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A common requirement in digital-dominated mixed-signal verification is the need for purely event-driven models that imitate Spice or AMS blocks at low fidelity but high speed. Resolved record types are commonly used for this modeling style in VHDL-based flows. Unfortunately, SystemVerilog defines only one resolved net type, the logic type. A second, non-standard net type, wreal, has been borrowed from Verilog-AMS and, with proprietary extensions, added to some implementations of SystemVerilog. wreal is a single real value with a small, fixed set of resolution functions. It solves only a subset of the problems commonly encountered in event-driven analog modeling. In contrast, the ADMS_signals approach is completely general and extensible while still conforming strictly to the IEEE SystemVerilog standard. The stored data type can be any type that is legal in SystemVerilog, including arrays and structs (nested to arbitrary depth) and even class instances (objects). The resolution function is a user-supplied SystemVerilog function. Different networks in the same design hierarchy may be given distinct stored type and resolution function.

The animal world has been a source of inspiration for many robotic designs as of late, as who better to ask about life-like movements than mother Nature herself? Up until now, though, these designs had been mostly focused on small critters, like cockroaches, and simulating properties such as adaptability and speed. But what happens when we start looking at bigger and stronger animals? Like, say, an elephant? Well, Festo’s Bionic Handling Assistant is what happens. This innovation might seem like just another robotic arm at first glance, but the video demonstrates quite vividly how this design is such a big improvement over previous versions. Modeled after the elephant’s mighty trunk, this arm possesses great dexterity, flexibility and strength; operating with smooth, yet firm motions, and can pick up and move any kind of object from one place to another. It’s FinGripper fingers give it “an unparalleled mass/payload ratio”, and it has no problem twisting, assembling and disassembling things, such as the experimental toy in the video.

You would be forgiven if you thought the "F" in F# -- which made its debut as part of Visual Studio 2010 -- stands for "functional." After all, F# (pronounced "F sharp") is a functional programming language for the .NET Framework that combines the succinct, expressive, and compositional style of functional programming with the runtime, libraries, interoperability, and object model of .NET. But Don Syme, inventor of F# and leader of the team that incubated the language, has a different, truncated, and entirely whimsical definition. "In the F# team," says Syme, a principal researcher at Microsoft Research Cambridge, "We say, 'F is for Fun.' F# enables users to write simple code to solve complex problems. Programming with F# really does make many programming tasks simpler, and our users have consistently reported that they've found using the language enjoyable." Indeed, F#, which has been developed in a partnership between Microsoft Research and the Microsoft Developer Division, is already popular with the .NET developer community. The language is widely known in the academic community and among thought leaders, and the list of admirers will only increase as Visual F#, the result of a partnership between Microsoft Research Cambridge and Microsoft's Developer Division, becomes a first-class language in Visual Studio 2010.

Microsoft Surface is a prime example of how natural user interfaces can change the way we interact with computers. As designers and developers, one challenge with creating natural user interfaces for multi-touch devices such as Microsoft Surface or Windows 7 is getting around the old ways of thinking and old habits for interface design. Joshua Blake from InfoStrat decided to tackle this problem by creating SurfaceCube. SurfaceCube is a simple 3-D puzzle game for Microsoft Surface which he designed to illustrate as many as the Surface Interaction Guidelines as possible. I had the opportunity to sit down with Joshua and discuss SurfaceCube and the thinking behind some really interesting design decisions that makes it stand out as a natural user interface. We also briefly discuss Joshua’s upcoming book about natural user interfaces and multi-touch development, Multitouch on Windows: NUI Development with WPF and Silverlight, due Fall 2010 (since recording this interview, the book titled was updated). As a special offer to Channel 9 readers, you can use the following coupon to order the book through the Manning Early Access Program and read the chapters as Josh writes them. Coupon code channel9y is good for 35% off Multitouch on Windows: NUI Development with WPF and Silverlight when ordered through manning.com, and expires on April 24, 2010.

In this demo we showcase efforts in MSR to collaborate with external researchers to explore the application of new technologies, specifically Dryad and DryadLINQ, to big data research problems in science. We also highlight our efforts to provide software and services to academics across the world, through the release of Dryad and DryadLINQ free of charge to the research community, along with associated programming guides, user documentation, and code libraries. Dryad is a general-purpose distributed computing engine, more flexible than MapReduce or Hadoop!, that was designed to simplify the task of implementing distributed applications on clusters of Windows computers. DryadLINQ is an abstraction layer which simplifies the process of implementing Dryad-based applications. Microsoft Research is acutely aware of the ubiquity of big data and the challenges this presents. We are offering researchers the tools, resources and collaboration to explore this new area.

F# is ideal for data-rich, concurrent and algorithmic development: "simple code to solve complex problems". F# is a simple and pragmatic programming language combining functional, object-oriented and scripting programming, and supports cross-platform environments including PC, Mac, and Linux. We'll provide the tutorials, resources and tools you’ll need to begin working with F# right away.