activities, along with technical articles, thus our monthly Newsletter, .IEEE . MAS Link., has been most welcome, by our members. We are having our sections functional website and this is being updated.

As you are aware, our section has the largest no of IEEE student branches in the world and I am delighted at the enthusiasm, shown by our student . members, to participate in the various activities, including the paper contests. The prestigious M.V. Chauhan Paper contest, between Dec. 20th to 22nd at the IIT, Kharagpur has been announced and I wish participation by the IEEE student members, in our section in large nos.

Our section has registered several impressive strides, during this year, in the areas of its functioning, particularly in providing services to its H.G. & Student members.

I look forward to receiving the continued co operation guidance and support from our members, for achieving pervasive excellence, in our tasks, in the areas of membership Development, advancement, increased societal & technical activities and enhancement of image of our transnational organization.

IEEE MADRAS SECTION:

STUDENT BRANCH ACTIVITIES

1. There was an impressive .IEEE Student Branch Meet., held at the Institute of Road and Transport Technology at Erode, on 30th Aug. 2004 Dr. R. Vadivel, Principal presided over the function Dr. B. Viswanathan, Vice Principal and Branch Counselor, welcomed the gathering. Mr. P. Suresh Chander Pal IEEE Madras Section Chair was the chief Guest. The following Colleges also participated

2. Bannari Amman Institute of Technology, Sathyamangalam. 2. R.R. Engg. College, Thiruchengodu 3. Erode Sengunthar Engg College, Perundurai and 6. Sona College of Technology, Salem.

3. In his key note address, the section chair explained the mission of IEEE & its benefits, IEEE Gold affinity group, participation in contests, publishing papers etc. There was a lively interactive session, in which the participating colleges clarified their doubts. Mr. P. Guru Vinayak, Student Branch chair and his team, M/s. R. Chandrasekhar, R. Ramanan, Esaksiya, Aishwarya Nandakumar, Chaneetha, and Dayanand were complimented and they promised to increase the student membership and activities.

4.Mr. P. Suresh Chander Pal, Section chair, inaugurated the IEEE student Branch at the National Engineering College at Kovilpatti on 3rd Sept.04 Mr. K.R. Arunachalam, Member, National Educaitonal & Charitable Trust, Presided over the function and Dr. Kn K.S.K. Chockalingam, Principal and Prof. V. Vijarangan, student Branch counselor, spoke on the activities. The following are the Branch officers 1. S. Rama Devi, Chairman 2. Swarnageetha, V.C. 3. Poornima, Secy 4. A. Senthil Kumar. Jt. Secy 5. Rajasekhar, Treasurer Sixteen neighboring engineering colleges were invited and 1. RVS College of Engg & Tech, Dindigul 2. Dr. Sivanthi Adithanar COE, Thiruchengode 3. Francies Xavier Engg College, Tirunelveli 4. PSR Engg College, Sevalpattu 5. S. Veerachamy Chettiar COE & T, Puliangudi 6. Makaraj COE & T Virudhunagar 7. R.R. Engg College, Thiruchengodu 8. Sengunthar Engg. College, Thiruchengodu, responded 3. To 8. Promised to start new S.Bs at their College.

5.The Inaugural function of IEEE student Branch of B.S. Abdur Rahuman crescent Engg. College at Vandalur, Chennai . 48, was held on 6th Sep 2004 and the section chair, Mr. P. Suresh Chander Pal inaugurated and delivered the Keynote address. Over 300 students participated Earlier, Dr. T. Thiagarajan, Dean (Academic) welcomed the gathering and Dr. K.P. Mohammed, Principal, delivered the presidential address. Ass. Prof. Mr. R. Raja Prabhu, is the Br. Counselor and mr. A. Imran Ashraf is the Br Chairman, Spoke on the student activities Mr. L.R. Prasanna Venkatesh, Br. Secy, Proposed vote of thanks. There was good courage in English & Tamil dailies.

6.IEEE Student Branch of MNM Jain Engg. College at Jyothi Nagar, Thorappakkam, Chennai . 96, was inaugurated by the section chair, Mr. P. Suresh Chander Pal, Jun 16th Sept.04, in the presence of Prof. A. Stephen Arputharaj, Student Branch Counselor and Mr. C.R. Sasi, Sr. Member and past IEEE Madras Section Chairman Br. Chairman, Mr. Abishek Ranka explained the activities and promised to increase the membership strength. Dr. J. Pattbhiraman Vice-Principal assured support to the Branch from Management side.

