bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Optimizing delayed branches
Authors: Gross Thomas R. , Hennessy John L.
Published: January 2007

Delayed branches are commonly found in micro-architectures. A compiler or assembler can exploit delayed branches. This is achieved by moving code from one of several points to the positions following the branch instruction. We present several strategies for moving code to utilize the branch delay, and discuss the requirements and benefits of these strategies. An algorithm for processing branch delays has been implemented and we give empirical results. The performance data show that a reasonable percentage of these delays can be avoided.
A firmware monitor to support vertical migration decisions in the UNIX operating system
Authors: Holtkamp B. , Kaestner H.
Published: January 2007

From a methodological point of view vertical migration involves the following four steps: identification of migration objects, prediction of expected system improvements, implementation, and verification of the results. In this paper a firmware monitor is presented as a support tool for the first and fourth step.

The application environment for this monitor is a PDP-11/60 with writable control store running the UNIX operating system. Based upon a UNIX system model the requirements for the monitor are defined in terms of objects and their parameters to be measured. Afterwards the hierarchical structure and the components of the firmware monitor are presented. Furthermore the monitor handling and its influence on the operating system are discussed.
Crossing the machine interface
Authors: Olbert A. G.
Published: January 2007

The concepts and theory behind a specific type of hardware accelerator, oar “assist”, are presented. Such accelerators are specific extensions to an existing, generalized data processor architecture. Both the software system and the hardware implementation are changed by the extensions. For the accelerators discussed here, the hardware implementation is accomplished solely in microcode.

The generalized architecture can be compatible across a line of data processors. The accelerators are defacto extensions to the basic architecture and are normally only defined on a subset of the processor line. These architectural extensions consist of functions migrated from “above” the generalized architecture (i.e. software functions) into the processor architecture and processor implementation.

The accelerators provide a method of improving system performance that is complementary to improving performance through modification of the generalized processor architecture itself or the underlying circuitry implementation.
Design of concurrently testable microprogrammed control units
Authors: Namjoo Masood
Published: January 2007

Four schemes for the design of concurrently testable microprogrammed control units are presented. In Schemes 1 and 2 the concept of path signatures is used for detection of malfunctions in the control unit. Two different methods for computation of signatures are given. In Schemes 3 and 4, a check-symbol is assigned to each microinstruction and the integrity of these check-symbols is checked concurrently. A deterministic approach is used for generation of check-symbols in Scheme 4. A comparative study of these schemes is done with respect to storage and time overhead, error coverage, and implementation complexity.
Emulating an MIMD architecture
Authors: Bogong Su , Grishman Ralph
Published: January 2007

As part of a research effort in parallel processor architecture and programming, the Ultracomputer group at New York University has done extensive simulation of parallel programs. To speed up these simulations, we have developed a parallel processor emulator, using the microprogrammable PUMA Computer System previously designed and built at NYU.
MBALM/1700
Authors: Griss M. L. , Swanson M. R.
Published: January 2007

This paper describes the implementation of BALM and LISP processors for the Burroughs B1726 computer. The processors consist of an interpreter of MBALM pseudo-code (written in MIL), and a compiler from BALM or LISP to MBALM code (written in BALM or LISP). Of particular interest is the modular design of the interpreter, and the techniques used to evaluate and improve the size and speed of the machine. The current system is interactive, with incremental function compilation, compacting garbage collector, and virtual storage organization.
The implementation of a user-extensible system on a dynamically microprogrammable computer
Authors: Fung Fergus K. , King Willis K.
Published: January 2007

On a dynamically user-microprogrammable computer the user can tailor the machine to his needs by constructing microprogrammed routines and adding them to the system. If these routines are recognized by the assembler, then using them is no different from using any other basic machine instruction of the computer. The base machine is thus extended. The design and implementation of such a user-extensible system is described. It consists of 2 main parts: a pager which manages a virtual memory for the writable control storage and a user-extensible assembler which accepts microprogrammed routine into the virtual control memory and makes this an integral part of the system.
Microprogram structures for high level language elements
Authors: Zimmermann Gerhard
Published: January 2007

Some elements of ALGOL-like languages consume much computer time, if they are coded on the machine instruction level. The examples of this paper show that this time and the number of program steps can be drastically reduced by microprogramming and suitable hardware processor structures. Furthermore it seems to be reasonable and possible to translate HLL-programs to microprograms avoiding the machine instruction level. The language MIMOLA is used for the documentation of the microprograms and for the top-down design of the hardware structures. An example structure is given.
Dynamic microprogramming in a time sharing environment
Authors: Guha Ratan K.
Published: January 2007

