Lockheed Martin Corporation

Larry Jackson

John Walter Rapp

Mark J Jones

Troy Cherasaro

Scott Morris Maurer

Kevin J Kofler

Ryan C Brewer

Kenneth R Schulz

Mark J Derksen

Chandan Mathur

Scott Hellenbach

A pipeline accelerator includes a bus and a plurality of pipeline units, each unit coupled to the bus and including at least one respective hardwired-pipeline circuit. By including a plurality of pipeline units in the pipeline accelerator, one can increase the accelerator's data-processing performance as compared to a single-pipeline-unit accelerator. Furthermore, by designing the pipeline units so that they communicate via a common bus, one can alter the number of pipeline units, and thus alter the configuration and functionality of the accelerator, by merely coupling or uncoupling pipeline units to or from the bus. This eliminates the need to design or redesign the pipeline-unit interfaces each time one alters one of the pipeline units or alters the number of pipeline units within the accelerator.

Pipeline accelerator having multiple pipeline units and related computing machine and method

The illustrative embodiment of the present invention is a system and a method for the detection and limited identification of biological agents. The system is small, light weight, requires little power to operate and uses few consumables. The system can be configured for use in either stationary or mobile applications. The system incorporates elements that enable it to obtain an air sample, extract particulates from the air sample, exposes the particulates to electromagnetic radiation, and monitor for fluorescent emissions. To the extent that fluorescent emissions are detected and exceed a predetermined value, an alarm is triggered.

System for detection of biological agents

A peer-vector machine includes a host processor and a hardwired pipeline accelerator. The host processor executes a program, and, in response to the program, generates host data, and the pipeline accelerator generates pipeline data from the host data. Alternatively, the pipeline accelerator generates the pipeline data, and the host processor generates the host data from the pipeline data. Because the peer-vector machine includes both a processor and a pipeline accelerator, it can often process data more efficiently than a machine that includes only processors or only accelerators. For example, one can design the peer-vector machine so that the host processor performs decision-making and non-mathematically intensive operations and the accelerator performs non-decision-making and mathematically intensive operations. By shifting the mathematically intensive operations to the accelerator, the peer-vector machine often can, for a given clock frequency, process data at a speed that surpasses the speed at which a processor-only machine can process the data.

Configuring a portion of a pipeline accelerator to generate pipeline date without a program instruction

Pipeline accelerator including pipeline circuits in communication via a bus, and related system and method

A programmable circuit receives configuration data from an external source, stores the firmware in a memory, and then downloads the firmware from the memory. Such a programmable circuit allows a system, such as a computing machine, to modify the programmable circuit's configuration, thus eliminating the need for manually reprogramming the configuration memory. For example, if the programmable circuit is an FPGA that is part of a pipeline accelerator, a processor coupled to the accelerator can modify the configuration of the FPGA. More specifically, the processor retrieves from a configuration registry firmware that represents the modified configuration, and sends the firmware to the FPGA, which then stores the firmware in a memory such as an electrically erasable and programmable read-only memory (EEPROM). Next, the FPGA downloads the firmware from the memory into its configuration registers, and thus reconfigures itself to have the modified configuration.

Programmable circuit and related computing machine and method

The illustrative embodiment of the present invention is a system and a method for the detection and identification of biological agents. The system incorporates elements that enable it to obtain an air sample, extract particulates from the air sample onto a stationary-phase collection media, expose the particulates to electromagnetic radiation, and monitor for fluorescent emissions. In some embodiments, particulates are exposed to electromagnetic radiation using a plurality of LEDs, wherein some of the LEDs emit electromagnetic radiation at relatively shorter wavelengths and some other of the LEDs emit electromagnetic radiation at relatively longer wavelengths.

Sensor comprising multi-wavelength LEDs

The illustrative embodiment of the present invention is a unmanned aerial vehicle that includes a sensing system for the detection and limited identification of biological agents. The system is small, light weight, requires little power to operate and uses few consumables. The system incorporates elements that enable it to obtain an air sample, extract particulates from the air sample and retain them on a stationary-phase collection media, exposes the particulates to electromagnetic radiation, and monitor the particulates for fluorescent emissions. To the extent that fluorescent emissions are detected and exceed a predetermined value, an alarm is triggered. In some embodiments, in addition to performing real-time analyses on the extracted particulates, the collection media is removed from the system and the sample is subjected to more detailed analysis via additional equipment. Various sample-collecting regions on the collection media are 'time stamped' or 'location stamped' so that it can determined when and/or where each sample that is being analyzed &#x201c;off-line&#x201d; was obtained.

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Manassas, VA, United States of America

Larry Jackson