bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A comparison of sender-initiated and receiver-initiated reliable multicast protocols
Authors: Pingali Sridhar , Towsley Don , Kurose James F.
Published: January 2007

Sender-initiated reliable multicast protocols, based on the use of positive acknowledgments (ACKs), lead to an
ACK implosion
problem at the sender as the number of receivers increases. Briefly, the ACK implosion problem refers to the significant overhead incurred by the sending host due to the processing of ACKs from each receiver. A potential solution to this problem is to shift the burden of providing reliable data transfer to the receivers—thus resulting in a receiver-initiated multicast error control protocol based on the use of negative acknowledgments (NAKs). In this paper we determine the maximum throughputs of the sending and receiving hosts for generic sender-initiated and receiver-initiated protocols. We show that the receiver-initiated error control protocols provide substantially higher throughputs than their sender-initiated counterparts. We further demonstrate that the introduction of random delays prior to generating NAKs coupled with the multicasting of NAKs to all receivers has the potential for an additional substantial increase in the throughput of receiver-initiated error control protocols over sender-initiated protocols.
Time-parallel simulation of cascaded statistical multiplexers
Authors: Nikolaidis Ioanis , Fujimoto Richard , Cooper C. Anthony
Published: January 2007

The multiplexing of several lightly loaded links onto a more heavily loaded output link is a problem of considerable importance to the design and traffic engineering of many types of packet-oriented telecommunications equipment, including that used in Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks. Network configurations generally require the cascaded operation of such multiplexers and switches. Important objectives to achieve small cell loss ratios while maintaining efficient utilization of the transmission links. The small cell loss ratio objective results in extremely long simulation runs. To address this problem, we propose a new technique that relies on a compact description for the arriving/departing traffic at the multiplexers and a
time-parallel
scheme
without
fix-up phases for effective parallelization. The technique does not make assumptions about the analytical nature of the arrival process, thereby allowing trace-driven simulations to be performed as well. We demonstrate the method for a number of configurations and traffic scenarios, and observe that it yields one to two orders of magnitude speedup on a 32 processor Kendall Square Research KSR-1 multiprocessor compared to an efficient cell-level simulation executing on a Sparc-10 workstation.
Stochastic performance models of parallel task systems (extended abstract)
Authors: Tayyab Athar B. , Kuhl Jon G.
Published: January 2007

This paper considers the class of parallel computations represented by directed, acyclic task graphs. These include parallel loops, multiphase algorithms, partitioning and merging algorithms, as well as any arbitrary parallel computation that can be structured by a task graph. The paper reviews the current state of the art in stochastic bound models of parallel programs and presents new stochastic bound performance models that predict the expected execution time of parallel programs on a given shared-memory multiprocessor system; and provide qualitative and quantitative description of the relationships between the structure of parallel programs, computation and synchronization behavior of the program, and architectural features of the underlying multiprocessor system.

The models use a new formulation based on stochastic bound analysis and are solvable for a number of distribution functions. They are applicable to shared-memory multiprocessors with significantly different architectural and synchronization performance characteristics. The accuracy of the models is validated via several measurements on two different shared-memory multiprocessor systems, the Alliant FX/2800 and the Encore Multimax. The results show the models to be quite accurate, even when some of the modeling assumptions are violated. The maximum error of prediction ranges from about 10% to under 1%.
Design and specification of microprogrammed computer architectures
Authors: Damm W.
Published: January 2007

This paper presents a hierarchical firmware design method. It allows to structure the design of a microprogrammed (level of a) computer architecture into independently verifiable modules. To specify the behaviour of the system we use the axiomatic architecture description language AADL. We illustrate the design and specification style using an emulation example.
Microcode development for microprogrammed processors
Authors: Hwang J. P-C , Papachristou C. A. , Cornett D. D.
Published: January 2007

The aim of this paper is to develop a top-down design automation tool for digital system design such as microprogrammed processors. The package contains a hardware description language to specify the design, a microcode development module to generate an efficient microprogam for the microprogrammed processor's control, and a functional simulator module to verify the validity of the design. The goal of this project is to develop an interactive computer-aided design environment for specification, design and verification of instruction set processors.
Microcode and the protection of intellectual effort
Authors: Patt Y. N. , Ahlstrom J. K.
Published: January 2007

We believe that the intellectual efforts of persons should be protected, but that the needs of society must be protected, too. Substantial interest in this issue, as it pertains to the protection of microcode, has prompted the preparation of this paper as a position statement to initiate discussion at the 18th International Microprogramming Workshop. We describe the relevant protection mechanisms and some of the nuances regarding them. We describe the important characteristics of microcode. Finally, we assume an advocacy position.
A customized control store design in microprogrammed control units
Authors: Tudruj M. S.
Published: January 2007

