At UNM the knowledge revolution is taking place in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department classrooms, beginning with undergraduate courses such as Introduction to Digital Logic, and quickly moving to courses in microprocessing. Quick and imaginative students soon get an opportunity to design and test computer chips for specific tasks.
They are on the cutting edge of custom chip development, working on chips that can be reprogrammed to change tasks, even if they are out in space orbiting the earth. It is real world training for high paying, high tech jobs in the 21st century.
About the Chips
Most computer chips are designed to do one thing, like run a laptop, but the field programmable gate array (FPGA) chips have special properties. They are custom designed and tested; they can be reprogrammed; and they can be used for a wide variety of tasks. BMW uses the chips to monitor engine temperature and to automatically choose the correct gears in cars. The U.S. Air Force is looking at ways put the chips in weather satellites. And that is where a new center near UNM comes into the picture. The FPGAs can be programmed to do one thing then reprogrammed either remotely or in the lab to do another.
FPGA Mission Assurance Center
The FPGA Mission Assurance Center has a $1.6 million grant from Congress to train students and professors and recruit high school students to design the computer chips they need to move into the next generation of electronic technology. For students it’s a direct road to the best paying and most challenging technical jobs in the new century.
The center is directed by Steve Suddarth, a former United States Air Force Colonel and UNM Research Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Deputy Director Craig Kief, an adjunct professor in ECE, masterminds the outreach program which already includes 10 colleges and universities throughout the southwest. Professors from the schools come to the center, learn the curriculum and go back to guide their students through beginning courses. Eventually the students are in advanced courses at UNM.
Advanced Students are recruited from NMSU, NM Tech, Louisiana State University, from the Air Force Institute of Technology and the Ibero- American Science and Technology Education Consortium. The Air Force Research Laboratory is a partner as are the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, SES Consultants and the Xilinx Corporation.
“It’s a complex concept that requires a great deal of collaboration,” Suddarth said. At UNM, ECE professors Christos Christodoulou and Marios Pattichis are advisory board members and ECE Professors Howard Pollard and Jim Plusquellic teach the Microprocessor Lab and advanced Hardware Descriptive Language Courses.
Planning for Advances in Space
Suddarth has his eyes on space. A big problem with space projects is the length of time it takes to build and qualify computer chips to be used in spacecraft. Ordinary electronics don’t work in space because they must be carefully shielded from radiation and because it is difficult to provide optimal temperatures for their functioning. Plus, the qualification process can take several years. Suddarth believes he can chop years from the process by qualifying FPGA chips for space work. Once the chips are cleared, they can be quickly programmed to do what is needed.
The chips are also much smaller than electronic components now used on spacecraft. Suddarth said, “We can follow the revolution that is happening right now in electronics, so instead of a spacecraft the size of this room, we have a spacecraft that can fit into my hands.” On spacecraft, size, weight and power are all critical components.
Space is Just the Beginning
Suddarth said what the industry needs now is people trained to think about how to design with these chips and put them into complex systems. Not enough trained programmers have the skill and imagination to meet the demand. Currently businesses will hire promising graduate students and train them for another four years or so until they have the right skills to make real contributions. He wants to show industry that students coming from this program are immediately able to handle the job.
The program is concentrating on students throughout the Southwest because they think the national laboratories, universities, community colleges and businesses can create the kind of combination that might drive an entire industry.
Suddarth said, “If New Mexico can become a design center for these chips it will bring and keep high paying jobs to the state. It’s a chance to build a specialized industry from the ground up in New Mexico.”
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Posted by scarr at November 6, 2008 04:13 PM