A Pipeline Interleaved Heterogeneous SIMD Soft Processor Array Architecture for MIMO-OFDM Detection

The most promising way to maintain reliable data transfer across the rapidly fluctuating channels used by next generation multiple-input multiple-output communications schemes is to exploit run-time variable modulation and antenna configurations. This demands that the baseband signal processing architectures employed in the communications terminals must provide low cost and high performance with runtime reconfigurability. We present a softcore-processor based solution to this issue, and show for the first time, that such programmable architectures can enable real-time data operation for cutting-edge standards
such as 802.11n; furthermore, by exploiting deep processing pipelines and interleaved task execution, the cost and performance of these architectures is shown to be on a par with traditional dedicated circuit based solutions. We believe this to be the first such programmable architecture to achieve this, and the combination of implementation efficiency and programmability makes this implementation style the most promising approach for hosting such dynamic architectures.

Fully hardware based WFQ architecture for high-speed QoS packet scheduling

A full hardware implementation of a Weighted Fair Queuing (WFQ) packet scheduler is proposed. The circuit architecture presented has been implemented using Altera Stratix II FPGA technology, utilizing RLDII and QDRII memory components. The circuit can provide fine granularity Quality of Service (QoS) support at a line throughput rate of 12.8Gb/s in its current implementation. The authors suggest that, due to the flexible and scalable modular circuit design approach used, the current circuit architecture can be targeted for a full ASIC implementation to deliver 50 Gb/s throughput. The circuit itself comprises three main components; a WFQ algorithm computation circuit, a tag/time-stamp sort and retrieval circuit, and a high throughput shared buffer. The circuit targets the support of emerging wireline and wireless network nodes that focus on Service Level Agreements (SLA's) and Quality of Experience.

Présentation du Colloque international de Belfast du 30 août au 1er septembre 2007 « André Malraux et les valeurs spirituelles du XXIe siècle »

The article presented to Malraux specialists the conclusions and findings of the international conference on André Malraux held at Queen's University Belfast in 2007.