The paper reports on the control store cost minimization using an approach related to the bit reduction method. A methodology is presented for finding the microinstruction format which provides a minimum joint cost of the control store and microinstruction decoder circuitry for a given set of microprograms. The optimization criterion measures the area taken by the control store and decoders in a large scale integrated circuit. The methodology is based on the concepts of codable microoperation classes and microoperation class distributivity introduced in the paper. The codable classes are those that provide the length reduction of the microinstruction field used for binary encoding microoperation combinations, compared to the single bit/microoperation encoding method. Microoperation class properties and basic types of fields assignments in microinstruction word formats for codable class approach are also discussed.
Knowledge representation in expert systems in a linguistic form
Authors: De Meyer Joris E.
Published: January 2007

A good expert system needs to be as close as possible to the knowledge and data manipulation of the expert himself. Often experts use linguistic instead of numerical values. When input data are mostly qualitative and are based on subjective knowledge of experts, the
Fuzzy Set Theory
is a solid mathematical model to represent and handle these data. APL arrays, scalars, vectors, matrices, operands etc. provide powerful means for implementing fuzzy sets. In this paper we will show the capabilities of APL to represent knowledge in a linguistic form.
A rating system for qualification analysis with application to personal evaluation
Authors: Kononov Alexi I. , Reimarov Gennady A.
Published: January 2007

A way to choose the best object based upon a few expert opinions and its embodiment as a rating algorithm for an end-user personnel qualification system is described. The system is tested for clerks certifying for the State Ministry and is customised for Nuclear Power Station staff evaluation. Some aspects of the system's implementation in APL are reviewed.
An object-oriented APL2
Authors: Selby David A.
Published: January 2007

Object oriented programming has become an important and accepted part of the computer software industry. Nearly every new operating system that has recently arrived or is scheduled to arrive soon is object oriented in nature. If APL2 is to continue to be a mainstream computational environment, it is very important that it becomes object oriented.

Finding a way that APL2 may sit comfortably in these new operating systems is important. Unfortunately, in both implementation and current programming teaching philosophy, existing APL2 does not easily offer the end user the ability to adopt this new approach. This paper proposes some small changes to the basic APL2 language definition which will permit objects to be defined and used. It also suggests some major changes to the end user's programming methodology.
Introduction to Gauss
Authors: Gruntz D. , Monagan M.
Published: January 2007

The Gauss package offers Maple users a new approach to programming based on the idea of parameterized types (domains) which is central to the AXIOM system. This approach to programming is now regarded by many as the right way to go in computer algebra systems design. In this article, we describe how Gauss is designed and show examples of usage. We end with some comments about how Gauss is being used in Maple.
Degenerate arrays in Fortran 90
Authors: Redwine Cooper
Published: January 2007

On the whole, I found usage of the array features afforded by Fortran 90 to be quite straightforward, but there were a couple of things that took a little getting used to. To my way of thinking, some of the considerations surrounding what I call "degenerate" arrays, that is, arrays consisting of one or zero elements, are not particularly intuitive. After a brief discussion of some related terminology, I'll give examples of the sort of thing I mean.
A procedure for the generation of a class of simulation models from databases
Authors: Taylor R. Bruce , Taha Hamdy A.
Published: January 2007

This paper shows the potential of using a higher level language, such as BASIC, to automatically generate syntactically correct simulation models from functional databases. The resulting models may then be executed directly by the general purpose simulation language of choice. The procedure is primarily developed for assembly line operations. However, it can be readily extended to network-based situations of the PERT/CPM type and MRP types. The proposed approach is based on the observation that although the simulation logic of network-based models is generally simple, the structure of such models is highly input-data dependent. In the context of most general purpose simulation languages, this dependence usually necessitates making changes in the simulation model itself to accommodate the new structure of the network. Such "custom" changes impede both the ease of maintenance and the portability of the model. The outgrowth of pursuing the use of higher level language to generate executable simulation models encompasses many of the goals inherent in the simulation language work, including little or no programming and ease of maintenance and verification. The power of the process comes from having to model the problem generically only once by using a suitable higher level language model generator. Specific situations are then accounted for simply by changing the input data to the model generator.
Book review: Explanation and Interaction: The Computer Generation of Explanatory Dialogues by Alison Cawsey (MIT Press. 1992)
Authors: Ruiz Irene Luque , Gómez-Nieto Miguel Angel
Published: January 2007