In this paper, we present the system design and implementation of a very flexible dynamic microprogramming support system in a time sharing environment. The system has been implemented under the UNIX time sharing operating system on the user microprogrammable computer CAL DATA 135. The system allows the user to write, assemble, test and debug a microprogram very easily in a multiuser environment. Since the user has access to the internals of the computer, reliability and integrity of the computer system become the primary concern. So when a microprogram is written either it is simulated or it goes through a certification procedure with the help of the user and the system. To ensure the reliability and integrity of the system, the certification procedure becomes a necessity. Once a microprogram is certified, a copy of the program is kept in the system so that it can be used by anyone (if the user wants to share). Thus anyone can take advantage of any of the existing microprograms in the system.
Microbe
Authors: Laws Ben A.
Published: January 2007

A microassembler is described that generates a symbolic commentary for each microinstruction. This approach yields many of the benefits of programming in a high level language without the high implementation cost. The commentary assists with code optimization and provides a record of the processor's operation. An outline for implementing a commentator gives a sense for its cost, which is small compared to the returned value.
A microprogrammed keyword transformation unit for a database computer
Authors: Kannan Krishnamurthi , Hsiao David K. , Kerr Douglas S.
Published: January 2007

The design of a microprogrammable microprocessor-based keyword transformation unit for a database computer(DBC) is described. The DBC, a specialized back-end computer capable of managing 10
9
- 10
10
bytes of data, consists of two loops of memories and processors, the structure loop and the data loop, connected through a database command and control processor (DBCCP).

The structure loop is used to retrieve and update the large amount (10
7
- 10
9
bytes) of structural information about the database from a structure memory (SM) at a rate commensurate with the database operations performed on the mass memory of the data loop. A keyword transformation unit (KXU) is therefore required to enhance the performance of the structure memory. The KXU encodes variable-length keywords into a fixed-length form by hashing. By managing a library of carefully designed hashing algorithms and by dynamically loading the algorithms in a writable control store for execution, the KXU allows the efficient storage of keywords and their associated information and minimizes subsequent accesses to the SM.
MICOS
Authors: Burkhardt Walter H. , Maier Helmut E.
Published: January 2007

Modern operating systems (OS) spend often more than half of the total CPU-time for overhead. Microprogramming of systems components offers an attractive means for a reduction. However, previous investigators have found only small increases in efficiency by microprogrammed OS-functions, whenever analyzed in detail. They have implemented a total OS in microcode or designed new powerful machine instructions for single systems functions, but without important changes to the hardware architecture or the OS-structure.

A special structure of the present system has been adopted for the comparison of the performance of the different implementation modes for the functions in the OS-nucleus.
Implementation of high speed data sets with microprogrammable data processors
Authors: Caplin Glenn N. , Clayton Anne R. , Stuart Richard L.
Published: January 2007

Modern high speed data sets (or Modems) are usually required to perform a great deal of digital signal processing to maintain acceptable error rates for worst-case channel conditions. Previously, this digital processing task was implemented with dedicated SSI/MSI TTL circuits. With the advent of high speed microprogrammable units (ALU's, sequencers, etc.), it has become possible to replace a random logic design with a functionally equivalent microprogrammed design. This results in better density, lower power requirements, and greater versatility and flexibility. The microprogrammed system described is designed to provide accurate emulation of an existing data set while maintaining the advantages of microprogrammed architecture versus random logic.
A methodology for programming a pipeline array processor
Authors: Cohen Danny
Published: January 2007

In this note a recursive filter implementation is discussed, analyzed and programmed in the most efficient way for the FPS-AP120B array processor.

The purpose of this note is not only to demonstrate a good technique for programming this filter (even though it is a noble goal by itself), but to demonstrate the methodology involved.

The FPS-AP120B array processor was chosen because it has microprogrammed control parallel pipeline architecture, which is typical for a wide class of high performance array processors.
Health aspects of wireless communication
Authors: Lin James C.
Published: January 2007

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a cellular layer in the blood vessels of the brain. The blood-brain barrier partitions the circulating blood from the brain tissue proper. It regulates the passage of vital substances and nutrients into brain tissues, and the passage of carbon dioxide and metabolic waste products out of brain tissues. The selective passage prohibits harmful toxins from infiltrating the brain, and also excludes many drugs and therapeutic agents from reaching brain tissues.
TrafficView
Authors: Nadeem Tamer , Dashtinezhad Sasan , Liao Chunyuan , Iftode Liviu
Published: January 2007

