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This book will attempt to give a first synthesis of recent works con- cerning reactive system design. The term "e;reactive system"e; has been introduced in order to at'oid the ambiguities often associated with by the term "e;real-time system,"e; which, although best known and more sugges- tive, has been given so many different meanings that it is almost in- evitably misunderstood. Industrial process control systems, transporta- tion control and supervision systems, signal-processing systems, are ex- amples of the systems we have in mind. Although these systems are more and more computerized, it is sur- prising to notice that the problem of time in computer science has been studied only recently by "e;pure"e; computer scientists. Until the early 1980s, time problems were regarded as the concern of performance evalu- ation, or of some (unjustly scorned) "e;industrial computer engineering,"e; or, at best, of operating systems. A second surprising fact, in contrast, is the growth of research con- cerning timed systems during the last decade. The handling of time has suddenly become a fundamental goal for most models of concurrency. In particular, Robin Alilner 's pioneering works about synchronous process algebras gave rise to a school of thought adopting the following abstract point of view: As soon as one admits that a system can instantaneously react to events, i. e.

Compact Low-Voltage and High-Speed CMOS, BiCMOS and Bipolar Operational Amplifiers discusses the design of integrated operational amplifiers that approach the limits of low supply voltage or very high bandwidth. The resulting realizations span the whole field of applications from micro-power CMOS VLSI amplifiers to 1-GHz bipolar amplifiers. The book presents efficient circuit topologies in order to combine high performance with simple solutions. In total twelve amplifier realizations are discussed. Two bipolar amplifiers are discussed, a 1-GHz operational amplifier and an amplifier with a high ratio between the maximum output current and the quiescent current. Five amplifiers have been designed in CMOS technology, extremely compact circuits that can operate on supply voltages down to one gate-source voltage and two saturation voltages which equals about 1.4 V and, ultimate-low-voltage amplifiers that can operate on supply voltages down to one gate-source voltage and one saturation voltage which amounts to about 1.2 V. In BiCMOS technology five amplifiers have been designed. The first two amplifiers are based on a compact topology. Two other amplifiers are designed to operate on low supply voltages down to 1.3 V. The final amplifier has a unity-gain frequency of 200 MHz and can operate down to 2.5 V. Compact Low-Voltage and High-Speed CMOS, BiCMOS and Bipolar Operational Amplifiers is intended for the professional analog designer. Also, it is suitable as a text book for advanced courses in amplifier design.

Multimedia is changing the design of database and information retrieval systems. The accumulation of audio, image, and video content is of little use in these systems if the content cannot be retrieved on demand, a critical requirement that has led to the development of new technologies for the analysis and indexing of media data. In turn, these technologies seek to derive information or features from a data type that can facilitate rapid retrieval, efficient compression, and logical presentation of the data. Significant work that has not been addressed, however, is the benefits of analyzing more than one data type simultaneously. Computed Synchronization for Multimedia Applications presents a new framework for the simultaneous analysis of multiple media data objects. The primary benefit of this analysis is computed synchronization, a temporal and spatial alignment of multiple media objects. Computed Synchronization for Multimedia Applications also presents several specific applications and a general structure for the solution of computed synchronization problems. The applications demonstrate the use of this structure. Two applications in particular are described in detail: the alignment of text to speech audio, and the alignment of simultaneous English language translations of ancient texts. Many additional applications are discussed as future uses of the technology. Computed Synchronization for Multimedia Applications is useful to researchers, students, and developers seeking to apply computed synchronization in many fields. It is also suitable as a reference for a graduate-level course in multimedia data retrieval.