7.Section Chair, Mr. P. Suresh Chander Pal, delivered a special address, on the inauguration of the one day .TECH . FEST ACCENDO 2004. organized by the IEEE student Branch of Velammal Engineering College at Velammal Nagar in Ambattur . Redhills Road, Chennai . 66, on 17th Sept.04 Quiz, Circuit debugging, dumb . charades, Cross. word, Just a Minute etc., were the event and there was enthusiastive participation by the IEEE student members and the students of the invited colleges professor Mrs. Sheela c. Haran HOD, EEE & student Branch Counselor, spoke on the IEEE student Branch activities and Dr. C.N. Reddy, Director and Dr. C. Rathinasabapathy, Principal promised support and encouragement professor C. Venkataseshiah, HOD EEE IIT, Madras inaugurated the events.

8.The IEEE student Branch meet, on 24th Sept .04, covered by Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai with the invitation to 15 neighboring Engg Colleges, was largely attended Dr. V. Abhai Kumar, Principal and Mr. S.J. Thiruvengadam, Br. Counselor spoke on the student activities and the section chair, Mr. P. Suresh Chander Pal, explained the IEEE student membership benefits and complimented Mr. Balaji Viswanathan who graduated in 2003 . 04 secured the first prize in M.V. Chauhan Paper Contest 2003.

9.Section Chair, Mr. P. Suresh Chander Pal, inaugurated the IEEE student Branch at Dr. Sivanthi Aditanar College of Engg at Thiruchendur, on 27th Sept.04. They had also invited near by 19 Engg College, for the .IEEE Student Branch Meet.. Utilizing the opportunity, the benefit of other Colleges. Mr. I. Uthira Pandian, Secretary & Dr. S. Arumugham, Principal, Spoke on the management support and encouragement and the student Branch counselor, Mr. Rajesh Kumar and the office bearers 1. A. Amutha Ganga Br., Chair 2. S. Arul Manohar, Vice . Chair 3. D. Dashwanth Roy, Secretary 4. P. Sudha, Treasurer, with the execom members, Bessie Dooga, Viashnu Varadan, Preethi Saravanan, Vignesh

(P.R. and Publication) and Indumathy, Members development, were all very enthusiastic about enlarging the student activities and increasing the membership.

OTHER ACTIVITES: (I) 37th Engineers. Day in commemoration of the 144th Birth Anniversary of Bharat Ratna Sir. M. Visveswaraya, was celebrated on 15th Sept.04 at GRT Grand Hotel by Institution of Engineers (India), Tamil Nadu State Centre and our IEEE Madras Section, was honored on that day, as we were the co-sponsors Dr. S. Balaji, Director, Dept of Environment, GOTN, Er. K. Sanjeevi, Member Secretary, TNPCB and Dr. K.C.G. Vergese, Chairman Hindustan Group of Institutions, Chennai and others spoke on that day.

IEEE Madras Section Chair, Mr. P. Suresh Chander Pal, was the Chief Guest, at the one day Seminar on .Latest Irend in Energy Conservation., held on 25th Sept.04 at Jai Garden Retreat, at Pasumalai, near Madurai, which was organized by Rowsons Marketing Private Ltd and co-sponsored by IEEE Power Engg Society, Madras Chapter and others. The Technical Papers or Energy Efficient Transformers, Design of lightning Mast Towers and Energy saving luminaries, Energy conservation, through Solar energy and Voltage stability thro. Servo Voltage Controller by eminent speakers along with .face to face. programme with the manufactures and interactive session, were all, very interesting and informative. The video presentation on .Environment Technology. by Dr. G.V. Rao, Chairman, IEEE . Power Engg. Society, Madras Chapter, was excellent and it was well appreciated by over 350 participants.

FROM THE EDITOR.S DESK

-Rajeev Ganesh (Rajeev_Ganesh@ieee.org)

This time I.d like to start by saying that the evolution of this newsletter seems to be following the pattern of the .Big Bang.. So many articles; so little space. So this time too we are going to dedicate most of the space to the articles coming to us from various sources. I am quite proud to say that one of these sources is an embedded systems professional who still wants to contribute to the IEEE. That would be from Notebook PCs to the next generation of the Internet in Tech Buzz. If that weren.t enough; the pending articles that I promised to publish carry a lot of weight & innovation too. And after a long time we are publishing an article on EEE titled .Power harmonics. which will take the place of the Featured article of the month. So, once again keep sending in those wonderful articles to IEEE_news@yahoo.com & CC them to me. If you.ve not seen your article in this issue; don.t worry its still in the pipeline to be published soon (the earlier you send, the better are your chances). Another important thing that.ll continue featuring in this issue as much as it did in the previous ones will be articles related to various IEEE activities all around this region accompanied by wonderful photos (I am sorry to say we had to strike a compromise on the no. due to lack of space). Last but not least, don.t forget to participate in all the student paper contests. Wish U all the best & my advanced greetings to all of you for the upcoming bright festivals.