"Explanatory"
is an apt term to describe this book by Alison Cawsey. Her style is perfectly suited to the needs of both experts and novices in the dialogue generation area. Step by step, she leads us through the foremost trends and theories dealing with the development of computer systems for the explanation of pieces of knowledge, examining their advantages, disadvantages and possible applications, while introducing us to the approaches she has taken in the construction of her own system for the generation of explanatory discourse.
Book review: Things That Make Us Smart by Donald A Norman (Addison-Wesley, 1993)
Authors: Waterworth J. A.
Published: January 2007

Donald Norman's new book 'Things That Make Us Smart' develops the themes raised earlier in his 'The Psychology of Everyday Things' (POET). POET was concerned with the ways in which designed things can help or hinder us in completing everyday activities like opening doors, operating drinks machines, or using the bathroom. He convincingly showed how many of our artifacts are badly designed for their purpose and spelled out what this says about the attitudes of their designers. He pointed out that a misunderstanding of the way people interact with artifacts, an inappropriate machine-centred approach to design, results in a pathological combination of person and machine leading to frustration, inefficiency and danger. This message was brought home with a series of entertaining anecdotes that partly explains why the book was so popular.
Book review: A Small Matter of Programming: Perspectives on End User Computing by Bonnie A. Nardi (MIT Press 1993)
Authors: Grinter Rebecca E.
Published: January 2007

"A Small Matter of Programming" by Bonnie Nardi provides an evocative description of the future of product developed software. She believes that users empowered by software which takes advantage of their work place skills, can and will create, manipulate, and share a variety of documents, forms, and charts easily. A synthesis of her research, this book stands as an engaging vision of the future which academics and practitioners alike can learn from.
Abstracts of Interest
Authors: Humphrey Susanne M. , Shneiderman Ben
Published: January 2007

The following are citations selected by title and abstract as being related to Computer-Human Interaction, resulting from a computer search, using Dialog Information Services, of the Dissertation Abstracts Online database produced by University Microfilms International (UMI). Included are UMI order number, title, author, degree, year, institution; number of pages, Dissertation Abstracts International (DAI) subject category chosen by the author, and abstract. Unless otherwise specified, paper or microform copies of disertations may be ordered from University Microfilms International, Dissertation Copies, Post Office Box 1764, Ann Arbor, MI 48106, USA; telephone for U.S. (except Michigan, Hawaii, Alaska): 1-800-521-3042, for Canada: 1-800-343-5299. Price lists and other ordering and shipping information are in the introduction to the published DAI. An alternate source for copies is sometimes provided. Dissertation titles and abstracts contained here are published with permission of University Microfilms International, publishers of Dissertation Abstracts International (copyright by University Microfilms International), and may not be reproduced without their prior permission.
VIDSIA annual meeting at CHI '94
Authors: Staples Loretta
Published: January 2007

The Visual Interaction Design Special Interest Area met at CHI '94 on Wednesday, April 27 from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m. The meeting was run by me and Peter Vanags of U dot I, Inc. (with thanks to co-organizer Andy Cargile of IIT, who unfortunately, was not able to attend). About fifty people attended to discuss an agenda that focused on the visual interaction design community's participation within CHI. Topics included the following:• What is the extent of our current participation?• What opportunities exist?• What obstacles exist?• What experiences have we had?• What kind of support can we take advantage of.
Pattern recognition in HCI: a viable approach?
Authors: Finlay Janet , Dix Alan
Published: January 2007

Over recent years there has been a steadily increasing interest in the use of pattern recognition techniques (in particular neural networks) in human-computer interaction This has focused largely on applications such as speech and gesture recognition where the problems are quite well understood but has also considered less traditional domains such task analysis, user modelling and information retrieval. In 1991 we held a workshop at CHI entitled "Neural Networks and Pattern Recognition in CHI" [1] where the aim was to consider the range of possible applications for these techniques within HCI. It was a success, leading to the publication of a book on subject [2] which has sold well internationally and is still in demand, but three years on pattern recognition seems no nearer to being accepted within the mainstream of HCI, remaining largely associated with speech and gesture.
Designing the teaching of HCI
Authors: Löwgren Jonas , Quinn Clark N. , Gasen Jean , Gorny Peter
Published: January 2007

Interest in HCI education is on the rise. As the HCI body of knowledge continues to grow, educators in academia and industry are seeking out ways to translate, present and incorporate such knowledge in textbooks, courses and even degree programs. The increasing number of faculty, courses, texts and programs focusing on HCI are testimony to this increasing interest.
Software visualization
Authors: Brown Marc , Domingue John , Price Blaine , Stasko John
Published: January 2007

