Analog-Inspired Digital Signal Processors

标题：模拟启发的数字信号处理器spi: Yannis TsividisInst：哥伦比亚大学，纽约，nyabstract今天一些最具创新性的科学和技术工作发生在领域之间的边界。虽然某些领域本身可能是成熟的，但这些领域之间的联系可能是新的，并且可以提供丰富的研究可能性。我们工作背后的动机是这样一种信念，即当一个领域内的不同领域结合起来时，可以获得类似的好处；在我们的例子中，这个领域就是信号处理。这项工作的主要应用领域是数字信号处理器，即处理由1和0组成的数字信号的硬件，例如在现代计算机中可以找到。这个跨学科工作的第二个领域是模拟信号和系统，即在物理世界中出现的信号，以及用于处理它们的系统。这项工作有两个组成部分。第一个组件使用了“伴奏”（压缩-扩展）的概念，该概念在过去非常成功地应用于语音传输和音频录制的模拟系统（例如，在无处不在的杜比系统中）。这个过程动态地改变信号的大小，以确保它们总是足够大，这样它们就不会被噪声污染。这种技术直接应用于数字信号处理器完全失败，因为它没有考虑到这样的处理器内部的动态。PI正在开发一个通用的数学框架来消除这个问题，使用外部线性，内部非线性系统的概念，这些概念已经在先前的NSF资助下用于模拟系统。该结果可用于从定点型数字信号处理器中获得更好的性能，而无需增加其中使用的比特数，从而保持其功耗低，这是无处不在的便携式应用的关键优势，这需要低电池的能量消耗。该工作的第二部分使用数字信号作为连续时间的函数，用于实时信号处理应用；信号仍然是1和0，但在所有时间都是定义的，而不是在经典计算和数字信号处理中的离散时间瞬间。我们正在发展一种理论来处理这些信号，并研究使用它们的系统的特性。初步工作表明，连续时间操作可以使误差大大降低，并且还可以使具有依赖信号的功耗的硬件成为可能，随着信号活动的减少，功耗向零降低。同样，该技术的一个关键优势是在便携式应用中能量消耗低。该计划是用专门为此目的设计的硅芯片全面测试这些想法。

ID: 0701766 Title: Analog-Inspired Digital Signal ProcessorsPI: Yannis TsividisInst: Columbia University, New York, NYABSTRACTSome of the most innovative work in science and technology today occurs at the boundaries between fields. Although certain fields may be mature in themselves, the connection of such fields can be new, and can present a wealth of possibilities for research. The motivation behind our work is the conviction that similar benefits can be had when different domains within a single field are combined; in our case, that field is signal processing. The main domain of application of this work is digital signal processors, i.e. hardware that processes digital signals consisting of ones and zeros, which are for example found in modern computers. The second domain in this cross-disciplinary work is analog signals and systems, i.e. signals as they occur in the physical world, and the systems that are used to handle them. The work has two components. The first component uses the concept of accompanding" (compressing-expanding), which has been very successfully applied in the past to analog systems for voice transmission and audio recording (e.g., in the ubiquitous Dolby system). This process varies the magnitude of signals dynamically, to ensure that they are always large enough so that they do not get contaminated by noise. Direct application of this technique to digital signal processors fails completely, as it does not take into account the dynamics inside such processors. The PI is developing a general mathematical framework for eliminating this problem, using concepts from externally linear, internally nonlinear systems, which has been already developed for analog systems under prior NSF funding. The results can be used to obtain much better performance from digital signal processors of the fixed-point kind, without having to increase the number of bits used in them, thus keeping their power dissipation low a key advantage in the ubiquitous portable applications, which require low energy drain from a battery.The second component of the work uses digital signals as functions of continuous time, for real-time signal processing applications; the signals are still ones and zeros, but are defined for all time, rather than at discrete time instants as in classical computing and digital signal processing. We are developing a theory to handle such signals and study the properties of the systems that use them. Preliminary work has shown that continuous-time operation can make possible a much lower error, and in addition makes possible hardware which has signal-depended power dissipation, with the power decreasing toward zero as the signal activity decreases. Again, a key advantage of this technique is the low energy drain in portable applications. The plan is to fully test ideas with a silicon chip custom-designed for this purpose.