Firewire: standard computer industry interconnect for test & measurement

Do you know what Firewire is? If not, you soon will, IEEE 1394, or Firewire, is an up-and-coming electronics industry standard that will soon be in wide use for interconnecting a massive variety of electronic equipment. It will be used for connecting CD-ROMs and scanners to computers, and it will be used for connecting VCRs, DVDs and satellite dishes to digital televisions. How does this affect Test & Measurement? This paper discusses Firewire, along with it's lower-end companion, USE, and how they can and will be utilized in T&M applications to replace T&M specific technologies, such as IEEE 488, and MXI. The advantages-and disadvantages-of these new technologies are discussed along with what the Test & Measurement industry should do to support these new technologies.     

Ultra-reliable real-time control systems-future trends

Today's aircraft use ultra-reliable real-time controls for demanding functions such as Fly-By-Wire (FBW) flight control. Future aircraft, spacecraft and other vehicles will require greater use of these types of controls for functions that currently are allowed to fail, fail to degraded operation, or require human intervention in response to failure. Fully automated and autonomous functions will require ultra-reliable control. But ultra-reliable systems are very expensive to design and require large amounts of on-board equipment. This paper will discuss how the use of low-cost sensors with digital outputs, digitally commanded fault-tolerant actuation devices and interconnecting networks of low-cost data buses offer the promise of more affordable ultra-reliable systems. Specific technologies and concepts to be discussed include low-cost automotive and industrial data buses, “smart” actuation devices with integral fault masking capabilities, management of redundant sensors, and the fault detection and diagnosis of the data network. The advantages of integrating the control and distribution of electrical power with the control system will be illustrated. The design, installation, and upgrade flexibility benefits provided by an all-digital and shared network approach will be presented. The economic benefits of systems that can operate following failure and without immediate repair will be reviewed. The inherent ability of these redundant systems to provide effective built-in test and self-diagnostics capabilities will be described. The challenges associated with developing ultra-reliable software for these systems and the difficulties associated with exhaustive verification testing will be presented as will additional development hurdles that must be overcome     

Progress in CMOS integrated measurement systems

Selected micro- and nano-systems developed recently at the Physical Electronics Laboratory of ETH Zurich are reviewed: (i) a fluxgate microsystem for detection of the Earth's magnetic field; (ii) a capacitive chemical sensor microsystem for detection of volatile organic compounds in air; and (iii) a parallel scanning AFM chip. The micro- and nano-systems combine sensor structures and readout circuitry on a single chip and are fabricated using industrial CMOS technology in combination with post-processing micromachining and film deposition     

Small satellite access of the Space Network

Small satellites have been perceived as having limited access to NASA's Space Network (SN). The potential for satellite access of the Space Network when the design utilizes a fixed antenna configuration and low-power, coded transmission is analyzed. From the analysis, satellites using this configuration in high-inclination orbits are shown to have a daily data throughput in the 100 to 1000 Mbit range using the multiple access communications service     

Testing for Year 2000 readiness: technical and management issues

The approach of the Year 2000 (Y2K) has called into question the condition of readiness of computer systems upon which organizations depend. Will these systems operate reliably after midnight, January 1, 2000, or will problems associated with date calculations cause failures that adversely affect users? This question has caused organizations to identify their critical systems, test these systems for Y2K problems, and take corrective action where necessary to ensure Y2K readiness. This paper examines various technical and management issues that Southwest Research Institute has dealt with in solving these problems     

Power management and distribution system for a more-electricaircraft (MADMEL)

A five-phase Power Management and Distribution System for a More-Electric Aircraft (MADMEL) program was awarded by the Air Force to Northrop/Grumman Military Aircraft Division in September 1991. The objective of the program is to design, develop, and demonstrate an advanced electrical power generation and distribution system for a More-Electric Aircraft (MEA). The MEA emphasizes the use of electrical power in place of hydraulics, pneumatic, and mechanical power to optimize the performance and life cycle cost of the aircraft. This paper presents an overview of the MADMEL program and a top-level summary of the program results, development and test of major components to date. In Phase I and Phase II studies, the electrical load requirements were established and the electrical power system architecture was defined for both near-term (NT-year 1996) and far-term (FT-year 2003) MEA application. The detailed design and specification for the Electrical Power System (EPS), its interface with the Vehicle Management System, and the test set-up were developed under Phase III. Phase IV, fabrication and testing of the subsystem level hardware, has been completed. Overall system level integration and testing, Phase V, is scheduled to be completed by September 1999     

Donald Hamilton,The Evolving Universe,Astrophysics and Space Science Library,volume 321

Space Science Reviews -     

UVCS/SOHO Observations of Spectral Line Profiles in Polar Coronal Holes

Ultraviolet emission line profiles have been measured on 15-29 September 1997 for H I 1216 Å, O VI 1032, 1037 Å and Mg X 625 Å in a polar coronal hole, at heliographic heights ? (in solar radii) between 1.34 and 2.0. Observations of H I 1216 Å and the O VI doublet from January 1997 for ? = 1.5 to 3.0 are provided for comparison. Mg X 625 Å is observed to have a narrow component at ? = 1.34 which accounts for only a small fraction of the observed spectral radiance, and a broad component that exists at all observed heights. The widths of O VI broad components are only slightly larger than those for H I at ? = 1.34, but are significantly larger at ? = 1.5 and much larger for ? > 1.75. In contrast, the Mg X values are less than those of H I up to 1.75 and then increase rapidly up to at least ? = 2.0, but never reach the values of O VI.     

Soho Observations of Density Fluctuations in Coronal Holes

In recent UVCS/SOHO White Light Channel (WLC) observations we found quasi-periodic variations in the polarized brightness (pB) in the polar coronal holes at heliocentric distances of 1.9 to 2.45 solar radii. The motivation for the observation is the 2.5D MHD model of solar wind acceleration by nonlinear waves, that predicts compressive fluctuations in coronal holes. In February 1998 we performed new observations using the UVCS/WLC in the coronal hole and obtained additional data. The new data corroborate our earlier findings with higher statistical significance. The new longer observations show that the power spectrum peaks in the 10–12 minute range. These timescales agree with EIT observations of brightness fluctuations in polar plumes. We performed preliminary LASCO/C2 observations in an effort to further establish the coronal origin of the fluctuations. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A Parallel Adaptive 3D MHD Scheme for Modeling Coronal and Solar Wind Plasma Flows

A parallel adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) scheme is described for solving the governing equations of ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) in three space dimensions. This solution algorithm makes use of modern finite-volume numerical methodology to provide a combination of high solution accuracy and computational robustness. Efficient and scalable implementations of the method have been developed for massively parallel computer architectures and high performance achieved. Numerical results are discussed for a simplified model of the initiation and evolution of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in the inner heliosphere. The results demonstrate the potential of this numerical tool for enhancing our understanding of coronal and solar wind plasma processes. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.