-So let the Saga of the Link Continue-

POWER QUALITY AND HARMONICS

-K.P.Lakshmipriya, Dept. of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Velammal Engineering College

1. Utility generated disturbances like

• Transformers
• Protective Apparatus
• Corrective Apparatus

2. Building and facility like

• Grounding mistakes.
• Wiring errors and electrical code violations
• Nonlinear loads
• Improper System design and equipment sensitivity due to utility operation
• Interference from other devices or loads

To alleviate the problems that power line disturbances create and to improve the performance of sensitive equipment, there is a wide variety of protective devices available from several manufacturers. Each of theses devices has a different problem- solving function and can be used in a variety of applications. Proper application of power conditioning equipment is required to achieve the desired improvements in power quality. To avoid adverse interactions, the power conditioner must be compatible with both the load and the power source.

Some of the Power Conditioning Equipments are:

• Transient Voltage Surge Suppressors (TVSS)
• Shielded Isolation Transformers
• Voltage Regulators
• Power Line Filters Power Line Conditioners
• Standby Power Source (SPS)
• Motor Generator Sets(MG sets)
• Uninterruptible Power supply(UPS)

Power Quality basically means Customer's Satisfaction and the Power Providers are expected to provide a good quality power to the Customers.

IEEE CODE OF ETHICS

We, the members of the IEEE, in recognition of the importance of our technologies in affecting the quality of life throughout the world, and in accepting a personal obligation to our profession, its members and the communities we serve, do hereby commit ourselves to the highest ethical and professional conduct and agree:

• To accept responsibility in making engineering decisions consistent with the safety, health and welfare of the public, and to disclose promptly factors that might endanger the public or the environment;
• To avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest whenever possible, and to disclose them to affected parties when they do exist;
• To be honest and realistic in stating claims or estimates based on available data;
• To reject bribery in all its forms;
• To improve the understanding of technology, its appropriate application, and potential consequences;
• To maintain and improve our technical competence and to undertake technological tasks for others only if qualified by training or experience, or after full disclosure of pertinent limitations;
• To seek, accept, and offer honest criticism of technical work, to acknowledge and correct errors, and to credit properly the
  contributions of others;
• To treat fairly all persons regardless of such factors as race, religion, gender, disability, age, or national origin;
• To avoid injuring others, their property, reputation, or employment by false or malicious action;
• To assist colleagues and co-workers in their professional development and to support them in following this code of ethics.
  Approved by the IEEE Board of Directors
  August 1990

IEEE CONFERENCES COMING UP THIS MONTH:

-Sreekar Gollapalle (scorp.reddy@ieee.org)

Here is a reminder of some of the IEEE conferences coming up this month:

1. 2004 IEEE INFORMATION THEORY WORKSHOP
   Date: October 24-29, 2004
   Location: San Antonio Marriott Riverwalk Hotel, San Antonio, Texas.
2. 9th International Workshop on Web Caching and Content Distribution
   Date: 18 - 20 October 2004
   Location: Wuhan, China.
3. International conference on Performance, Quality of Service and Control of Next-Generation Communication Networks
   Date: 25 - 28 October 2004
   Location: Philadelphia, PA, USA.
4. Seventh Annual IEEE International Workshop on Workload Characterization
   Date: 25 October 2004
   Location: Austin, TX, USA.
5. Sixth International Conference on Information and Communications Security
   Date: October 27-29
   Location: Malaga, Spain.

HOW EMBEDDED APPLICATIONS USING AN RTOS CAN STAY WITHIN ON-CHIP MEMORY LIMITS

-R.Ramanan (ramanan_ravi@ieee.org)

The major requirement from manufacturers designing embedded systems for high-volume products is to keep production costs as low as possible. The most cost effective solution is to use small single chip microcontrollers / DSPs. Developers of software for resource constrained systems are increasingly in a difficult position: they have to write complex programs that must fit into very low cost microcontrollers and yet end product quality must not suffer. This leads to a desire to use a real-time operating system (RTOS), yet remain within on-chip memory limits (typically 512bytes to 4K RAM). This is not possible with many conventional RTOS, which allocate a separate stack for each task.

