TL;DR. A lab for STEM middle school students using vintage serial terminals to illustrate that: computers communicate by sending numbers, numbers arrive one by one in order (serial), numbers travel over wires (pipes). These notes include links to materials and instructions that take you and a student through (1) connecting a serial terminal to a computer, (2) configuration, (3) playing with pipes by sending messages, and (4) logging into a serial Linux console to see how pipes scale! This is the latest in our series of education-with-old-hardware posts beginning with “Build a 486 Bootloader with Your Kid“. Required Materials A serial terminal like one of: A Wyse terminal (link to eBay). This is the best because it uses standard serial. …
Fast Atom Rearrangement in Optical Tweezer Traps
“With ArrayFire, we got the best performance of the software for our needs, breaking the limit of a challenging experiment in atomic physics. We also simply saved a lot of time so that we can further develop our research.” -Woojun Lee, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) A quantum computer is very different than a conventional computer. It utilizes the quantum mechanical properties of matter. It is thought to have the potential to far outperform conventional computers in certain types of computations. One way to realize a quantum computer is to trap many single atoms in a vacuum chamber and control them with modulated lights. As the number of atoms gets larger, controlling them also requires more and more computational …
Build a 486 Bootloader with Your Kid
TL;DR. A lab at an elementary school level to illustrate to children that: computers must be instructed, instruction is stored on media, the most basic instruction is a series of numbers. These notes include links to materials and instructions that take you and a student through (1) starting linux on a vintage 486 computer, (2) assembling a boot-loader, (3) writing it to a floppy, and (4) starting a computer to show a message. Intro I built a bootloader with my children and share our work in this post. It is a lab, at an elementary school level, that you can repeat for yourself and share with the rising generation. The intent of this activity is to drive home the idea …
High-energy Laser-pulse Self-compression in Short Gas-filled Fibers
Researchers in physics and physical chemistry from the University of Southampton credit ArrayFire in a scientific report for its help in drastically reducing computation time of linear algebra, vectored mathematical operations, and fast Fourier transforms (FFT). The report examines high-energy laser pulse self-compression in short gas-filled fibers. Research Abstract From the article in Physical Review, the following abstract summarizes the research: We examine the spatio-temporal compression of energetic femtosecond laser pules within short gas-filled fibers. The study is undertaken using an advanced nonlinear pulse propagation model based on a multimode generalized nonlinear Schr ̈odinger equation that has been modified to include plasma effects. Plasma defocusing and linear propagation effects are shown to be the dominant processes within a highly dynamical …
Real-time Quantitative Phase Imaging of Red Blood Cells with ArrayFire
Researchers from the College of Optical Science and Engineering of Zhejiang University and the Department of Ophthalmology of Stanford University published a scientific report using ArrayFire to perform quantitative phase imaging in real-time with example results tracking red blood cell dynamics. Research Abstract From the article in Nature, the following abstract summarizes the research: Real-time quantitative phase imaging has tremendous potential in investigating live biological specimens in vitro. Here we report on a wideband sensitivity-enhanced interferometric microscopy for quantitative phase imaging in real-time by employing two quadriwave lateral shearing interferometers based on randomly encoded hybrid gratings with different lateral shears. A theoretical framework to analyze the measurement sensitivity is firstly proposed, from which the optimal lateral shear pair for sensitivity …
Identifying Defects in Bragg Coherent Diffractive Imaging with ArrayFire
Researchers from the Materials Science Division of Argonne National Laboratory published a scientific report using ArrayFire to identify defects in Bragg coherent diffractive imaging (BCDI). From the article in Nature, the following abstract summarizes the research: Crystallographic defects such as dislocations can significantly alter material properties and functionality. However, imaging these imperfections during operation remains challenging due to the short length scales involved and the reactive environments of interest. BCDI has emerged as a powerful tool capable of identifying dislocations, twin domains, and other defects in 3D detail with nanometer spatial resolution within nanocrystals and grains in reactive environments. However, BCDI relies on phase retrieval algorithms that can fail to accurately reconstruct the defect network. Here, numerical simulations are used …
Transcranial High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Therapies with ArrayFire
Researchers from the University of Utah recently used ArrayFire to publish results on a full-wave phase aberration correction method for transcranial high-intensity ultrasound therapies. From the Journal of Therapeutic Ultrasound, the following abstract summarizes the research: Background Non-invasive high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) can be used to treat a variety of disorders, including those in the brain. However, the differences in acoustic properties between the skull and the surrounding soft tissue cause aberrations in the path of the ultrasonic beam, hindering or preventing treatment. Methods The paper presents a method for correcting these aberrations that is fast, full-wave, and allows for corrections at multiple treatment locations. The method is simulation-based: an acoustic model is built based on high-resolution CT scans, and …
ArrayFire Updates to Kickoff 2022
We are excited to report a great kickoff to 2022 with this quick list of notable ArrayFire developments underway. ArrayFire v3.8.1 Release We recently announced ArrayFire v3.8.1, available on Github (source) and on our download page (binaries). Flashlight Project for Machine Learning The open source Flashlight project from Facebook is growing rapidly. In a single repository, Flashlight provides apps for research across multiple domains: Automatic speech recognition Image classification Object detection Language modeling Flashlight builds atop ArrayFire as the tensor library for GPU and CPU training. Parallel Universe Magazine ArrayFire was recently featured in Intel’s Parallel Universe Magazine. Check out the article entitled, “ArrayFire Interoperability with oneAPI, Libraries, and OpenCL Code.” This article explains how, with minor code changes, whole OpenCL libraries …
Dissipative Dynamics at Conical Intersections
Researchers from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore presented results from simulations achieved with ArrayFire in the Faraday Discussions journal of The Royal Society of Chemistry. The simulations model the effects of a dissipative environment on the ultrafast vibronic couplings at conical intersections. In this post, we first define these terms to gain understanding. Subsequently, we provide a summary of this research and the utility provided by ArrayFire in the simulation framework. Defining Terms Dissipative Environment (ref1, ref2) A dissipative system is a thermodynamically open system that is operating out of, and often far from, thermodynamic equilibrium in an environment with which it exchanges energy and matter. A tornado may be thought of as a dissipative system. Dissipative systems stand in …
ArrayFire v3.8.1 Release
We are excited to share the v3.8.1 bugfix release of ArrayFire! In this post, we share an overview of the changes to ArrayFire in its 3.8.1 bugfix release. The binaries and source code can be downloaded from these locations: Official installers GitHub repository Official APT repository The bugfix release consists mainly of overall improvements to the ArrayFire 3.8 codebase as well as bugfixes. Improvements As always, a number of improvements have been made to all backends. We continue to clean up the codebase and update the library to support newer frameworks. In addition to general maintenance and bookkeeping, the following improvements have been added: moddims now uses JIT approach for certain special cases JIT Performance Optimization Improved readability of log …