ReCoEng -- the Laboratory of Reconfigurable Computing Engineering is a division of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The ReCoEng Lab deals with the architecture, design, development, testing, and evaluation of reconfigurable arrays for computationally-intensive applications. Our main goal is to perform top-level research, and provide high-quality Master's and PhD education. In our web pages you can find information regarding our research program. You can also find information regarding the staff affiliated with our laboratory.

• Reconfigurable Computing Paradigm
• View the lab
• Research Team
• Experimental Setup
• Funding
• Major Projects and Enrollment
• Lab Meetings
• Publications
• Circuits under Fabrication and Test
• Conferences
• Hall of Fame / Alumni
• Open Positions
• New Applicants
• Contact information

The emerge of hardware platforms which can be metamorphosed under software control has established Reconfigurable Computing (RC) as a viable computing paradigm in the last ten years. According to the RC paradigm, the main idea in improving the performance of a computing machine is to define customized computing resources and to dynamically swap them onto reconfigurable hardware as the application requires. This way, a virtually infinite amount of custom hardware can be emulated. Therefore, the RC paradigm seems to be the solution to design computing engines that have the performance of Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC), but the flexibility of General-Purpose Processors (GPP) in implementing a large class of applications.

As a general view, a computing machine working under the RC paradigm typically includes a GPP augmented with a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). Such a hybrid is generally referred to as a Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machine (FCCM). The synergism of GPP and FPGA can achieve orders of magnitude improvements in performance over a GPP alone, while preserving the flexibility of the programmed machines over ASICs in implementing a large number of applications. However, the FCCM performance in terms of speed and power may still be orders of magnitude lower than the performance of an ASIC.

Graduate Students:

1. Zorawar Singh BHATIA, BEng (University of Victoria, Canada).
2. Fatemeh ESLAMI, BEng (Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran).
3. Scott MILLER, BEng (Carleton University, Canada).
4. Dian-Marie ROSS, BEng (University of Victoria, Canada).
5. Kevin SEBASTIAN, BEng (University of Victoria, Canada).
6. Babak ZAKERI, BSc (University of Tehran, Iran).

Professors, Affiliated Researchers, Collaborators, and Postdoctoral Fellows:

1. Michael McGUIRE, BEng and MASc (University of Victoria, Canada), PhD (University of Toronto, Canada).
2. Stephen NEVILLE, BEng, MASc, and PhD (University of Victoria, Canada) - Affiliated Researcher.
3. Murugappan SENTHILVELAN, BEng (Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, India), MSc and PhD (University of Wisconsin-Madison, U.S.A.) - Collaborator.
4. Mihai SIMA, BEng/MEng and PhD (Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest, Romania), PhD (Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands).

• Semiconductor Probing Station (Süss)
• Semiconductor Parameter Analyzer (Agilent)
  • E5270B: 8-Slot Precision Measurement Mainframe.
  • E5281B: Medium Power Source/Monitor Unit.
• RLC Meter, 3GHz (Agilent)
• Oscilloscope 500MHz (Agilent)
• Cadence (350nm, 180nm, 130nm, 90nm, 65nm) (provided by CMC and MOSIS)

• Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) jointly with British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund (BCKDF).
• Canadian Microelectronics Corporation (CMC Microsystems).
• Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
• Auto21 Network of Centres of Excellence (Auto21).
• University of Victoria (UVic) start-up grant.

1. Level-Restoring Buffer with Unfolded Multiplexor (UMUX-LRB).
   
   • Scott MILLER
   • Mihai SIMA
   • Michael McGUIRE
2. Shift-Enabled Embedded Reconfigurable Array (ShEERA).
   
   • Scott MILLER
   • Mihai SIMA
   • Michael McGUIRE
3. Cryptography-Oriented Reconfigurable Array (CryptoRA).
   
   • Ambrose CHU
   • Scott MILLER
   • Mihai SIMA
4. Hardware-Software Co-Design for Security.
   
   • Ambrose CHU
   • Mihai SIMA
   • Stephen NEVILLE (affiliated researcher).
5. Reconfigurable Solutions for Wireless Applications.
   
   • Eugene HYUN
   • Michael McGUIRE
   • Murugappan SENTHILVELAN
   • Mihai SIMA
6. Reconfigurable Solutions for Automotive Applications.
   
