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Phase Coherence has broad
experience in scientific and technical
computing. We have expertise developing
embedded systems for high speed data
acquisition and real time signal
processing. We develop software on Mac OS
X, Windows, and VxWorks platforms. We
design custom GUIs to display scientific
data and also do micro-controller design
and prototyping for compact control
systems. Some of our systems use National
Instruments equipment as well. The group
does some circuit design and fabrication
in-house. In addition to supporting
internal research activities, we provide
consulting services. A few project
examples are described below.
Members of the Phase
Coherence staff are actively involved in
open source development for Mac OS X.
These projects include the X.Org for Mac
OS X and general Darwin development. The
leader of the software group, Torrey
Lyons, is a committer on the X.Org Project
and the founder of the XonX Project, which
originally ported and supported X11 on Mac
OS X.
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Medical Imaging
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Our group created a data acquisition,
image processing, and storage solution
for a coherent optical tomography
research group interested in medical
imaging. The data acquisition and some
front-end processing is done on
multiprocessor single board computers.
Data is stored and retrieved from a RAID
via fibre channel. The single board
computers run VxWorks and a Cocoa based
application running on Mac OS X controls
data taking, data retrieval, and
maintains a database of all data takes.
Some of the system's features include:
- 520 MB/s sustained RAID writes
- 100 MS/s 12bit 2 channel sustained
data acquisition
- front end FPGA processing
- low overhead fast file system on the
RAID
- data takes are displayed in
real-time on the client app.
- TCP/IP based Client-Server
communication over Gigabit ethernet
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Laser Radar
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This was a demanding real-time signal
processing application that required
four quad-processor single board
computers. A Cocoa based application,
running on Mac OS X, was used to command
the single board computers as well as
other computers that controlledÊseveral
motorized optical stages. The processing
algorithms had to be very tightly
optimized in order to meet the project's
real-time requirements. The Mac OS X
application had a wide assortment of
visualization capabilities, including
plotting Doppler spectrums, power
returns, position maps, etc. This system
was successfully deployed in a number of
field trials to remote locations. System
features include:
- custom Altivec vectorized signal
processing routines
- 800 MS/s 10-bit dataÊacquisition
- Several types of plots for
monitoring signal health
- Automated servo control from the
host GUI
- TCP/IP based Client-Server
communication
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Remote Instrument
Control
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Our group developed a data acquisition,
signal processing, and control system to
be deployed in a pressure vessel. A
remote single board computer interfaces
with 7 motorized opto-mechanical stages
and a number of status sensors for
temperature, voltages, moisture, etc.
The remote computer is sent commands
over aÊfiber TCP/IP connection by an
application running on a local desktop
computer. The local application does all
of the signal processing and
visualization as well as allowing a user
to control and monitor every aspect of
the remote system. Since the remote
computer is sealed in a pressure vessel,
the remote computer application written
in VxWorks must be robust and persistent
for extended periods of time. Some of
the system's features include:
- 8 channels of 16-bit data
acquisition at 100 MS/s
- RS-485 serial controlled peripherals
- 7 stages of servo motion control
- all instrument control through
user-friendly GUI
- TCP/IP based Client-Server
communication
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