In 1981 Ron Baecker presented the film
Sorting Out Sorting
at SIGGRAPH. The film utilized a number of unique animations to compare and contrast how different sorting algorithms function. Since then a multitude of systems and research projects have addressed the topic of visualizing and animating data structures, programs, algorithms, and processes. These software visualization (SV) systems [5] help students to learn how programs work, assist professional software engineers to debug and understand their code, and provide researchers with insights how to analyze and improve algorithms.
HCI challenges in government contracting
Authors: Buie Elizabeth , Winkler Ira
Published: January 2007

Governments spend huge resources on custom computer systems, developed by contractors to government specifications under government monitoring. HCI development faces challenges from this environment's constraints and the HCI community's virtual neglect.
Some human interaction issues in computer algebra
Authors: Kajler Norbert , Soiffer Neil
Published: January 2007

This paper addresses some of the current issues concerning the improvement of user interfaces for computer algebra systems. Some state of the art commercial software as well as research prototypes are presented, followed by a description of present research directions.
High performance Fortran language specification (part III)
Authors: High Performance Fortran Forum CORPORATE
Published: January 2007

The High Performance Fortran Forum (HPFF), a coalition of over 40 industrial, academic, and government organizations, met from March 1992 to March 1993 to discuss and define High Performance Fortran (HPF), a set of extensions to Fortran 90. The goal was to address the problems of writing data parallel programs for architectures where the distribution of data impacts performance. While it is intended that the HPF extensions will become widely available, HPFF is not sanctioned or supported by any official standards organization. More information is available from Chuck Koelbel:
chk@cs.rice.edu
The pessimism behind optimistic simulation
Authors: Varghese George , Chamberlain Roger , Weihl William E.
Published: January 2007

In this paper we make an analogy between the time that storage must be maintained in an optimistic simulation and the blocking time in a conservative simulation. By exploring this analogy, we design two new Global Virtual Time (GVT) protocols for Time Warp systems. The first protocol is based on null message clock advancement in conservative approaches. Our main contribution is a new protocol inspired by Misra's circulating marker scheme for deadlock recovery. It is simple enough to be implemented in hardware, takes no overhead in the normal path, can be made to work over non-FIFO links, and its overhead can be dynamically tuned based on computational load.
Reconfigurable technology
Authors: Beaumont C. , Boronat P. , Champeau J. , Filloque J.-M , Pottier B.
Published: January 2007

Accelerating discrete event simulation can be achieved by using parallel architectures. The use of dedicated hardware is a possible alternative in some special domains like logic simulation. However, few studies have focused on general cases.

This paper presents an innovative solution using a recent hardware technology called FPGA (
Field Programmable Gate Array
), that enables dynamic synthesis of application specific hardware. Each node of an MIMD parallel machine is tightly coupled to an FPGA ring. This ring allows us to synthesize application specific
global operators
and
control or communication
circuits and complements the possibilities of the original machine on a wide application spectrum. We present the first results obtained in the simulation field with an eight node prototype.
Domain decomposition methods for circuit simulation
Authors: Kleis U. , Wallat O. , Wever U. , Zheng Q.
Published: January 2007

In this paper we discuss the application of domain decomposition methods to circuit simulation. This coarse grain parallelization guarantees a minimum of communication and thus achieves good speedup results on a workstation cluster. Our results show that with a cluster of ten powerful RISC workstations comparable turn around times to a supercomputer can be achieved. Furthermore a workstation cluster offers the possibility to simulate electric circuits with a size of new magnitude. On a cluster of 27 workstations we succeeded in simulating a circuit with 135000 transistors, while we failed to simulate the same circuit on our supercomputer because of a lack of memory.
A microarchitecture description language for retargeting firmware tools
Authors: Nixon J. F. , Schach S. R. , Winner R. I.
Published: January 2007

ARCHI is a microarchitecture description language designed to serve as the underlying language for a retargetable firmware development environment. ARCHI provides a hierarchical, procedural description at the register transfer level of the target microarchitecture. This description can then be utilized by a meta-environment to generate an instantiation of the firmware development environment for a specific target microarchitecture.

ARCHI has been successfully used to generate debugging simulators for the vertical Perkin-Elmer 3220, and the horizontal VAX-11/780. It is shown that if a microarchitecture description language is powerful enough to retarget a debugging simulator then it can be used to retarget almost every tool in a firmware development meta-environment, and that ARCHI accordingly satisfies its design objectives.
An efficient retargetable microcode generator
Authors: Balakrishnan M. , Bhatt P. C P , Madan B. B.
Published: January 2007

This paper presents a microcode generator, which accepts a source program (algorithm) and a target description (microarchitecture) as input and generates microcode to implement the algorithm on the defined microarchitecture. The target description is similar to the outputs produced by datapath synthesis phase in hardware design packages. Thus, it can be incorporated to synthesise a microprogrammed control.