   • Zorawar Singh BHATIA
   • Abdullah TAHA
   • Babak ZAKERI
   • Scott MILLER
   • Mihai SIMA
7. Image Processing with Transcendental Functions.
   
   • Open position
   • Michael McGUIRE
   • Mihai SIMA
8. Run-Time Reconfigurable Solutions for Embedded Systems.
   
   • Zorawar Singh BHATIA
   • Abdullah TAHA
   • Babak ZAKERI
   • Mihai SIMA

Here we will post slides/discussions/papers related to recent or upcoming lab meetings.

• "Circuit Techniques for DC Characterization of Level-Restoring Buffers with or without Unfolded Multiplexors."
  Presenter: Mihai SIMA
  Friday, February 12, 2010, at 10:30am in EOW 230.
  A technical report will be available soon.


• "TBD"
  Presenter: TBD
  Friday, March 19, 2010, at 10:30am in EOW 230.
  A technical report will be available soon.

• Journal papers
  
  
  1. Scott Miller, Mihai Sima, and Michael McGuire, "UMUX-Based Pass-Transistor Logic and Arithmetic for Fine- and Coarse-Grain Reconfigurable Arrays," IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I (TCASI) (submitted). [pdf] [ps] [BibTeX]
  
  
• Conference papers
  
  
  1. Dongdong Chen and Mihai Sima, "Fixed-Point CORDIC-Based QR Decomposition by Givens Rotations on FPGA," International Conference on Reconfigurable Computing and FPGAs (ReConFig 2011), pp. 327-332, Cancun, Mexico, November 2011. [pdf]
  
  
  2. Dian-Marie Ross, Scott Miller, Mihai Sima, and Michael McGuire, "Exploration of Sign Precomputation-based CORDIC in Reconfigurable Systems," The 45th Annual Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computers (Asilomar 2011), Pacific Grove, California, U.S.A., November 2011 (accepted).
  
  
  3. Dian-Marie Ross, Scott Miller, Mihai Sima, and Curran Crawford, "Design Rules for Implementing CORDIC on FPGAs," The IEEE Pacific Rim Conference on Communications, Computers and Signal Processing (PacRim 2011), pp. 797-802, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, August 2011.
  
  
  4. Fatemeh Eslami and Mihai Sima, "Capacitive Boosting for FPGA Interconnection Networks," The 21st International Conference on Field-Programmable Logic and Applications (FPL 2011), pp. 453-458, Chania, Crete, Greece, September 2011.
  
  
  5. Julien Lamoureux, Scott Miller, and Mihai Sima, "Fine-Grained versus Coarse-Grained Shift-and-Add Arithmetic in FPGAs," The 18th ACM/SIGDA International Symposium on Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA 2010), Monterey, California, U.S.A., February 2010 (poster).
  
  
  6. Mihai Sima, Michael McGuire, and Scott Miller, "Reconfigurable Array for Transcendental Functions Calculation," IEEE International Conference on Field-Programmable Technology (ICFPT 2008), pp. 49-56, Taipei, Taiwan, December 2008. [pdf]
  
  
  7. Scott Miller, Mihai Sima, and Michael McGuire, "Transcedental Functions on a Shift-Enabled Reconfigurable Device: CORDIC as a Case-Study," The 42nd Annual Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computers (Asilomar 2008), Pacific Grove, California, U.S.A., October 2008 (poster). [pdf]
  
  
  8. Scott Miller, Ambrose Chu, Mihai Sima, and Michael McGuire, "VLSI Implementation of a Cryptography-Oriented Reconfigurable Array," 11th Euromicro Conference on Digital System Design Architectures, Methods and Tools (DSD 2008), pp. 575-583, Parma, Italy, September 2008. [pdf]
  
  
  9. Scott Miller, Mihai Sima, and Michael McGuire, "VLSI Implementation of a Shift-Enabled Reconfigurable Array," IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS 2008), pp. 1360-1363, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A., May 2008. [pdf]
  