Analog integrated circuits are very important as interfaces between the digital parts of integrated electronic systems and the outside world. A large portion of the effort involved in designing these circuits is spent in the layout phase. Whereas the physical design of digital circuits is automated to a large extent, the layout of analog circuits is still a manual, time-consuming and error-prone task. This is mainly due to the continuous nature of analog signals, which causes analog circuit performance to be very sensitive to layout parasitics. The parasitic elements associated with interconnect wires cause loading and coupling effects that degrade the frequency behaviour and the noise performance of analog circuits. Device mismatch and thermal effects put a fundamental limit on the achievable accuracy of circuits. For successful automation of analog layout, advanced place and route tools that can handle these critical parasitics are required. In the past, automatic analog layout tools tried to optimize the layout without quantifying the performance degradation introduced by layout parasitics. Therefore, it was not guaranteed that the resulting layout met the specifications and one or more layout iterations could be needed. In Analog Layout Generation for Performance and Manufacturability, the authors propose a performance driven layout strategy to overcome this problem. In this methodology, the layout tools are driven by performance constraints, such that the final layout, with parasitic effects, still satisfies the specifications of the circuit. The performance degradation associated with an intermediate layout solution is evaluated at runtime using predetermined sensitivities. In contrast with other performance driven layout methodologies, the tools proposed in this book operate directly on the performance constraints, without an intermediate parasitic constraint generation step. This approach makes a complete and sensible trade-off between the different layout alternatives possible at runtime and therefore eliminates the possible feedback route between constraint derivation, placement and layout extraction. Besides its influence on the performance, layout also has a profound impact on the yield and testability of an analog circuit. In Analog Layout Generation for Performance and Manufacturability, the authors outline a new criterion to quantify the detectability of a fault and combine this with a yield model to evaluate the testability of an integrated circuit layout. They then integrate this technique with their performance driven routing algorithm to produce layouts that have optimal manufacturability while still meeting their performance specifications. Analog Layout Generation for Performance and Manufacturability will be of interest to analog engineers, researchers and students.

Multicarrier Modulation with Low PAR: Applications to DSL and Wireless provides the first comprehensive formulation of the PAR problem for multicarrier modulation and proposes three new methods for PAR reduction. The information in this book will be vital to practicing engineers, industrial researchers, scientists, graduate and postgraduate researchers, and others working in multicarrier transmission and communication theory. Multicarrier Modulation with Low PAR: Applications to DSL and Wireless serves as a valuable reference to both design engineers and communications theorists, and can also be used for advanced courses on the subject.

Switched-Current Signal Processing and A/D Conversion Circuits: Design and Implementation describes the design and implementation of switched-current (SI) circuits with emphasis on signal processing and data-conversion applications. The work includes theoretical analysis, high-level and circuit-level simulation results as well as measurement results from a few of the author's circuit implementations. An extensive overview of the SI field of research is also given. The book contains an extensive overview of the switched-current field of research, and can therefore be used as a quick-reference to the field. The description of each design example has been organized to describe the entire design flow from system level design and simulation, to circuit simulation, layout and measurement as accurately as possible. Thus it is possible to follow each step in the design process. Switched-Current Signal Processing and A/D Conversion Circuits: Design and Implementation is an invaluable reference for researchers and circuit designers working with one-chip mixed-signal system solutions, and low-voltage analog CMOS design. It will also be appreciated by anyone requiring a quick overview of what has been done in the SI field.

The area of analog integrated circuits is facing some serious challenges due to the ongoing trends towards low supply voltages, low power consumption and high-frequency operation. The situation is becoming even more complicated by the fact that many transfer functions have to be tunable or controllable. A promising approach to facing these challenges is given by the class of dynamic translinear circuits, which are, as a consequence, receiving increasing interest. Several different names are used in literature: log-domain, exponential state-space, current-mode companding, instantaneous companding, tanh-domain, sinh-domain, polynomial state-space, square-root domain and translinear filters. In fact, all these groups are (overlapping) subclasses of the overall class of dynamic translinear circuits. Research Perspectives on Dynamic Translinear and Log-Domain Circuits is a compilation of research findings in this growing field. It comprises ten contributions, coming from recognized `dynamic-translinear' researchers in Europe and North America. Research Perspectives on Dynamic Translinear and Log-Domain Circuits is an edited volume of original research.