Vehicles are part of people's life in modern society, into which more and more high-tech devices are integrated, and a common platform for inter-vehicle communication is necessary to realize an intelligent transportation system supporting safe driving, dynamic route scheduling, emergency message dissemination, and traffic condition monitoring. TrafficView, which is a part of the e-Road project, defines a framework to disseminate and gather information about the vehicles on the road. With such a system, vehicle's driver will be provided with road traffic information that helps driving in situations as foggy weather, or finding an optimal route in a trip several miles long. This paper describes the design and implementation of TrafficView and the different mechanisms used in the system.
Mobile agent-based services for view materialization
Authors: Karenos Kyriakos , Samaras George , Chrysanthis Panos K. , Pitoura Evaggelia
Published: January 2007

Mobile agents are ideal for mobile computing environments because of their ability to support asynchronous communication and disconnected data processing. In this paper, we present a prototype set of extensible mobile-agent based services that allow the definition, materialization, maintenance and sharing of views created over remote web-accessible datasources, called ViSMA (Views Supported by Mobile Agents). ViSMA's primary goal is to support the customization and personalization of views by mobile users carrying lightweight devices of various connectivity and resources such as portable computers and PDAs. It achieves efficient view customization by localizing the materialization of view fragments of a complex view within different mobile agents which monitor each other's movement in order to minimize communication costs. ViSMA has been fully implemented over a mobile agent platform and tested using three alternative mobile client types.
Exploiting epidemic data dissemination for consistent lookup operations in mobile applications
Authors: Lindemann Christoph , Waldhorst Oliver P.
Published: January 2007

This paper presents a general-purpose distributed lookup service, denoted Passive Distributed Indexing (PDI). PDI stores entries in form of (key, value) pairs in index caches located at mobile devices. Index caches are filled by epidemic dissemination of popular index entries. By exploiting node mobility, PDI can resolve most queries locally without sending messages outside the radio coverage of the inquiring node. For keeping index caches coherent, configurable value timeouts implementing implicit invalidation and lazy invalidation caches implementing explicit invalidation are introduced. Inconsistency in index caches due to weak connectivity or node failure is handled by value timeouts. Lazy invalidation caches reduce the fraction of stale index entries due to modified data at the origin node. Similar to index caches, invalidation caches are filled by epidemic distributions of invalidation messages. We evaluate the performance of PDI for a mobile P2P file sharing a mobile instant messaging application. Simulation results show that with the suitable integration of both invalidation mechanisms, up to 80% of the lookup operations return correct results and more than 90% of results delivered by PDI index caches are up-to-date.
A recursive analysis technique for multi-dimensionally infinite Markov chains
Authors: Osogami Takayuki , Wierman Adam , Harchol-Balter Mor , Scheller-Wolf Alan
Published: January 2007

Performance analysis of multiserver systems with multiple classes of jobs often has a common source of difficulty: the state space needed to capture the system behavior grows infinitely in multiple dimensions. For example, consider two processors, each serving its own M/M/1 queue, where one of the processors (the "donor") can help the other processor (the "beneficiary") with its jobs, during times when the donor processor is idle [5, 16] or when some threshold conditions are met [14, 15]. Since the behavior of beneficiary jobs depends on the number of donor jobs in system, performance analysis of beneficiary jobs involves a two dimensionally infinite (2D-infinite) state space, where one dimension corresponds to the number of beneficiary jobs and the other dimension corresponds to the number of donor jobs. Another example is an M/M/2 queue with two priority classes, where high priority jobs have preemptive priority over low priority jobs (see for example [1, 3, 4, 8, 10, 11, 12, 17] and references therein). Since the behavior of low priority jobs depends on the number of high priority jobs in system, performance analysis of low priority jobs involves 2D-infinite state space, where each dimension corresponds to the number of each class of jobs in system. As we will see, when there are m priority classes, performance analysis of the lowest priority classes involves m dimensionally infinite state space.
An efficient approximate technique for solving fluid models
Authors: Couto da Silva Ana Paula , Leäo Rosa M. M. , de Souza e Silva Edmundo
Published: January 2007

Stochastic fluid-flow models have been widely used as an important tool for the analysis of a variety of computer and communication models. In particular, when the event rates of the system under investigation vary in orders of magnitude, the use of fluid models results in considerable computational savings when compared to traditional models where all events are explicitly represented. This is true for instance, in the so called performability models [10], where events that represent structural changes in the system (e.g., failure and repair events) occur at much lower rates than those associated with some performance measure, such as the arrival and service of jobs. As another example, consider a queueing model of a communication network channel. The intervals between events associated with packet arrival and departure from a buffer may be orders of magnitude smaller than the intervals that represent changes in the arrival rate.
Two problems in internet reliability
Authors: Kogan Yaakov , Choudhury Gagan
Published: January 2007

