RESEARCH IN VLSI SYSTEMS FOR BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS

目标是发展设计和建造专门的 生物医学计算系统，利用商业上可获得的， 定制设计的超大规模（VLSI）集成电路，并使 这项技术作为华盛顿大学资源的一部分， 生物医学计算 四个具体目标是：1）获得超大规模集成电路设计工具和技术 从其他人，并增加和集成到一个设计辅助系统 对生物医学应用有用; 2）进行设计研究 以及使用在VLSI中实现的异步模块，作为促进 实验系统的建立和改造; 3）研究使用 在有前途的应用领域，通过与 华盛顿大学的生物医学研究人员;以及4）识别和 通过以下方式消除容易和广泛使用我们新能力的障碍： 生物医学科学家 一个困难但非常重要的目标是， 超大规模集成电路技术可能进入早期和中期，以及后期 重要的生物医学研究项目的阶段，需要大量的 可访问的计算。 目前这类项目的例子包括 高级PETT图像的最大似然估计 （正电子发射断层扫描）仪器，以及高精度计算 放射治疗计划中的剂量。 实现这一目标 需要快速规范、设计和制造专用芯片 和系统，并非常注意专业化的整合 处理器到灵活和快速发展的研究计算系统。 到目前为止，我们的工作在促进芯片方面取得了很大进展。 规格和设计;在本期间的主要推力 研究正在解决快速和灵活的系统演化问题。

The objective is to develop the capability to design and build specialized biomedical computing systems that make use of Commercially available and custom designed Very Large Scale (VLSI) integrated circuits, and to make this technology available as part of the Washington University Resource for Biomedical Computing. Four specific goals are: 1) to acquire VLSI design tools and techniques from others, and to augment and integrate them into a design aid system useful for biomedical applications; 2) to carry out research in the design and use of asynchronous modules realized in VLSI, as a means to facilitate the building and modification of experimental systems; 3) to study use of the new tools in promising application areas through collaboration with biomedical researchers at Washington University; and 4) to identify and remove the obstacles to easy and widespread use of our new capabilities by biomedical scientists. A difficult but very important objective is to make the introduction of VLSI technology possible into the early and middle, as well as the late stages of important biomedical research projects that require large amounts of accessible computation. Current examples of such projects include maximum-likelihood estimation of images from advanced PETT (Positron-Emission Tomography) instruments, and high-accuracy calculation of dosage in radiation treatment planning. Accomplishing this objective requires rapid specification, design, and fabrication of specialized chips and systems, and very careful attention to the integration of specialized processors into flexible and rapidly evolving research computing systems. Our work to date has made excellent progress in facilitating chip specification and design; the major thrust during the current period of research is solving the problems of rapid and flexible system evolution.