CMOS Data Converters for Communications distinguishes itself from other data converter books by emphasizing system-related aspects of the design and frequency-domain measures. It explains in detail how to derive data converter requirements for a given communication system (baseband, passband, and multi-carrier systems). The authors also review CMOS data converter architectures and discuss their suitability for communications. The rest of the book is dedicated to high-performance CMOS data converter architecture and circuit design. Pipelined ADCs, parallel ADCs with an improved passive sampling technique, and oversampling ADCs are the focus for ADC architectures, while current-steering DAC modeling and implementation are the focus for DAC architectures. The principles of the switched-current and the switched-capacitor techniques are reviewed and their applications to crucial functional blocks such as multiplying DACs and integrators are detailed. The book outlines the design of the basic building blocks such as operational amplifiers, comparators, and reference generators with emphasis on the practical aspects. To operate analog circuits at a reduced supply voltage, special circuit techniques are needed. Low-voltage techniques are also discussed in this book. CMOS Data Converters for Communications can be used as a reference book by analog circuit designers to understand the data converter requirements for communication applications. It can also be used by telecommunication system designers to understand the difficulties of certain performance requirements on data converters. It is also an excellent resource to prepare analog students for the new challenges ahead.

Model engineering is an important activity within the design flow of in- grated circuits and signal processing systems. This activity is not new at all in computer engineering, however, and takes a central role in practice. Model engineering of digital systems is based on agreed concepts of abstraction - erarchies for design object representations as well as the expressive power of hardware description languages (HDL). Since their gradual introduction over time HDL have proved to form the foundation of design methodologies and related design flows. Design automation tools for simulation, synthesis, test generation, and, last but not least, for formal proof purposes rely heavily on standardized digital HDL such as Verilog and VHDL. In contrast to purely digital systems there is an increasing need to design and implement integrated systems which exploit more and more mixed-signal functional blocks such as A/D and D/A converters or phase locked loops. Even purely analog blocks celebrate their resurrection in integrated systems design because of their unique efficiency when is comes to power consumption - quirements, for example, or complexity limitations. Examples of such analog signal processing functions are filtering or sensor signal conditioning. In g- eral, analog and mixed-signal processing is indispensable when interfacing the real world (i.e., analog signals) to computers (i.e., digital data processing).

Analog Design for CMOS VLSI Systems is a comprehensive text that offers a detailed study of the background principles and the analog design techniques for CMOS-VLSI implementation. The book covers the physical operation and the modelling of MOS transistors. Discusses the key features of integrated passive components and studies basic building blocks and voltage and current references before considering in great details the design of op-amps and comparators.The book is primarily intended for use as a graduate-level textbook and for practising engineers. It is expected that the reader should be familiar with the concepts taught in basic introductory courses in analog circuits. Relying on that proper background knowledge the book presents the material on an intuitive basis with a minimum use of mathematical quantitative analysis. Therefore, the insight induced by the book will favour that kind of knowledge gathering required for the design of high-performance analog circuits. The book favours this important process with a number of inserts providing hints or advises on key features of the topic studied.An interesting peculiarity of the book is the use of numbers. The equations describing the circuit operation are guidelines for the designer. It is important to assess performances in a quantitative way. To achieve this target the book provides a number of examples on computer simulations using Spice. Moreover, in order to acquire the feeling of the technological progress, three different hypothetical technologies are addressed and used.Detailed examples and the many problems make Analog Design for CMOS VLSI Systems a comprehensive textbook for a graduate-level course on analog circuit design. Moreover, the book will efficiently serve the practical needs of a wide range of circuit design and system design engineers.

Continuous-Time Sigma-Delta Modulation for A/D Conversion in Radio Receivers describes the design and theory of continuous-time sigma-delta modulators for analog-to-digital conversion in radio receivers. The book's main focus is on dynamic range, linearity and power efficiency aspects of sigma-delta modulators, which are very important requirements for use in battery operated receivers like GSM phones. An important part of the book deals with the image rejection performance of quadrature sigma-delta modulators. It is shown that techniques like dynamic-element-matching and integration of a mixer with the sigma-delta modulator greatly enhance the performance and functionality. In addition, the authors provide the reader with a theoretical overview of continuous-time sigma-delta modulation, including non-ideal effects, stability issues and different filter designs. The book's concluding chapters present chip realizations showing practical implementations of low-power and high-performance sigma-delta modulators for GSM and AM/FM radio applications.

