Bevan Baas received a B.S. in electronic engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in 1987, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1990 and 1999 respectively. His doctoral research was in the areas of algorithms, architectures, and circuits for low-power and high-performance computation. A key portion of his dissertation research was the development of the cached-FFT algorithm and the design of a single-chip 1024-point complex FFT processor which utilizes the algorithm. The full-custom chip contains 460,000 transistors, was fabricated in 0.7 μm standard CMOS, and is fully functional on first-pass silicon. At a supply voltage of 1.1 V, it calculates 1024-point FFTs 16 times more efficiently than the previously most efficient processor. At a supply voltage of 3.3 V, it operates at a clock speed of 173 MHz, which is 2.6 times higher than the previously fastest [JSSC, March 1999].

After graduation, he joined Atheros Communications where he was the second full-time employee after the founders and served as a core member of the team which developed the first IEEE 802.11a (54 Mbps, 5 GHz) wireless LAN solution; the chipset has been shipping in volume since September of 2001 and for one and a half years was the only shipping 802.11a chipset [ISSCC 2002]. The digital baseband processor is now shipping in all 802.11g (54 Mbps, 2.4 GHz WiFi) and 802.11a products. Atheros became a publicly-held company in Feb. of 2004 (NASDAQ:ATHR), and as of Feb 2007 had shipped more than 100 million chipsets. In 2006, Atheros first achieved a market cap. of over $1 Billion.

In 2003, Dr. Baas joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Davis as an Assistant Professor, where he currently supervises research for 11 graduate students. In 2008, he became an Associate Professor.

His research interests lie in the areas of architectures, circuits, software, DSP algorithms, and tools for high-performance, energy-efficient, and area-efficient processors in the context of future fabrication technologies. He is interested in both programmable and special-purpose processors with an emphasis on DSP workloads.

Recent projects include the AsAP (Asynchronous Array of simple Processors) programmable array processor chip, applications, and tools [ISSCC 2006]; Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) decoders; FFT processors; viterbi decoders; and H.264 video codecs. Processors on the AsAP chip operate at over 600 MHz at 2.0 V and are believed to be the highest clock rate processors (programmable or special purpose) designed in any university.

The VCL group recently completed the design and fabrication of a second generation processing platform with 167 processors in 65 nm CMOS [VLSI Symp 2008].

From 1987-89, he served as a new product engineer working on the processor for a high-end minicomputer in Hewlett Packard's Computer Systems Division, Cupertino, CA. He also worked at Hughes Aircraft on mechanical design and radar system design during two internships. Other positions held include: computer programmer, plasma etching machine operator, gardener, car washer, newspaper delivery boy, taco/burrito cook, dishwasher, and the most enjoyable job he has ever had (except being a professor): pizza cook.

Dr. Baas was an NSF Fellow from 1990-93 and a NASA Graduate Student Researcher Fellow from 1993-96. He received the National Science Foundation CAREER award in 2006, and the Most Promising Engineer/Scientist Award by AISES in 2006. During the summer of 2006 he was a Visiting Professor in Intel's Circuit Research Lab. Since 2007 he has been an Associate Editor for the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits. He has served as a member of the Technical Program Committee of the International Conference on Computer Design (ICCD) in 2004, 2005, and 2007; and a session chair in 2005. He also serves as a member of the Technical Advisory Board of an early stage technology company. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi, Phi Kappa Phi, Eta Kappa Nu, AISES, and the IEEE.

B. Baas | VCL | ECE Dept. | UC Davis
July 2008