This paper is motivated by two problems related to Internet reliability, where transient rather than traditional steady-state analysis is required. First, a failure and repair model for a router with active and redundant processors is considered. It is proved that the number of failed routers during given interval of time is asymptotically Poisson when the total number of routers is large and the parameter of the Poisson process is explicitly calculated. The second problem is related to reliability of a nationwide IP backbone. A situation, where operational links do not have enough spare capacity to carry additional traffic during the outage time, is referred to as bandwidth loss. We consider only one unidirectional backbone link and derive asymptotic aproximations for the expected bandwidth loss in the framework of generalized Erlang and Engset models when the total number of resource units and request arrival rates are proportionally large.
Formalizing SMART scheduling
Authors: Wierman Adam , Harchol-Balter Mor
Published: January 2007

It is well-known that policies which bias towards small job sizes or jobs with small remaining service times perform well with respect to mean response time and mean slowdown. This idea has been fundamental in many system implementations including the case of Web servers, where it has been shown that by giving priority to requests for small files, a Web server can significantly reduce mean response time and mean slowdown [1]. The heuristic has also been applied to other application areas; for example, scheduling in supercomputing centers.
Dynamic scheduling of multiclass open queueing networks in a slowly changing environment
Authors: Chang Junxia , Ayhan Hayriye , Dai Jim
Published: January 2007

The popularity and importance of Web have increased dramatically in the past few years as well as the complexity of Web server systems. Workload characterization studies reveal that there exist strong time-of-day effects in the Web traffic. Many Web sites have sustained and higher hit rates during certain time periods of a day than other time periods. During the peak hours, the Web servers may even be overloaded. Simple stochastic processes with a fixed rate fails to capture this time varying characteristic of the Web systems. Therefore, we herein consider that the Web system is operating in a changing environment. Whenever the environment changes state, the arrival rates of user requests change as well as the service rates and the routing decisions.
Cost minimization of multi-tiered e-business infrastructure with end-to-end delay guarantees
Authors: Lin Wuqin , Liu Zhen , Xia Cathy H. , Zhang Li
Published: January 2007

E-Business has become a cost effective solution for many traditional businesses and a critical component of many companies to such a degree that guaranteeing the performance and availability is vital. The design and development of e-business infrastructure should meet a twofold challenge. On one hand, it must meet customer expectations in terms of quality of service (QoS). On the other hand, companies have to control IT costs to stay competitive. It is therefore crucial to understand the tradeoff between costs and service levels so as to enable the determination of the most cost-effective architecture and system.
Performance of a distributed scheduling protocol for TWIN
Authors: Saniee Iraj , Widjaja Indra , Morrison John
Published: January 2007

This paper discusses a scheduling mechanism for a new network architecture (TWIN) that provides arbitrary capacity up to a wavelength to any source-destination pair as needed, without optical-to-electronic conversion. The network emulates ultra-fast switching in the passive network core through the use of ultra-fast wavelength tunable lasers at the network edge. This architecture is suitable for any end-to-end traffic load, from static or quasi-static load (Sonet), to highly dynamic (IP) load. The key enabler of this architecture is a scheduling mechanism that schedules transmissions for maximal throughput. We propose a distributed scheduling scheme that is randomized for highly dynamic load and can learn to adjust for quasi-static load. We derive analytical formulae for the performance of the proposed scheme when load is highly dynamic, show that it outperforms standard protocols (such as aloha) and illustrate the effect of learning for quasi-static load through simulation.
Integration of TCP-friendly streaming sessions and heavy-tailed elastic flows
Authors: Bekker René , Borst Sem , Néñez-Queija Rudesindo
Published: January 2007

We consider a fixed number of streaming sessions sharing a bottleneck link with a dynamic population of elastic flows. We assume that the sizes of the elastic flows exhibit heavy-tailed characteristics. The elastic flows are TCP-controlled, while the transmission rates of the streaming applications are governed by a so-called TCP-friendly rate control protocol.