The microcode generator is based on an algorithm which preserves retargetability without sacrificing on design time. This is achieved by implementing the generator in two phases: in the first phase, a set of 'feasible' register transfer operations (called base-set) is generated from the microarchitecture description. In the second phase, translation is carried out by simply searching and matching the source program statements with the base-set.
Run-time generation of HPS microinstructions from a VAX instruction stream
Authors: Patt Y. N. , Melvin S. W. , Hwu W. M. , Shebanow M. C. , Chen C.
Published: January 2007

The VAX architecture is a popular ISP architecture that has been implemented in several different technologies targeted to a wide range of performance specifications. However, it has been argued that the VAX has specific characteristics which preclude a very high performance implementation. We have developed a microarchitecture (HPS) which is specifically intended for implementing very high performance computing engines. Our model of execution is a restriction on fine granularity data flow. In this paper, we concentrate on one particular aspect of an HPS implementation of the VAX architecture: the generation of HPS microinstructions (i.e. data flow nodes) from a VAX instruction stream.
Data flow graph partitioning to reduce communication cost
Authors: Koutsougeras C. , Papachristou C. A. , Vemuri R. R.
Published: January 2007

This paper presents a cost-effective scheme for partitioning large data flow graphs. Standard data flow machine architectures are assumed in this work. The objective is to reduce the overhead due to token transfers through the communication network of the machine. When this scheme is employed on large graphs, the load distribution on the rings of the data flow machine is also improved. A canonical form of a data flow graph is introduced to establish the relationship between the communication overhead and the size reduction of the partition cut-set. General lower estimates on the overhead are derived in terms of processing and transmission delay parameters of the machine. The method uses heuristics and an evaluation function to guide the partition algorithm. Some implications of the proposed method on the organization of the data flow machines are discussed.
The microarchitecture of a capability-based computer
Authors: Abramson D. A. , Rosenberg J.
Published: January 2007

This paper describes the micro-architecture of a microprogrammed workstation called MONADS-PC. The system has been specifically designed to support a very large uniform virtual memory, capability-based addressing and information hiding software modules with procedural interfaces. The paper gives a brief introduction to these topics followed by implementation details of the system.
A dynamic very high-level debugger for low-level microprograms
Authors: Wahl N. J. , Schach S. R. , Winner R. I.
Published: January 2007

Microcode debuggers may be classified according to the following three criteria: static or dynamic output, the level of debugging, and the type of debugging facilities provided. A very high level interactive debugger that supports dynamic debugging of microcode written for the Perkin-Elmer 3220 is described in this paper.

The system allows the user to debug microcode at a very high level because the microarchitecture of the machine can be displayed in the format conceived by the user. The display is dynamic in that the user sees the flow of data as it occurs during the execution of microinstructions. The system supports the usual debugging facilities including setting breakpoints, executing in step or continuous modes, executing in trace mode, examining and changing the contents of memory locations and registers, and restarting the microprogram at an earlier location. But, these facilities are greatly enhanced because the output of the debugger is graphical and dynamic.
BBMSS: A bit-splice based microprogram simulation system
Authors: Li N. , Tang Y. , Xu S.
Published: January 2007

BBMSS is a part of our software aided for the development of bit-slice based systems and is used as a tool for testing and debugging of microprograms . It contains three parts : a hardware description language , a parser , and a simulation program . The hardware description language which is an extension to CDL is presented here . The simulation program which handles user's commands to simulate the behaviour and function of microprogram is given and the parser is also described briefly in this paper.
The RIAO 94 conference and the status of information retrieval
Authors: Marcus Richard S.
Published: January 2007

The RIAO 94 Conference provided a strong collection of presentations giving an excellent panorama of the best in current IR R&D. This review briefly summarizes most of those presentations as a basis for characterizing the current state of research and development in information retrieval. The theme of this characterization is that a great number of exciting developments are bubbling just below (and even into) the operational system status but that these developments could be accelerated by an attention to a number of verities. For example, there are multiple paradigms for improving current operational systems and these need to be carefully evaluated through objective scientific experimentation and analysis so that the best techniques from each can be properly integrated into new, improved systems which will go beyond any one paradigm. Not only must current researchers be aware of competing new paradigms but they need to be aware of the work of past generations in Information Science. In particular, the standard structured, contextual, interactive Boolean techniques of modern retrieval systems do work well under intelligent human control and new attempts to add intelligent computer techniques and aides to this paradigm possibly serve as a better basis for optimized information retrieval than the competing paradigms based on statistics, advanced linguistics, or thesaural/classification development and browsing.
Software engineering for human computer interaction
Authors: Johnson Christopher , Harrison Michael
Published: January 2007

