Real-time signal processing systems for advanced and emerging technologies

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My research is based on exploring computational properties of processors built with advanced and emerging electronic technologies, and their application to information, communication technology, and the life sciences. The microprocessors that are contained in the computers we use, and that are embedded in our cell phones, automobiles, appliances, entertainment systems, medical devices etc., all perform computations as fundamental functions in their design. For real-time systems, where streams of data have to be continuously processed, "embedded" microprocessors often need to perform many billions of computations every second. The computations mirror the sorts of calculations we might do longhand with paper and a pencil. The design procedures required for fabrication in modern integrated circuit technologies are so complex, that many designers will simply use the available functions that are provided within the design tools. However, in order to use the technologies in the most efficient way possible, it is necessary to examine alternative ways to perform basic arithmetic operations, even down to looking at alternative ways to represent the data. As integrated circuit technology has exponentially improved the packing density of transistors (known as "Moore's Law"), these basic computational blocks have dramatically increased in speed; however problem features, that used to be neglected, have now become critical and so we need to continually search for solutions to these new problems. One example is the excessive power dissipation of modern high density integrated circuits, that has been responsible for limiting the maximum clock frequency of the microprocessors used in our desktop and laptop computers. In my research we explore alternative ways of building processors on integrated circuits and examine these alternatives in selected application areas. Recent applications of my work can be found in the life sciences, for example: hearing-aid processors and implantable glucose sensors, where extremely low power dissipation is a major constraint, and in very high bandwidth wireless base stations, where very reliable computation involving a trillion basic arithmetic operations per second is required.