A major advantage of a direct digital synthesizer (DDS) is that its output frequency, phase and amplitude can be precisely and rapidly manipulated under digital processor control. Other inherent DDS attributes include the ability to tune with extremely fine frequency and phase resolution, and to rapidly `hop' between frequencies. These combined characteristics have made the technology popular in military radar and communications systems. In fact, DDS technology was previously applied almost exclusively to high-end and military applications: it was costly, power-hungry, difficult to implement, and required a discrete high speed D/A converter. Due to improved integrated circuit (IC) technologies, they now present a viable alternative to analog-based phase-locked loop (PLL) technology for generating agile analog output frequency in consumer synthesizer applications. It is easy to include different modulation capabilities in the DDS by using digital signal processing (DSP) methods, because the signal is in digital form. By programming the DDS, adaptive channel bandwidths, modulation formats, frequency hopping and data rates are easily achieved. The flexibility of the DDS makes it ideal for signal generator for software radio. The digital circuits used to implement signal-processing functions do not suffer the effects of thermal drift, aging and component variations associated with their analog counterparts. The implementation of digital functional blocks makes it possible to achieve a high degree of system integration. Recent advances in IC fabrication technology, particularly CMOS, coupled with advanced DSP algorithms and architectures are providing possible single-chip DDS solutions to complex communication and signal processing subsystems as modulators, demodulators, local oscillators, programmable clock generators, and chirp generators. The DDS addresses a variety of applications, including cable modems, measurement equipments, arbitrary waveform generators, cellular base stations and wireless local loop base stations. Direct Digital Synthesizers was written to find possible applications for radio communication systems. It will have appeal for wireless and wireline communication engineers, teachers and students.

Systematic Design for Optimisation of Pipelined ADCs proposes and develops new strategies, methodologies and tools for designing low-power and low-area CMOS pipelined A/D converters. The task is tackled by following a scientifically-consistent approach. First of all, the state of the art in pipeline A/D converters is analysed with a double purpose: a) to identify the best suited among different strategies reported in literature and taking into account the objectives pursued; b) to identify the drawbacks of these strategies as a basic first step to improve them. Then, the book proposes a top-down design approach for implementing high-performance low-power and low-area CMOS pipelined A/D converters through: The conception, development and implementation of self-calibrated techniques to extend the linearity of some critical stages in the architecture of pipelined ADCs. The detailed analysis and modelling of some major non-idealities that limit the physical realisation of pipelined ADCs and the proposal, development and implementation of design methodologies to support systematic design of optimised instances of these converters which combine maximum performance with minimum power dissipation and minimum area occupation. GBP/LISTGBP Several implementations together with consistent measured results are presented. In particular, a practical realisation of a low-power 14-bit 5MS/s CMOS pipelined ADC with background analogue self-calibration is fully described. The proposed approach is fully in line with the best practice regarding the design of mixed-signal integrated circuits. On the one hand, drawbacks of currently existing solutions are overcame through innovative strategies and, on the other hand, the expert knowledge is packaged and made available for re-usability by the community of circuit designers. Finally, feasibility of the strategies and the associated encapsulated knowledge is granted through experimental validation of working silicon. Systematic Design for Optimisation of Pipelined ADCs serves as an excellent reference for analogue design engineers especially designers of low-power CMOS A/D converters. The book may also be used as a text for advanced reading on the subject.

The increasing amount of information available in today's world raises the need to retrieve relevant data efficiently. Unlike text-based retrieval, where keywords are successfully used to index into documents, content-based image retrieval poses up front the fundamental questions how to extract useful image features and how to use them for intuitive retrieval. We present a novel approach to the problem of navigating through a collection of images for the purpose of image retrieval, which leads to a new paradigm for image database search. We summarize the appearance of images by distributions of color or texture features, and we define a metric between any two such distributions. This metric, which we call the "e;Earth Mover's Distance"e; (EMD), represents the least amount of work that is needed to rearrange the mass is one distribution in order to obtain the other. We show that the EMD matches perceptual dissimilarity better than other dissimilarity measures, and argue that it has many desirable properties for image retrieval. Using this metric, we employ Multi-Dimensional Scaling techniques to embed a group of images as points in a two- or three-dimensional Euclidean space so that their distances reflect image dissimilarities as well as possible. Such geometric embeddings exhibit the structure in the image set at hand, allowing the user to understand better the result of a database query and to refine the query in a perceptually intuitive way.

