Dr. Baas’ research activities involve the development and implementation of efficient and novel computational hardware with a focus on digital signal processing (DSP), multimedia, and “embedded”-type workloads, which are becoming increasingly important in high-growth application areas from portable electronics to datacenters. Recent projects study applications in the domains of scientific and big-data/cloud computing.

Active projects involve both programmable and dedicated-purpose processors. Recent projects include the AsAP (Asynchronous Array of simple Processors) programmable array processor chips, architectures, applications, and software tools; Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) decoders; Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) processors; Viterbi decoders; and H.264 video encoders and decoders.

Dr. Baas’ research group is one of very few university groups in the world that design and fabricate programmable processor chips. We believe we have designed the #1, #3, and #8 highest clock rate fabricated processors, and among the largest deep-submicron CMOS chips ever designed in a university.