We ask the question .why don.t they use a single stack?. and explain the key elements of an execution model required for single stack operation. The novel concept of non-preemption groups is introduced and shown to enable significant reductions in stack size. An effective priority allocation algorithm is essential to realize the advantages of non preemption groups. The results of applying such an algorithm show that the number of preemption levels required to maintain schedulability is strongly correlated with the spread of deadlines and for typical systems is relatively small. With all tasks (and interrupt handlers) executing on a single stack, there is scope to reduce the amount of RAM required for the stack by a large factor. This can be achieved by limiting which tasks can preempt each other. Control of preemption can be achieved with no additional run-time overheads via the use of Non- Preemption Groups. Non- Preemption Group is simply a collection of tasks that are not permitted to preempt each other. To support Non-Preemption Groups, each task has two static priorities:

1. Base priority
2. Dispatch priority

A task.s base priority is the priority at which a ready task (which has not yet started to execute) competes for the processor.The dispatch priority of a task A is the highest base.

Priority of any task that shares a Non-preemption Group with task A. At run-time, when a task first starts to execute, the current active priority is set to its dispatch priority. This means that the task can only be preempted by tasks with a higher base priority than its dispatch priority. This means it cannot be preempted by any task with which it .shares. Non-Preemption Group. In fact, Non-Preemption Groups are just like the Immediate Priority Ceiling Protocol. When a task first starts to execute, it is as if it had locked a resource shared with all other tasks in the same Non-Preemption Group. Therefore, it is guaranteed not to be preempted by any of them. It should be noted that the base and dispatch priority mechanism is more efficient than using resource locks to avoid preemption. It also avoids providing a window of opportunity for preemption to take place just prior to the task starting execution - leading to more nested contexts.

We conclude that a priority allocation algorithm combined with the non-preemption group mechanism reduces stack requirements by a significant factor. This enables efficient operation using an RTOS, whilst remaining within on-chip memory limits.

INTEL ADDED ITS FLEET OF MOBILE PENTIUM 4 PROCESSORS FOR NO TEBOOK PCS .

-A.Rajasekaran (rajasekaran@ieee.org)

The chipmaker launched four new versions of the mobile processor, all of which include hyper threading, a feature that aids PCs in performing multiple simultaneous tasks.

Intel introduced a 3.2GHz mobile Pentium 4 with hyper threading.its fastest mobile chip to date.along with three others, which run at 2.6GHz, 2.8GHz and 3.06 GHz. Aside from the hyper threading, all are otherwise the same as mobile Pentium 4s currently available from Intel.

The chipmaker normally would pitch its Pentium M processor and Centrino chip package for notebooks, but it recently created the mobile Pentium 4 line to address a growing segment of consumer notebooks known as .desk notes.. These machines have proven popular with consumers and small businesses that favor large screens and fast Pentium 4 processors over portability and battery life. Many desk note models currently use desktop Pentium 4 chips, but Intel has been offering the mobile Pentium 4 line to attempt to sway buyers from that option.

MICROSOFT UNVEILS VISION FOR NEXT GENERA TION INTERNET

-A.Rajasekaran (rajasekaran@ieee.org)

Capitalizing on the explosion of Internet-based computing and communications, Microsoft.s .NET (pronounced .dot-net.) platform will provide easier, more personalized, and more productive Internet experiences by harnessing constellations of smart devices and Web sites with advanced software through Internet protocols and formats.

This new family of Microsoft .NET products and technologies replaces the previous working title of Next Generation Windows Services (NGWS) and includes software for developers to build next-generation Internet experiences as well as power a new breed of smart Internet devices. The company plans for new products built on the .NET platform, including new generations of the Windows operating system, Windows DNA servers, Office, the MSN network of Internet services, and the Visual Studio development system.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said that the company and industry partners will pioneer the .Next Generation Internet. through software that breaks down today.s barriers between "digital islands" - computers, devices, Web sites, organizations, and industries.to help realize the full potential of the Internet.

"Our guiding principles have always been about empowering individuals and creating opportunities for the industry. We are now taking that strategy to a new level by building a new platform based on Internet standards, which makes computing and communications easier for everyone, Today.s Internet experience can be confusing and difficult, with a jumble of applications, Web pages and devices, none of which work with one another on your behalf,"Gates said. "With the emergence of standards like XML, we now have the opportunity to revolutionize the way computers talk to one another on our behalf just as the browser changed the way we interact with computers." Gates said.

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