Human computer interaction (HCI) as a research field is a loose federation of connected topics. These topics are united by a need to assess the ease or reliability with which users, pilots, drivers etc., can operate their systems. As a bye-product of this activity, interfaces have been evaluated according to a range of different criteria. One impetus is to assess the ease with which a computer system may be integrated into a work environment. This often involves experimental methods that have been derived from the behavioural sciences; psychology, sociology and anthropology. Another impetus is towards the development of exploratory environments which ease the prototyping or development of interactionally rich systems. These environments are intended to aid the discovery of novel interaction techniques or interface metaphors. A further impetus aims to integrate 'usability' requirements into the software engineering of interactive systems. This strand of research provides the context for the following collection of position papers.
ADVcharts
Authors: Carneiro L. M. F. , Cowan D. D. , Lucena C. J. P.
Published: January 2007

This paper introduces a new visual formalism, called ADV-charts, for specifying the behavior of interactive systems (including multi-modal interactive systems) by using a state machine approach. ADVcharts combine concepts from Abstract Data Views, with notations from Objectcharts, Statecharts, and Petri-nets. ADVcharts are motivated by the need to provide a formal semantics for the Abstract Data Views concept, while serving as a foundation for a future design methodology for interactive systems. In particular, we show some aspects of design specific to interactive systems, such as the association of input devices with particular Abstract Data Views, the concurrency of the components of a user interface, and the representation of various modes (input and output) in the design of an interactive system.
Book review: Philosophy of Probability. Edited by Jacques-Paul Dubucs (Kluwer Academic Publishers Group 1993)
Authors: Ferrante Richard
Published: January 2007

The first three chapters of this book flow together beautifully. The reader progresses from Howson's article "Personalistic Bayesianism" to Sahlin's "On Higher Order Beliefs" to Gardenfors "On the Logic of Relevance." All address the same issues succinctly in similar terms. The probabilistic reasoning case discussed by Sahlin on page 14 is directly comparable to Howson's discussion on page 7. This allows the reader to compare them and try to determine the differences between the two approaches.
Book review: Adaptive Reasoning for Real-World Problems by Roy M. Turner (Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, 1994)
Authors: Truszkowski Walt
Published: January 2007

In view of the growing popularity of agent-based systems this book is very timely. "Adaptive Reasoning for Real-World Problems" discusses practical approaches to realizing adaptive systems based on current agent concepts. The book discusses, in detail, the nature and types of knowledge that computer-based agents need to access and manage in order to be able to effectively function in a changing operational environment. It identifies the types of knowledge required for adaptive problem solving: procedural, contextual, and strategic, and addresses, in detail, appropriate ways of structuring knowledge for use by the adaptive agent. Procedural knowledge refers to implicit or explicit actions required to achieve a goal. Contextual knowledge is that knowledge which establishes the problem-solving context in which the agent (or reasoner) finds itself and in which it must operate. Strategic knowledge refers to that knowledge which the agent can use to control or modify its problem-solving behaviors. In Turner's system each of these types of knowledge is represented in a schema: "...an explicit, declaratively-represented packet of knowledge representing either a pattern encountered (or expected) in the world or a pattern of action for the reasoner to take. A schema can be either provided to a reasoner by another agent or learned from experience."
Undergraduate AI and its non-imperative prerequisite
Authors: Kumar Deepak , Wyatt Richard
Published: January 2007

This position paper presents, we believe, a strong case for including in an undergraduate Computer Science (CS) program a required course in non-imperative programming. Such a course is motivated by the need to provide a uniform and adequate background for a course in Artificial Intelligence (AI). We make no claim about graduate AI courses. We survey the recommendations of the ACM-IEEE Joint Curriculum Task Force for an undergraduate course in AI and argue that some of the "dilemmas" of teaching introductory AI courses can be resolved by changes in the core CS curriculum. The argument for such a course is the focus of the paper; we also offer some ancillary remarks on other matters relating to teaching AI at the introductory level.
Intellectual archeology
Authors: Hayes Pat , Ford Ken
Published: January 2007

