RASSP Informational Activities

by Jack Stinson, Tommy Taylor,
Tom Egolf and Shahram Famorzadeh

Abstract

The purpose of the RASSP E&F Information Activity is to develop awareness and interest in RASSP technology by providing easy access to useful and well organized RASSP-related information. This article provides insight into two of the mechanisms that were implemented in order to provide access to the RASSP-related information: a newsletter and world wide web site. Additionally, the article looks at the upper hierarchy in which data is stored on the RASSP world wide web server.

1. Introduction

To develop awareness and interest in RASSP technology, the RASSP E&F program is providing universal access to RASSP information in a number of ways. A World Wide Web (WWW) site “http://rassp.scra.org/" for the RASSP program has been established. This WWW site was identified in IEEE Spectrum as one of the top-three web sites for Digital Signal Processing (DSP)[1]. The RASSP WWW site contains both general and specific RASSP information including a RASSP overview, technical documents from RASSP contractors, and educational material to support the teaching of the advanced methods being developed by the RASSP program. In addition to the RASSP WWW site, this periodical, entitled The RASSP Digest, is published that provides insight into the accomplishments and progress obtained in RASSP and other related programs. Technical articles, conference tutorials and papers are also developed to facilitate information distribution.

2. The RASSP Digest

The RASSP Digest provides periodic highlights of the RASSP program. Each issue has a focus and contains a wealth of information on the RASSP efforts in the focus area as well as articles from well-known authors outside the program. The current and all past issues are on the web server in multiple formats. The newsletter page may be accessed from the main menu. The list of topics covered to date are as follows:

• RASSP Education Activities – Vol. 4, June, 1997
• Technology Base Efforts – Vol. 3, September, 1996
• The Road to Enterprise Integration — Vol. 3, 1st. Qtr. 1996
• Model Year Architecture — Vol. 2, 4th. Qtr. 1995
• RASSP at 24 Months — Vol. 2, 3rd. Qtr. 1995
• 4X - Charting the Course — Vol. 2, 2nd. Qtr. 1995
• Very High Speed Integrated Circuits (VHSIC) Hardware Description Language (VHDL) — Vol. 2, 1st Qtr. 1995
• RASSP After One Year — Vol. 1, 4th Qtr. 1994

The RASSP Information Server contains information regarding all parts of the DARPA sponsored RASSP program. The format for the frames used on the RASSP server is seen in Figure 1. The "Main Menu Frame" on the left side is always present. The large "RASSP" in the upper left corner will return you to the homepage. The "Secondary Menu Frame" at the top of the page changes based on the page selected. Finally, the "Information Frame" in the middle of the page is where the information appears.

The “Main Menu” buttons provides links to the major areas of focus for the RASSP server. This information includes background information about the program and program participants; documents; educational material and activities; VHDL models, programming guides and software; newsletter issues and sign-up; links to DSP and VHDL related sites; biographical information on the RASSP E&F team members; addresses of RASSP team members; calendar of RASSP and related events and a tool for searching documents on the RASSP server. To help you in your understanding the layout and contents of the RASSP server, selected areas will be described in the remainder of this article.

3.1 Background Information The “Background Page”, seen in Figure 2, provides and overview of the RASSP Program and the Secondary Menu provides links to the government sponsors, MIT/LL Benchmarking program, Lockheed Martin ATL prime program, Technology Base programs and the Education and Facilitation program. The Technology Base page provides links to the RASSP pages of the 21 university and research institution efforts as well as an overview of these efforts in developing the support technology for the RASSP Program.

3.2 Documents The “Documents Page”, as shown in Figure 3, is reached from the main menu. The Secondary Menu contains links to documents in the major areas of the program. The Information Frame contains papers or information that is highlighted and instructions on obtaining plug-ins for your browser to view some of the documents. The documents are mostly in HTML, Adobe Arcrobat (PDF) or PostScript. Some documents may also be in native format.

Figure 4 is the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories (ATL) documents page and shows an example of the format that is used.

3.3 RASSP Education And Facilitation Information

The “Education Page”, provides access to information and material created by the RASSP E&F effort. Figure 5 shows some of the items that are available. One of the major items that the RASSP E&F program has accomplished is the creation of university level course modules that cover a variety of important topics. These are available free of charge electronically to qualified professors. The “Modules” button provides a list of the modules and a link to a request form. The “Abstracts” button takes you to a link that contains a full page description of each module. The “Request” button will take you to a form to request the course modules and the “Feedback” button allows users to provide feedback on the modules by completing a form. The “Courses” button provides information on RASSP E&F courses and workshops.

3.4 VHDL Models and Information

The “VHDL Page” is the focal point for VHDL Models and Information. Figure 6 shows some of the information that is available. Each of these pages is linked to a wealth of information in the selected topic area.

Figure 7 shows the representative tree structure of the topic areas and the population in each of these areas that can be accesses from the VHDL page.

One of the major links under the “VHDL Page” is the “VHDL Models Page”. Figure 8 provides an overview of the different model functionalities available and some of the individual model types available in each function. Most of these models reside on the RASSP server, but some links are to other servers.

When you select the VHDL button on the Main Menu a disclaimer box will appear. Some of the box is shown in Figure 9. This box contains disclaimer and copyright information about the VHDL Models and material. This disclaimer must be read and accepted before you download any information.

3.5 Search Tools

The RASSP Information Server “Search Tool” allows users to perform an integrated electronic full-text search with Boolean operations on the RASSP Information Server. The “Search Tool” page is shown in Figure 10. This search is available only on documents residing on the RASSP server. A search on “Harr and VHDL” will return all the documents that contain both “Harr” and “VHDL”. Note that the search is not case sensitive and “harr and vhdl” will return the same list of documents.

4. Conclusion

The RASSP E&F Information activities are aimed at providing single point access to RASSP Program information. This article has discussed two major mechanisms which help achieve this objective. Accesses to the RASSP Information Server has been

steadily increasing (see Figure 11) with over 1,000,000 since it began. To see for yourself the wealth of information available, visit us at http://rassp.scra.org/. The contents of the RASSP server are updated on a regular basis and any feedback on the web server is appreciated. You can send feedback by selecting the “Webmaster” button at the bottom of most pages or by sending email to ....

References

[1] R. Comerford, Editor, “Web Sights, Searching the Web”, IEEE Spectrum, page 116, January 1996.