Adopting the Processor-Sharing (PS) discipline to model the bandwidth sharing, we investigate the tail distribution of the deficit in service received by the streaming sessions compared to a nominal service target. The latter metric provides an indication for the quality experienced by the streaming applications. The results yield valuable qualitative insight into the occurrence of persistent quality disruption for the streaming users. We also examine the delay performance of the elastic flows.
Computer programmer aptitude battery
Authors: Willoughby Theodore C.
Published: January 2007

The SRA Computer Programmer Aptitude Battery (1) was developed using two major hypotheses:

1. The typical general aptitude test was too easy for the group usually considered for programmer jobs.

2. A test with several ability components would have more predictive efficiency than a test of only one ability.
The relationship of cognitive style to the derivation of information requirements
Authors: Kaiser Kate M.
Published: January 2007

The failure of information systems stems not from activities during their implementation but usually because of poor planning in the early stages of systems development (Bostrom and Heinen, 1977; DeBrabander and Thiers, 1984; Robey and Markus, 1984).
DSS
Authors: Venkatraman Santosh S.
Published: January 2007

Is DSS just an alias for MIS? This question has been the subject of debate for a long time now. Thomas Naylor [1982] found it "impossible to ascertain what is either new or unique about DSS." Robert Blanning's [1983] reply to that was a description of DSS research at that time to show that DSS was a field worthy of research and that it had a future. If DSS is not the same as MIS, then what is the relationship between MIS and DSS? Perhaps, the differences between them are significant enough to warrant a new term. Or maybe, DSS is not entirely independent, but is related to MIS in a significant way. Or it may even be the case that DSS would eventually replace MIS. The purpose of this paper is to present an objective analysis of both MIS and DSS to help answer the above questions.
The user experience
Authors: Hanson Vicki L.
Published: January 2007

Specifications for accessibility of Web pages do not necessarily guarantee a usable or satisfying Web experience for persons with disabilities. The needs of many of these individuals fall outside guidelines for accessible content. Many of these users, for example, wish that they simply could "enlarge" what is on a Web page. They also express the wish that pages would be "less confusing". To meet these needs, Web browsers and various software applications provide for a variety of ways in which page presentations can be altered. The effects of these alterations often have unexpected consequences. Some designs accommodate these alterations better than others. This paper discusses one such application that allows users to control features of Web page presentation and explores design features that facilitate such control.
Tension? what tension?
Authors: Petrie Helen , Hamilton Fraser , King Neil
Published: January 2007

It is a widespread belief amongst web designers and implementers that sites that are accessible to users with disabilities must by necessity be uninteresting and simple, particularly visually uninteresting -- plain, vanilla sites. It is tempting to believe that such sites do not pose interesting challenges to web designers and implementers. However, it is our contention that this belief is profoundly misguided. Certainly, a very plain, visually simple site is quite likely to be accessible (although this is not guaranteed). However, the opposite is not necessarily the case -- sites can be visually interesting and sophisticated and still highly accessible. Visual and interesting web design is largely orthogonal to accessibility and these two factors should not be seen as being in opposition to each other. Accessibility should rather be viewed as another challenge to designers and implementers, along with creating a site that is usable, interesting and appealing to mainstream users.
A no-frills approach for accessible Web-based learning material
Authors: Mirabella Valeria , Kimani Stephen , Catarci Tiziana
Published: January 2007

There exist various efforts for supporting the preparation and delivery of accessible Web-based learning content (e.g., [3], [1], etc). Most of the efforts for supporting the preparation and deployment of accessible Web-based learning material propose guidelines that prevalently address technical accessibility issues. However, little or no consideration is given to the didactical experts, and thus their didactical experience, in the learning material development. Moreover, the aforementioned guidelines tend to provide high-level/generic indications of alternative forms of didactical content for equivalent access to the content. Nonetheless, the provision of equivalent forms alone does not guarantee the retention of desirable user interface aspects such as effectiveness and efficiency. While we do acknowledge the role of such guidelines, we also propose that the didactical experts be provided with a non-technical recourse that can enable them to contribute to the development process of accessible Web-based learning content. In particular, this work proposes tapping into the experience of the didactical experts by providing them with an avenue through which they can appropriately choose relevant and alternative didactical content toward developing and deploying accessible Web-based learning material.
An accessible method of hiding HTML content
Authors: Bohman Paul Ryan , Anderson Shane
Published: January 2007

Though somewhat rare, there are occasions when the accessibility needs of screen reader users appear to be at odds with the needs of visual users. This kind of conflict occurs when Web developers put form elements inside of a data table matrix, when they want to use images as headings instead of text, and in other situations. Adding extra text helps screen reader users, but can complicate the visual layout, thus reducing understandability. One solution is to use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to hide the text from sighted users in a way that is still accessible to screen readers. The details of this technique are discussed, along with the technical reasoning behind it.
The semantic web, web accessibility, and device independence
Authors: Seeman Lisa
Published: January 2007

Over the past several years there has been a significant increase in awareness of the need for Web accessibility and development of policies relating to Web accessibility in Europe. Techniques for implementations have been standardized and benchmark guidelines accepted (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines -- i.e. WCAG).