Multimedia computing has emerged in the last few years as a major area of research. Multimedia computer systems have opened a wide range of applications by combining a variety of information sources, such as voice, graphics, animation, images, audio, and full-motion video. Looking at the big picture, multimedia can be viewed as the merging of three industries: the computer, communications, and broadcasting industries. Research and development efforts in multimedia computing can be divided into two areas. As the first area of research, much effort has been centered on the stand-alone multimedia workstation and associated software systems and tools, such as music composition, computer-aided education and training, and interactive video. However, the combination of multimedia computing with distributed systems offers even greater potential. New applications based on distributed multimedia systems include multimedia information systems, collaborative and videoconferencing systems, on-demand multimedia services, and distance learning. Multimedia Tools and Applications is one of two volumes published by Kluwer, both of which provide a broad introduction to this fast moving area. This book covers selected tools applied in multimedia systems and key multimedia applications. Topics presented include multimedia application development techniques, techniques for content-based manipulation of image databases, techniques for selection and dissemination of digital video, and tools for digital video segmentation. Selected key applications described in the book include multimedia news services, multimedia courseware and training, interactive television systems, digital video libraries, multimedia messaging systems, and interactive multimedia publishing systems. The second book, Multimedia Systems and Techniques, covers fundamental concepts and techniques used in multimedia systems. The topics include multimedia objects and related models, multimedia compression techniques and standards, multimedia interfaces, multimedia storage techniques, multimedia communication and networking, multimedia synchronization techniques, multimedia information systems, scheduling in multimedia systems, and video indexing and retrieval techniques. Multimedia Tools and Applications, along with its companion volume, is intended for anyone involved in multimedia system design and applications and can be used as a textbook for advanced courses on multimedia.

Input/Output in Parallel and Distributed Computer Systems has attracted increasing attention over the last few years, as it has become apparent that input/output performance, rather than CPU performance, may be the key limiting factor in the performance of future systems. This I/O bottleneck is caused by the increasing speed mismatch between processing units and storage devices, the use of multiple processors operating simultaneously in parallel and distributed systems, and by the increasing I/O demands of new classes of applications, like multimedia. It is also important to note that, to varying degrees, the I/O bottleneck exists at multiple levels of the memory hierarchy. All indications are that the I/O bottleneck will be with us for some time to come, and is likely to increase in importance. Input/Output in Parallel and Distributed Computer Systems is based on papers presented at the 1994 and 1995 IOPADS workshops held in conjunction with the International Parallel Processing Symposium. This book is divided into three parts. Part I, the Introduction, contains four invited chapters which provide a tutorial survey of I/O issues in parallel and distributed systems. The chapters in Parts II and III contain selected research papers from the 1994 and 1995 IOPADS workshops; many of these papers have been substantially revised and updated for inclusion in this volume. Part II collects the papers from both years which deal with various aspects of system software, and Part III addresses architectural issues. Input/Output in Parallel and Distributed Computer Systems is suitable as a secondary text for graduate level courses in computer architecture, software engineering, and multimedia systems, and as a reference for researchers and practitioners in industry.

Multimedia computing has emerged in the last few years as a major area of research. Multimedia computer systems have opened a wide range of applications by combining a variety of information sources, such as voice, graphics, animation, images, audio and full-motion video. Looking at the big picture, multimedia can be viewed as the merging of three industries: computer, communications, and broadcasting industries. Research and development efforts can be divided into two areas. As the first area of research, much effort has been centered on the stand-alone multimedia workstation and associated software systems and tools, such as music composition, computer-aided education and training, and interactive video. However, the combination of multimedia computing with distributed systems offers even greater potential. New applications based on distributed multimedia systems include multimedia information systems, collaborative and video conferencing systems, on-demand multimedia services, and distance learning. Multimedia Systems and Techniques is one of two volumes published by Kluwer, both of which provide a broad introduction into this fast moving area. The book covers fundamental concepts and techniques used in multimedia systems. The topics include multimedia objects and related models, multimedia compression techniques and standards, multimedia interfaces, multimedia storage techniques, multimedia communication and networking, multimedia synchronization techniques, multimedia information systems, scheduling in multimedia systems, and video indexing and retrieval techniques. Multimedia Systems and Techniques, together with its companion volume, Multimedia Tools and Applications, is intended for anyone involved in multimedia system design and applications and can be used as a textbook for advanced courses on multimedia.

