ALBERT

Description: The architecture of High Rate (600 Mega-bits per second) Digital Demodulator (HRDD) ASIC capable of demodulating BPSK and QPSK modulated data is presented in this paper. The advantages of all-digital processing include increased flexibility and reliability with reduced reproduction costs. Conventional serial digital processing would require high processing rates necessitating a hardware implementation in other than CMOS technology such as Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) which has high cost and power requirements. It is more desirable to use CMOS technology with its lower power requirements and higher gate density. However, digital demodulation of high data rates in CMOS requires parallel algorithms to process the sampled data at a rate lower than the data rate. The parallel processing algorithms described here were developed jointly by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The resulting all-digital receiver has the capability to demodulate BPSK, QPSK, OQPSK, and DQPSK at data rates in excess of 300 Mega-bits per second (Mbps) per channel. This paper will provide an overview of the parallel architecture and features of the HRDR ASIC. In addition, this paper will provide an over-view of the implementation of the hardware architectures used to create flexibility over conventional high rate analog or hybrid receivers. This flexibility includes a wide range of data rates, modulation schemes, and operating environments. In conclusion it will be shown how this high rate digital demodulator can be used with an off-the-shelf A/D and a flexible analog front end, both of which are numerically computer controlled, to produce a very flexible, low cost high rate digital receiver.

Description: Thirteen adult individuals of a small octopus species of the Octopus aegina complex, 7 males and 6 females, were caught by trawl on bottoms ranging from 60 to 70 m of depth off the southern coast of Turkey, close to Mersin. This species (which is similar to O. kagoshimensis) was never before recorded in the Mediterranean. Further to the West on the southern Turkish coast (Gulf of Bodrum), a single individual of a pelagic squid of the genus Octopoteuthis was captured. The tentative identification as O. megaptera is based on the body shape and the presence and position of two caudal mantle photophores; this is the first record of this species in the Mediterranean. These observations are discussed with regard to questions of species identification and possible recent species range extensions due to immigration from the Atlantic, or from the Red Sea (Lessepsian migration).