ABSTRACT
A field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is an integrated circuit in which the logic and interconnections can be defined by downloading a bitstream to its memory. Since their introduction in the 1980s, these devices have dramatically increased in capacity and functionality, with the recent Xilinx ZU48DR FPGA integrating a quad core ARM Cortex A-53, a dual core ARM Cortex-R5, 8x 14-bit, 10 GSPS digital-to-analog converters; 8x 14-bit, 5 GSPS analog-to-digital converters; 33 G transceivers and 930K system logic cells on a single device. FPGAs enable integration of entire communications systems on a single chip, with significant latency, size, weight, power and cost (LSWaP-C) advantages. This tutorial presentation first provides an overview of FPGA technology and then describes opportunities for their use in sophisticated applications in defence communications through the combination of software defined radio and machine learning technology. The opportunities for the development of secure, sovereign solutions based on this technological foundation will be explained and finally research from our group and others will be surveyed.
Participants can expect to establish a working understanding of the fusion of FPGA technology with Software Defined Radio and Machine Learning for Edge applications and enable their ability to evaluate the suitability of this class of solutions to their problem domains.
BIOGRAPHY
Philip Leong received the B.Sc., B.E. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Sydney. He is currently Professor of Computer Systems in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering at the University of Sydney, Visiting Professor at Imperial College, and Chief Technology Officer of CruxML Pty Ltd. Prof Leong was co-founder and program co-chair of the International Conference on Field Programmable Technology (FPT); program co-chair of the International Conference on Field Programmable Logic and Applications (FPL); Senior Associate Editor for ACM Transactions on Reconfigurable Technology and Systems (TRETS). The author of more than 200 technical papers and 5 patents, Dr. Leong was the recipient of the 2005 FPT conference Best Paper as well as the 2007 and 2008 FPL conference Stamatis Vassiliadis Outstanding Paper awards.