expires in 22:33
(Note: The Making of Caramel Skies postponed. Instead here's an entry with many technical terms. Sorry =)
After all, BWRC is still a publicly-funded research center. That's the reminder of the day. Before today, it never crossed my mind. There were always plenty of places to work; tools were usually at your fingertips.
Today, it seems, was a not-so-gentle wake-up call. In the morning, a group of researchers took the spectrum analyzer from the MCMA workstation (where I work); luckily, I didn't really need it. In the afternoon, one of the researchers on the MCMA project needed to use the equipment, so I stepped aside. This happened to be right after Ted (the testing guy I'll eventually succeed) stopped by and told me why I was getting wonky results from the DAC and ADC testing. When she was done, I resumed my work only to find that someone had "checked out" the clock frequency of BEE Unit 2 for 22+ hours (and set it to an undesired 12 Mhz). Fantastic.
Background BEE Info: The Berkeley Emulation Engine (BEE) is a set of 20 FPGAs that is capable of emulating complex hardware. Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) are integrated circuits that can be programmed and reprogrammed after being manufactured. There are four BEE units at BWRC; the MCMA project uses BEE Unit 2. Each BEE is like a library of computing resources. Those with access can "check out" individual FPGAs on the BEE, the clock frequency, and the reset switch. When you check out something, you provide the length of time that you need. That prevents other people from reprogramming FPGAs that you have checked out or changing the clock frequency when you don't want them to.
Some of the tests that I've been doing require me to use the BEE for ChipScope (hardware debugging tool). Notes from Artem (the testing guy before Ted) say to set the clock frequency to 64 Mhz. I pouted for awhile, then decided to try and run them anyway. Of course, what do I find but no ChipScope licenses available so I can't even attempt the tests anyway. Fantastic.
So, I did what any rational human being would do. I went to BEARcade =). Oh, and guess who was there too: Bigi, for a GGXX battle.
Just because I can't let the entry end without mentioning this: in one of the rounds, my finishing blow was a flower pot. Yes, flower pot to the dome won me the round. Fantastic! =)