We urge that an introductory course in AI should present a firm enough intellectual foundation to enable students to counter the many arguments being made against the subject's validity or coherence. Such foundations are not found in the history of the subject, on which many current texts spend too much time.
AIgorithms
Authors: Martin James H. , Winklmann Karl
Published: January 2007

This article describes an undergraduate course that combines the teaching of algorithms, artificial intelligence and technical writing. The primary goal of this course is to achieve a better integration of AI concepts and techniques into our undergraduate CS program. This integration is achieved through an alignment of material from existing AI and Algorithms classes.
Performance prediction of parallel systems with scalable specifications—methodology and case study
Authors: Wabnig H. , Haring G.
Published: January 2007

This paper describes the general methodology of specifying parallel systems within the PAPS (Performance Analysis of Parallel Systems) toolset and presents a case study that shows the applicability and accuracy of the Petri net based performance prediction tools contained in the toolset. Parallel systems are specified in the PAPS toolset by separately defining the program workload, the hardware resources, and the mapping of the program to the hardware. The resource parameterization is described in detail for a multiprocessor computer with a store & forward communication network. The Gaussian elimination algorithm is taken as a workload example to demonstrate how regularly structured parallel algorithms are modelled with acyclic task graphs. Three different program specifications with various levels of model accuracy are developed and their parameterization is described. The predicted execution time is compared with the measured execution times of the real program on the parallel hardware. It is shown that the Petri net based performance prediction tools provide accurate performance predicitons.
Queueing model with state dependent balking and reneging
Authors: Gupta Surendra M.
Published: January 2007

In this paper, the concepts of complementarity and equivalence between an
M/M/c/K
queueing model with state dependent balking and reneging and a machine interference problem with warm standbys are formalized. The relationship provides insight into these queueing systems. Through a series of corollaries, relationships between various queueing systems are derived. It is shown that a recently reported relationship between Erlang loss system and a finite source queueing system is a trivial consequence of the more general results presented here. New results involving the arrival point probabilities and measures of performance for these two queueing systems are also presented. An example is also provided.
Visualizing performance in the frequency plane
Authors: Keehn D. G.
Published: January 2007

A method of showing the performance limiting effects of a product form queueing network as lines, planes, etc in a J dimensional space is given. The location of a certain critical point (Little's Law Point) in this space allows the asymptotic calculation of the normalizing constant G(K) of the network. This Little's Law point (LLP) is found by applying Little's Law to the augmented system generating function of the BCMP [1] network. The computational complexity of this algorithm is the Order (number of chains cubed * number of service centers in the system). Comparisons of numerical accuracy with other methods (Convolution, and another asymptotic method) are given.
Book review: Three-Dimensional Computer Vision. by Olivier Faugeras (The MIT Press, 1993)
Authors: O'Rourke Joseph
Published: January 2007

The book addresses the important problem of adaptation of an embedded system's behaviour to make it more appropriate to the environment in which it is embedded. This process, in its broadest sense, is referred to as learning, and for the author this also includes such simple forms of learning as measuring the width of a hall to allow a measuring robot to perform better. The philosophical debate about what does and does not constitute machine learning is left alone; the interested reader is referred to an earlier publication by the same author.
Book review: What is Intelligence? Edited by Jean Khalfa (Cambridge University Press, 1994)
Authors: de la Maza Michael
Published: January 2007

This good book contains good contributions from good researchers with good ideas. Its eight chapters, which spring from the seventh annual series of Darwin College Lectures (many of the authors make sometimes misguided efforts to connect their work to Darwin's), lightly and brightly cover a host of topics -- language, knowledge representation, inference -- that are of central importance to artificial intelligence. Neither the writing nor the ideas contained in its two hundred pages can be accused of being too thick or too thin; it reads like the three volume "An Invitation to Cognitive Science" series [HLasnik90, JHollerbach90, ESmith90] and covers similar topics.
Evaluating planners, plans, and planning agents
Authors: Pollack Martha E.
Published: January 2007

The field of AI planning has become increasingly concerned with questions of evaluation. The papers in this special issue represent several different approaches to evaluation. The first two papers present detailed analytic and experimental comparisons of particular plan generation algorithms ("planners", for short). The third and fourth papers develop formalisms for categorizing planners and the plans they produce; these formalisms are intended to provide a vocabulary for further comparative work that can bridge the gap between formal planning research and planning applications. Finally, the fifth paper argues that planners and plans can only be evaluated in the context of the planning agents that execute the plans, and presents a decision-theoretic approach to evaluating planning agents.
The utility of planning
Authors: Zilberstein Shlomo
Published: January 2007