However, as Web protocols and technologies develop, new opportunities become available, and it may be realistic to open Web content to more and more people, and to develop more powerful accessibility solutions.
An analysis of a management information system
Authors: El-Alaoui Abdeslem
Published: January 2007

I worked for IBM France in Casablanca, Morocco. Most of the aspects of a large corporation existed but on a smaller scale, so that I was not isolated in one specific area but gained an overview of the entire system functioning.
An examination of the predictive validity of several potential predictors of the work proficiency of computer programmers
Authors: Tillman Morris R.
Published: January 2007

The present study concerns an examination of the predictive validity of several potential predictors of the work proficiency of computer programmers. The study was conducted by the Research Department of a large, multi-line insurance company.

When the research design for this study was developed, it was anticipated that data would be collected on 150--200 computer programmers hired within one year. Unfortunately, it became impossible for this large a number of programmers to be hired. Therefore, the author was left with a research design which had been developed for a much greater number of subjects than it was possible to have. The data analyses were completed as planned even though the smaller-than-hoped-for number of subjects made some of the analyses inappropriate. The data were available so they were used in exploratory analyses, the intent of which was to gain insights which might be valuable in future research. This paper presents all the analyses which were performed in the hope that the method and techniques used will be informative and useful to some readers.
Information sources practicing programmers use to acquire new concepts and the relation between prior programmer education and concept impact
Authors: Taylor Robert P. , Fisher James , Alvarez John
Published: January 2007

In the field of data processing, the professional needs to keep abreast of new developments. For programmers and their supervisors, this involves learning about, evaluating, and subsequently using or rejecting new programming concepts. Whether one is charged with educating and training programmers or with hiring them, this need to keep abreast raises some interesting questions. This paper concerns itself with three such questions:

1. From what sources do programmers in the field learn about new concepts?

2. Is there a significant relationship between particular aspects of a programmer's background and his/her awareness of new programming concepts?

3. Is there a significant relationship between particular aspects of a programer's working environment and his awareness of new concepts?
Overtime for programmers
Authors: Hammer Howard M.
Published: January 2007

Overtime For Programmers

There is no doubt that a significant number of those employed as programmers may be non-exempt employees with respect to F.L.S.A. requirements for overtime compensation. Wage and Hour Division Regulations and Interpretive Bulletins seem to limit exemption from these requirements to the programmer who works in a bona fide executive or administrative position. Recent litigation establishes the likelihood that a large group of programmers may come under this exemption and that some programmers may be exempt as professional persons, even though Wage and Hour Division interpretations suggest otherwise.
Personality profiles of male and female data processing personnel
Authors: Woodruff Charles K.
Published: January 2007

The study of personality is concerned with both the total individual and with individual differences. Personality is important to the understanding of behavior within organizations because there are few, if any, aspects of human functioning that are not to some degree reflective of individual personality.
The impact of cooperative education on the academic achievement of students majoring in the computer field
Authors: Miller James E. , Dunn Thomas W.
Published: January 2007

This paper reports on a study performed at The University of West Florida which attempted to measure the often claimed positive impact of a cooperative education work experience on the academic performance of a student.
Conceptual framework and systems analyst job-fit
Authors: Zmud Robert W. , Cain Donald D.
Published: January 2007

For each individual there are work environments that more or less match the person's personality where a "match" is viewed as expressing itself in high job performance and high job satisfaction. This tends to be particularly true for job situations that emphasize interpersonal interaction.
Job performance evaluation of data processing personnel
Authors: Woodruff Charles K.
Published: January 2007

Job performance evaluations of 16 systems analysts, 52 programmer analysts, 63 programmers, and 71 operations personnel from twelve data processing centers in metropolitan Atlanta are presented. Judgmental ratings of eight job characteristics traits by the individual's manager or supervisor were used. Study subjects were rated highest in cooperation and lowest in innovativeness. Systems analysts were rated highest of the functional groups.
User education for a computerized environment
Authors: Willoughby Theodore C. , Silbey Val
Published: January 2007

Business organizations control the information systems development process through three mechanisms - steering committees, project leaders and user representatives. These roles serve to guide an experiential approach to the education of MBA students.

Computer technology has had a major effect on the way people work. It has changed the economics of paperwork, the nature of the data flow in organizations, and the relationships between people on the job. This impact is also recognized in College and University curricula. Elements of computer literacy are required in almost all schools of business. These courses usually require the student to learn a programming language such as Basic or Fortran. But knowledge of one programming language is not sufficient to prepare people for successful roles in an increasingly computerized environment. They need familiarity with these roles prior to entry to the organization.

Organizations have evolved strategies for allocating and controlling the computer resource. Since universities intend to prepare students for this technical world, it is necessary to look at these processes. These organizational processes can serve to guide instructors in the classroom setting.