  
  10. Ambrose Chu, Scott Miller, and Mihai Sima, "Reconfigurable Solutions for Very-Long Arithmetic with Applications in Cryptography," The 18th ACM/SIGDA Great Lakes Symposium on VLSI (GLSVLSI 2008), pp. 59-64, Orlando, Florida, U.S.A., May 2008. [pdf]
  
  
  11. Mihai Sima, Michael McGuire, "Embedded Reconfigurable Solution for OFDM Detection over Fast Fading Radio Channels," IEEE Workshop on Signal Processing Systems (SiPS 2007), pp. 13-18, Shanghai, China, October, 2007. [pdf]
  
  
  12. Scott Miller, Mihai Sima, and Michael McGuire, "Alternatives in Designing Level-Restoring Buffers for Interconnection Networks in Field-Programmable Gate Arrays," 10th Euromicro Conference on Digital System Design Architectures, Methods and Tools (DSD 2007), pp. 138-146, Lübeck, Germany, August 2007. [pdf]
  
  
• Patents
  
  
  1. Mihai Sima, Scott Miller, and Michael McGuire, "Level-Restoring Buffers for Programmable Interconnect Circuits and Method for Building the same," Patent No. US 7,570,079, August 04, 2009.
  
  
  2. Mihai Sima, Scott Miller, and Michael McGuire, "Shift-Enabled Reconfigurable Device," Patent Pending No. US 2009 0193384, July 30, 2009.
  
  

1. ShEERA v.1: test structures.

• Eugene HYUN at CHINACOM 2008
  • Eugene's presentation
  • Photos


• Scott MILLER at DSD 2008
  • Scott's presentation
  • Photos


• Mihai SIMA at ICFPT 2008
  • Oral presentation
  • Photos


• Mihai SIMA at AUTO21 Workshop 2009
  • Poster presentation
  • Photos


• Zorawar BHATIA, Dian-Marie ROSS, and Mihai SIMA at AUTO21 Workshop 2010
  • Poster presentation
  • Photos

• Ambrose CHU, BEng and M.A.Sc. (University of Victoria, Canada).
  Master's thesis: Embedded Reconfigurable Solutions for Cryptography.
  Master's defence, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, June 09, 2008.
  First job after graduation: Pareto Logic, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.


• Eugene HYUN, B.Eng.Mgt (McMaster University, Canada) and M.A.Sc. (University of Victoria, Canada).
  Master's thesis: An Indoor-Location Sensing System using WLAN and Ultrasonic/Radio Technologies.
  Master's defence, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, August 13, 2008.
  First job after graduation: PMC-Sierra, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.


• Julien LAMOUREUX, BScCE (University of Alberta, Canada), MASc and PhD (University of British Columbia, Canada), PostDoctoral Fellow at Imperial College, London, United Kingdom and University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
  First job after completing the postdoctoral stage: Veridae Systems, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.


• Dongdong CHEN, BEng (Northwestern Polytechnical University, P.R. China), MSc (Lund University, Sweden), PhD (University of Saskatchewan, Canada) -- Postdoctoral Fellow.
  First job after completing the postdoctoral stage: Marvell Semiconductor, Santa Clara, California, U.S.A.


• Fatemeh ESLAMI, BEng (Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran), M.A.Sc. (University of Victoria, Canada).
  Master's thesis: FPGA Interconnection Networks with Capacitive Boosting in Strong and Weak Inversion.
  First job after completing the M.A.Sc. program: University of British Columbia, Canada -- PhD student.

• Open position to pursue graduate studies at PhD level in the field of electronics and/or computer engineering. The project is aimed at developing a coarse-grain reconfigurable array for automotive applications, and thus it will include algorithm research, architecture definition, and integrated-circuit design. Previous experience in digital and analog circuit design, as well as field-programmable gate arrays is an asset. Specific knowledge of any of these areas is less critical than good intellectual ability. Electronics engineers with exposure to computer engineering and holding a Master's degree are eligible to apply. The research effort is being financed by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada.
  
  Please fill in the online application below. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. In accordance with Canadian immigration requirements, preference will be given to Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada in the selection process. However, all candidates are encouraged to apply.

ReCoEng Lab chair: Dr. Mihai SIMA

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Victoria
P.O. Box 3055 Stn CSC
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3P6
CANADA

Telephone: +1 250 721 8680
Fax: +1 250 721 6052

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