The scientists and engineers of today are relentless in their continuing study and analysis of the world about us from the microcosm to the macrocosm. A central purpose of this study is to gain sufficient scientific information and insight to enable the development of both representative and useful models of the superabundance of physical processes that surround us. The engineers need these models and the associated insight in order to build the information processing systems and control systems that comprise these new and emerging technologies. Much of the early modeling work that has been done on these systems has been based on the linear time-invariant system theory and its extensive use of Fourier transform theory for both continuous and discrete systems and signals. However many of the signals arising in nature and real systems are neither stationary nor linear but tend to be concentrated in both time and frequency. Hence a new methodology is needed to take these factors properly into account.

Recent Advances in Robot Learning contains seven papers on robot learning written by leading researchers in the field. As the selection of papers illustrates, the field of robot learning is both active and diverse. A variety of machine learning methods, ranging from inductive logic programming to reinforcement learning, is being applied to many subproblems in robot perception and control, often with objectives as diverse as parameter calibration and concept formulation. While no unified robot learning framework has yet emerged to cover the variety of problems and approaches described in these papers and other publications, a clear set of shared issues underlies many robot learning problems. Machine learning, when applied to robotics, is situated: it is embedded into a real-world system that tightly integrates perception, decision making and execution. Since robot learning involves decision making, there is an inherent active learning issue. Robotic domains are usually complex, yet the expense of using actual robotic hardware often prohibits the collection of large amounts of training data. Most robotic systems are real-time systems. Decisions must be made within critical or practical time constraints. These characteristics present challenges and constraints to the learning system. Since these characteristics are shared by other important real-world application domains, robotics is a highly attractive area for research on machine learning. On the other hand, machine learning is also highly attractive to robotics. There is a great variety of open problems in robotics that defy a static, hand-coded solution. Recent Advances in Robot Learning is an edited volume of peer-reviewed original research comprising seven invited contributions by leading researchers. This research work has also been published as a special issue of Machine Learning (Volume 23, Numbers 2 and 3).

Despite the growing interest in Real-Time Database Systems, there is no single book that acts as a reference to academics, professionals, and practitioners who wish to understand the issues involved in the design and development of RTDBS. Real-Time Database Systems: Issues and Applications fulfills this need. This book presents the spectrum of issues that may arise in various real-time database applications, the available solutions and technologies that may be used to address these issues, and the open problems that need to be tackled in the future. With rapid advances in this area, several concepts have been proposed without a widely accepted consensus on their definitions and implications. To address this need, the first chapter is an introduction to the key RTDBS concepts and definitions, which is followed by a survey of the state of the art in RTDBS research and practice. The remainder of the book consists of four sections: models and paradigms, applications and benchmarks, scheduling and concurrency control, and experimental systems. The chapters in each section are contributed by experts in the respective areas. Real-Time Database Systems: Issues and Applications is primarily intended for practicing engineers and researchers working in the growing area of real-time database systems. For practitioners, the book will provide a much needed bridge for technology transfer and continued education. For researchers, this book will provide a comprehensive reference for well-established results. This book can also be used in a senior or graduate level course on real-time systems, real-time database systems, and database systems or closely related courses.

Real-time systems are defined as those for which correctness depends not only on the logical properties of the produced results, but also on the temporal properties of these results. In a database, real-time means that in addition to typical logical consistency constraints, such as a constraint on a data item's value, there are constraints on when transactions execute and on the `freshness' of the data transactions access. The challenges and tradeoffs faced by the designers of real-time database systems are quite different from those faced by the designers of general-purpose database systems. To achieve the fundamental requirements of timeliness and predictability, not only do conventional methods for scheduling and transaction management have to be redesigned, but also new concepts that have not been considered in conventional database systems or in real-time systems need to be added. Real-Time Database and Information Systems: Research Advances is devoted to new techniques for scheduling of transactions, concurrency management, transaction logging, database languages, and new distributed database architectures. Real-Time Database and Information Systems: Research Advances is primarily intended for practicing engineers and researchers working in the growing area of real-time database and information retrieval systems. For practitioners, the book will provide a much needed bridge for technology transfer and continued education. For researchers, the book will provide a comprehensive reference for well-established results. The book can also be used in a senior or graduate level course on real-time systems, real-time database systems, and database systems, or closely related courses.