2009 Meetings
June 4, 2009: "Electric: a Multithreaded Integrated-Circuit Design System" by Dr. Steven M. Rubin
Abstract: The Electric VLSI Design System is an open-source circuit-design system that has been used for decades to make integrated circuit (IC) chips. Written in 1982, it predates most commercial circuit design systems available today. Beginning in 2003, a small team at Sun Microsystems translated Electric from C to Java, completing the task in less than two years. The resulting system is more stable, has an improved user interface, and (to the surprise of many) is faster.
One of the reasons for the new translation was to take advantage of Java's powerful multithreading facilities. While attempting to make use of these facilities, it was determined that a thread-safe database was needed. We split the system into a database server and a user-interface client. This new database has a number of advantages, including: ` collaborative design, thin-client design terminals, reliable crash recovery, reduced memory usage, and the ability to use multiple processors.
This talk describes these improvements to Electric and describes two multithreading facilities that have been built: a design-rule checker (DRC) and a wire router.
Biography: Steven M. Rubin is the author of the Electric VLSI Design System, and the CAD tools textbook "Computer Aids for VLSI Design". He received his doctorate at Carnegie Mellon University and has done research at Bell Labs, Schlumberger, Apple Computer, Interval Research, and Sun Microsystems. Specializing in visually-oriented computing, his research has spanned computer vision, graphics, and CAD. Steve was also the lead singer of Severe Tire Damage, the first band to perform live on the Internet.
For more on Steve, see www.rulabinsky.com/steve
For more on Electric, see www.staticfreesoft.com
May 7, 2009: "4th Generation Cellular Technology: Features, Benefits and Challenges of LTE" by Tom McKay, Tidal microWave LLC
Abstract: In March 2009, the global 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) released specifications for LTE, the first all internet-protocol wireless wide-area standard to be deployed on world-wide cellular networks with potential to provide broadband speeds to the handset. Demand for broadband data to the cell phone is growing exponentially due to growth of the web, strides in phone integration of cellular data, wireless local area networking (WLAN) transceivers, and global positioning system (GPS) receivers. Innovative cellular phone user platforms have captured the imagination of application developers and provide the next step in the evolution of mobile computing. In parallel, U.S. cellular network operators are opening their networks driven by popular views regarding net neutrality and implemented in recent Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rulings, creating fertile ground for new mobile broadband services, applications, and devices.
An overview of selected features and benefits of LTE are examined with an eye toward implementation challenges. For network operators, LTE promises lower operating costs, higher spectral efficiency and benefits of global adoption. On the user device side, however, challenges are increasing to maintain compelling user experiences associated with long battery life, faster uploads and downloads in a marketable form-factor. For example, intrinsic to LTE's high-throughput capability are multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) radios requiring multiple equal-quality air-interface paths. This represents a departure from simple optional diversity methods of currently deployed devices. Additionally, multiple-band and legacy standard support required to maintain network coverage creates a log-jam at the antenna driving design complexity, development costs and limiting battery life. Understanding the technical fundamentals driving the air interface features, the associated challenges and their possible solution is key to identifying opportunities and catching the wave of mobile broadband.
Biography: From 2003 to 2008, as Principal Engineer for the Cellular R&D Group of RF Micro Devices in Scotts Valley, Tom McKay led CMOS synergistic research targeting the cellular handset radio chip market. His efforts contributed to cellular single-chip transceivers currently shipping in high volume handsets. In 2000, Tom co-founded Zeevo which by 2002 released the first 180 nm CMOS Bluetooth RF system-on-chip, with volume shipments to top-tier PDA makers. Zeevo was acquired by Broadcom in 2005. Tom paved the way for this work while Principal Engineer at VLSI Technology, where in 1999 he established 180 nm digital CMOS as a competitive high-frequency radio technology. Prior to that, Tom developed microwave and radio frequency ICs in III-V technology at Teledyne, Harris, WJ Communications and Samsung. In 1997 he received the Samsung Chairman's award for achievements in low noise television IC development. Tom has authored several IEEE conference and journal papers and has lectured for the UCSC EE graduate program. Tom holds an MSEE from UW-Madison and has 8 patents.
In 2008, Tom founded Tidal microWave LLC, providing consulting services in design and technology adoption strategies drawn from 25 years of radio frequency innovation.