A Novel Cache Architecture and Placement Framework for Packet Forwarding Engines

Packet forwarding is a memory-intensive application requiring multiple accesses through a trie structure. With the requirement to process packets at line rates, high-performance routers need to forward millions of packets every second with each packet needing up to seven memory accesses. Earlier work shows that a single cache for the nodes of a trie can reduce the number of external memory accesses. It is observed that the locality characteristics of the level-one nodes of a trie are significantly different from those of lower level nodes. Hence, we propose a heterogeneously segmented cache architecture (HSCA) which uses separate caches for level-one and lower level nodes, each with carefully chosen sizes. Besides reducing misses, segmenting the cache allows us to focus on optimizing the more frequently accessed level-one node segment. We find that due to the nonuniform distribution of nodes among cache sets, the level-one nodes cache is susceptible t high conflict misses. We reduce conflict misses by introducing a novel two-level mapping-based cache placement framework. We also propose an elegant way to fit the modified placement function into the cache organization with minimal increase in access time. Further, we propose an attribute preserving trace generation methodology which emulates real traces and can generate traces with varying locality. Performanc results reveal that our HSCA scheme results in a 32 percent speedup in average memory access time over a unified nodes cache. Also, HSC outperforms IHARC, a cache for lookup results, with as high as a 10-fold speedup in average memory access time. Two-level mappin further enhances the performance of the base HSCA by up to 13 percent leading to an overall improvement of up to 40 percent over the unified scheme.

Making consistent contacts to graphene: effect of architecture and growth induced defects

The effects of contact architecture, graphene defect density and metal-semiconductor work function difference on the resistivity of metal-graphene contacts have been investigated. An architecture with metal on the bottom of graphene is found to yield resistivities that are lower, by a factor of four, and most consistent as compared to metal on top of graphene. Growth defects in graphene film were found to further reduce resistivity by a factor of two. Using a combination of method and metal used, the contact resistivity of graphene has been decreased by a factor of 10 to 1200. +/-. 250 Omega mu m using palladium as the contact metal. While the improved consistency is due to the metal being able to contact uncontaminated graphene in the metal on the bottom architecture, lower contact resistivities observed on defective graphene with the same metal are attributed to the increased number of modes of quantum transport in the channel.

Performance modeling and architecture exploration of network processors

This paper proposes a Petri net model for a commercial network processor (Intel iXP architecture) which is a multithreaded multiprocessor architecture. We consider and model three different applications viz., IPv4 forwarding, network address translation, and IP security running on IXP 2400/2850. A salient feature of the Petri net model is its ability to model the application, architecture and their interaction in great detail. The model is validated using the Intel proprietary tool (SDK 3.51 for IXP architecture) over a range of configurations. We conduct a detailed performance evaluation, identify the bottleneck resource, and propose a few architectural extensions and evaluate them in detail.

Zoledronic acid in combination with alfacalcidol has additive effects on trabecular microarchitecture and mechanical properties in osteopenic ovariectomized rats

We conducted the present study to investigate the therapeutic effects of the antiresorptive agent zoledronic acid (ZOL), alone and in combination with alfacalcidol (ALF), in a rat model of postmenopausal osteoporosis. Female Wistar rats were ovariectomized (OVX) or sham-operated at 3 months of age. Twelve weeks post surgery, rats were randomized into six groups: (1) sham + vehicle, (2) OVX + vehicle, (3) OVX + ZOL (100 mu g/kg, i.v. single dose), (4) OVX + ZOL (50 mu g/kg, i.v. single dose), (5) OVX + ALF (0.5 mu g/kg, oral gauge daily) and (6) OVX + ZOL (50 mu g/kg, i.v. single dose) + ALF (0.5 mu g/kg, oral gauge daily) for 12 weeks. After treatment, we evaluated the mechanical properties of the lumbar vertebra and femoral mid-shaft. Femurs were also tested for bone density, porosity and trabecular micro-architecture. Biochemical markers in serum and urine were also determined. With respect to improvement in the mechanical strength of the lumbar spine and the femoral mid-shaft, the combination treatment of ZOL and ALF was more effective than each administered as a monotherapy. Moreover, combination therapy using ZOL and ALF preserved the trabecular micro-architecture and cortical bone porosity. Furthermore, the combination treatment of ZOL and ALF corrected the decrease in serum calcium and increase in serum alkaline phosphatase and the tartarate-resistant acid phosphatase level better than single-drug therapy using ZOL or ALF in OVX rats. In addition, the combination treatment of ZOL and ALF corrected the increase in urine calcium, phosphorous and creatinine levels better than single-drug therapy using ZOL or ALF in OVX rats. These data suggest that the combination treatment of ZOL and ALF has a therapeutic advantage over each monotherapy for the treatment of osteoporosis.

ESR Studies of Phase Transitions in Double Propionates: Dicalcium Barium Propionate Ca2Ba(C2H5COO)6

Single crystal [(111) and (100) planes], and powder ESR of Mn2+ (substituting for Ca2+) in Ca2Ba(C2H5COO)6 in the temperature range 220°C to -160°C shows (i) a doubling of both the physically and chemically inequivalent sites, and a change in the magnitude (150 G at -6°C to 170 G at -8°C) as well as the orientation of the D tensor across the -6°C transition and (ii) an inflection point in the D vs T plot across the -75°C transition. The oxygen octahedra around the Ca2+ sites are inferred to undergo alternate rotations, showing the participation of the carboxyl oxygens in the -6°C transition. A relation of the type D=D0(1+αT+βT2) seems to fit the D variation satisfactorily.

An RNS based transform Architecture for H.264/AVC

This paper presents the architecture and the VHDL design of an integer 2-D DCT used in the H.264/AVC. The 2-D DCT computation is performed by exploiting it’s orthogonality and separability property. The symmetry of the forward and inverse transform is used in this implementation. To reduce the computation overhead for the addition, subtraction and multiplication operations, we analyze the suitability of carry-free position independent residue number system (RNS) for the implementation of 2-D DCT. The implementation has been carried out in VHDL for Altera FPGA. We used the negative number representation in RNS, bit width analysis of the transforms and dedicated registers present in the Logic element of the FPGA to optimize the area. The complexity and efficiency analysis show that the proposed architecture could provide higher through-put.