In the next few paragraphs, we will explain the organizational setting. Then the various roles are described. Finally, we place it within the framework of a MIS course and discuss the parallels between a course and an organization.
Skills, attitudes and credentials for business data processing
Authors: Licker Paul S.
Published: January 2007

Research and planning in the area of business data processing curriculum has been conducted for decades. Much of the current thinking is that a technical education in the area of programming is essential for success in business data processing. Not much emphasis has been placed on the business application side. This paper reviews some recent empirical research and proposes a user-oriented education for business programmers.
Information careers in the office of the future
Authors: Licker Paul S.
Published: January 2007

In several guises, the Office of the Future (OOF) is upon us. Apart from the obvious economic and managerial challenges engendered by the importation of communication and data-processing technology into the office, there will be a longer-term trend towards the reshaping of jobs and job structures, particularly as these relate to information-handling tasks. This paper is an attempt to define opportunities, to prognosticate trends and to lay out a plan of action for forecasting individual careers in an office slightly automated now and increasingly automated in the future.
Information management
Authors: Riehl Julian W.
Published: January 2007

U.S. Business today faces severe tests in both national and international markets due to intense competition from foreign companies. Consequently, widespread attention is being given to the problem of increasing the productivity and long-term profitability of U.S. business. Productivity is used here to refer the efficiency and effectiveness of the conversion of resources to output goods and services.
What management needs to know
Authors: Riehl Julian W.
Published: January 2007

The subject of user involvement in computer-based information systems (CBIS) development is one that continues to be addressed with concern in both management and information systems literature. The problem of obtaining an effective degree of user-community involvement in the CBIS development process is one that has been recognized in the literature for some time. (7) Current writings on the subject reflect a clear consensus of opinion on the part of writers with academic and practitioner backgrounds that active and knowledgeable user-community involvement is a key determinant in the development of successful information systems in a modern business environment. It is further recognized that an active interest and initiative on the part of business management is a necessary pre-condition to achieving an effective level of user-involvement.
Several approaches for improving user cordiality in the design of on-line systems for novice users
Authors: Selander Sandy E.
Published: January 2007

This paper presents several factors to be considered when designing a novice user-machine interface for an on-line system. These include user objectives, current procedures for processing the data, tutorial aids, database organization and human factors issues related to ease of terminal use. Various examples from recent experience are given to illustrate some of these points.
Expectancy theory and its application to EDP professionals
Authors: Ulrich Walter E.
Published: January 2007

It is the goal of this paper to make some useful inferences about the motivation of EDP professionals. This paper assumes Expectancy Theory (Vroom, 1964, Porter & Lawler, 1968; Lawler, 1971) as the basic construct for the motivation model. Reviewing some recent research to determine specific components of the behavior of EDP professionals, the model and its application in this specific field is discussed.
A theorem for separating close roots of a polynomial and its derivatives
Authors: Sasaki Tateaki
Published: January 2007

Let
P
(
z
) be a univariate polynomial over
C
, having
m
close roots around the origin. We present a theorem which separates a cluster of
m - k
close roots of

d
k
P

/d

z
k

around the origin from the other roots, where 0 ≤
k
<
m
. We compare our theorem with those of Marden-Walsh and Yakoubsohn, and show superiority of our theorem.
Proposed argument association rules for arrays in FORTRAN 8x
Authors: Ragan Richard R.
Published: January 2007

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) committee X3J3 has been working on the next FORTRAN standard for several years. Significant array handling extensions are planned for inclusion in that standard. A recent ANSI policy for computer language standards specified the following: a) for any revision of a language standard, concerted effort will be made to assure that modifications and enhancements can be treated by compilers and other processors as upwards compatible, or b) where this is not possible, differences (enhancements, clarifications, changes) will be specified in such a manner that programs conforming to an earlier version of the standard can be transformed by means of an algorithm to conform to the revised standard. Where neither a) nor b) above are possible, (e.g., an existing element of a standard is to be deleted and made obsolete) the element shall not be deleted in the proposed revision, but shall be identified as deprecated, with a warning that the element should be phased out of use as it will probably be deleted in the next revision. This element may then be removed from a subsequent revision of the standard provided that at least five years shall have elapsed between revisions. Elements in the b) category (above) may be similarly identified as deprecated and a similar warning and phasing out period provided."
Why Fortran?
Authors: Metcalf Michael
Published: January 2007

FORTRAN, as we have seen, was the first high-level language. Since its introduction it has faced "competition" from a variety of sources, the principal ones being ALGOL and PL/1 in the 1960's, PASCAL in the 1970's, and presumably ADA in the coming decade.
Is Fortran getting too big?
Authors: Wagener Jerrold L.
Published: January 2007

In discussions of "Fortran 8X", I often hear it suggested that Fortran is getting too big. I believe that Fortran 8X, as currently defined by X3J3, is not too big, but I believe that it is in danger of becoming too big.
Constructing a contextual concordance through Snobol
Authors: Tharp Alan L.
Published: January 2007

Wyatt (1975) and Pappin & Smith (1976) have previously reported in SIGLASH on the usefulness of the Snobol programming language (Griswold, 1973) for text processing. Other examples of text processing relevant to the humanities include the analysis of the Federalist Papers (Sedelow, 1970) to determine authorship and the analysis of the Brown Standard Corpus (Kucera & Francis, 1967) to determine current American English usage (e.g. Do people actually split infinitives? Does a 'like' and 'as' distinction exist?). Investigations into such questions may often be facilitated by constructing a concordance of the textual material being analyzed. A concordance which also includes a word's context would in many cases be even more useful. The program subsequently described was developed to construct such a contextual concordance. In addition, it was designed to be flexible, efficient, and easy to use. Although the program was developed to analyze Portuguese poetry (Kelly, 1976), it may be used for other textual material with little or no modification.
Computer-assisted composition and performance control of theatrical lighting and effects
Authors: Garrard M. , Ghent E. R. , Hemsath W. , Seawright J.
Published: January 2007

Under the sponsorship of the Mimi Garrard Dance Company, and with the support of a Special Project Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a comprehensive study and prototype development has been completed leading to the construction of a computer-assisted composition and performance control unit for theatrical lighting and effects. This research was based on work by M. V. Mathews and F. R. Moore, and others, of Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey and on previous work by the authors.The new system prototype is constructed of inexpensive and widely available microcomputer components and may be configured in a variety of ways to suit special needs. We have adopted a standard configuration with the following characteristics and specifications:
Automated recognition and analysis of a subclass of `slips of the tongue' and a formalism for their conceptual representation in terms of perceptual notions
Authors: Silva Georgette , Heath Frank
Published: January 2007

This paper describes a computer system for the automatic recognition and analysis of a subset of phonological slips of the tongue. The system is conceived as a tool to provide maximal automated support for the difficult analytical tasks involved in the study of the phenomenon under consideration. After a brief introduction, Section 2 provides an overview of the current system structure, states the scope of the recognition routines, lists the system objectives, and discusses the system components, their function, and their current capabilities. In addition, the section includes examples of input and output options, traces depicting how a slip of the tongue is processed, and ends with some suggestions as to how the information provided by the programs may be used to help answer research questions.Section 3 describes some of the ideas which have evolved from the programming effort. In particular, a formalism for the representation of the conceptual structure of speech errors as viewed from the listener's point of view is presented. Finally, the predictions made by the proposed framework are related to a set of observed facts.
A large data base for music research
Authors: Lincoln Harry B.
Published: January 2007

This paper describes what is probably the largest data base developed to date for music research, specifically a file of the opening melodies (known as incipits) of Renaissance Italian polyphonic pieces, each assigned a discrete serial number along with information on composer, title, genre, source, and the researcher's initials. The file is open to all musicologists and is structured to permit additions, changes or deletions of incipts or whole compositions, from all repertories of Western music, past and present. The music representation (DARMS) used for encoding and entering melodies onto the data file is briefly described as well as the special music typography for the line printer unique to this project, which has been developed to print melodies in different arrangements and formats. With this data base and its I/O capabilities, it is possible to print camera-ready copy for book publications as well as maintain a computer file at Binghamton which is accessible to researchers. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of areas needing further research, including the use of interactive display terminals, a network for use by scholars, and mathematical studies of melody as wave form.
An ideational parser
Authors: Tharp Alan L. , Eastman Jeffrey F.
Published: January 2007

Recent parsers have extended the variety and difficulty of natural language constructs recognizable by a computer. However, one shortcoming of existing parsers is that as the complexity of the sentences recognized increases, the computational complexity increases quadratically. One reason for this computational explosion is that much if not most of the control information is embedded in the parser.A different approach, referred to as an ideational parser, is proposed. Although the design for this parser was motivated by the manner in which people might use language, it is not necessarily intended to be a model for human cognition. The control information, for the most part, is removed to the lexicon, and the words are considered operators in the formation of a mental picture rather than as operands to the parser. The parser mechanism is detailed with an example parse and a typical conversation is given in the appendix.Two primary benefits of the ideational parser are 1) an improved, simpler control mechanism and 2) the ability to acquire new knowledge which is automatically stored in the same format as the given knowledge.