Evaluation and comparison of existing planning systems is hard because they disagree on the fundamental role of planning, on evaluation metrics, and on the notion of success and failure. This paper suggests a decision-theoretic approach to evaluate planning systems that generalizes the role of planning in intelligent systems. The planner is viewed as a source of information that is used by an execution architecture in order to select actions. A planner is only as good as the effect it has on the performance of an operational system. Our approach calls for a clear separation between the planning component and the execution architecture and for evaluation of planning systems within the context of a well-defined command, planning and execution environment. The evaluation is based on the expected utility of the domain histories that are induced by the planning component.
An introduction to the RESearch Queueing Package for modeling contention systems
Authors: MacNair E. A. , Gordon R. F.
Published: January 2007

A queueing network is an important tool for modeling systems where performance is principally affected by contention for resources. Such systems include computer systems, communication networks and manufacturing lines. In order to effectively use queuing networks as performance models, appropriate software is necessary for definition of the networks to be solved, for solution of the networks and for examination of the performance measures obtained.The RESearch Queueing Package (RESQ) and the RESearch Queueing Modeling Environment (RESQME) form a system for constructing, solving and analyzing extended queueing network models. We refer to the class of RESQ networks as "extended" because of characteristics which allow effective representation of system detail. RESQ incorporates a high level language to concisely describe the structure of the model and to specify constraints on the solution. A main feature of the language is the capability to describe models in a hierarchical fashion, allowing an analyst to define submodels to be used analogously to use of macros in programming languages. RESQ also provides a variety of methods for estimating the accuracy of simulation results and for determining simulation run lengths. RESQME is a graphical interface for RESQ.
Gröbner and involutive bases for zero-dimensional ideals
Authors: García-Sánchez Pedro A.
Published: January 2007

A new characterization of involutive systems is presented, which leads to a connection between Gröbner basis and involutive systems, and allows to construct, in an easy way, an involutive basis from a Gröbner basis.
On families of iterated derivatives
Authors: Koepf Wolfram
Published: January 2007

We give an overview of an approach on special functions due to Truesdell, and show how it can be used to develop certain type of identities for special functions. Once obtained, these identities may be verified by an independent algorithmic method for which we give some examples.
Tools for working with guidelines
Authors: Cohen A. , Crow D. , Dilli I. , Gorny P. , Hoffman H.-J. , Iannella R. , Ogawa K. , Reiterer H. , Ueno K. , Vanderdonckt J.
Published: January 2007

This article reports on a Special Interest Group meeting held at CHI '94, Boston, to discuss the past, present, and future of "Tools for Working with Guidelines". Though working with guidelines has gained today more common practice than in the past, it is still not always obvious which methods can be effectively used for managing guidelines during the whole development life-cycle of an interactive application. Moreover, it is not clear which kind of tools could be made available to designers for helping them in the process.This SIG focused on existing and planned tools for working with guidelines and related computer-aided activities involving guidelines: learning, understanding, teaching, illustration, documentation, standard compliance, usability assessment, guidelines evaluation, computer-aided generation of user interfaces explicitly based on guidelines, advice-giving systems.
IDA
Authors: Reiterer Harald
Published: January 2007

This summary reports first results of the GMD project "User Interface Design Assistance (IDA)". The objective of this project is to develop computer based design aid tools for human factors based user interface design. The design aid tools are integrated in a user interface management system (UIMS) to support the designers during the development process.
What Does It Mean To Be Local?
Authors: Ehrlich Kate
Published: January 2007

If you have browsed the back cover of this Bulletin recently you might have noticed the slow but steady growth in local SIGCHI groups. There are now 25 local SIGs in various stages of formation. Three of them are in Europe and four of them are in Canada. Given the number, diversity and geographical spread of these groups it seems a good time to reflect on what it means to be a local group. By way of emphasizing the international flavor of local groups, the featured SIG in this issue is CHISIG (Australia). Although still in the process of determining whether to join CHI, CHISIG is representative of many of the issues facing local groups - distance from other groups and from a central organization, importance of retaining a local culture yet remaining part of an international group, attracting and keeping members.Physical distance is no longer a serious barrier to communication or collaboration. One of the technologies helping to bring groups together is the World Wide Web. In the "News and Views" section you will see that some local SIGs have begun publishing their own World Wide Web home pages. The addresses of these home pages will henceforth be included with the other contact information on the inside back cover.
Does Information Technology Make Us Smarter?
Authors: Cashman Mark
Published: January 2007

A recent book review in SIGCHI Bulletin, on
"Things That Make Us Smart"
stimulated my thought on this subject. Are we smarter as a result of information technologies? If we are, how is that working? If not, why isn't it working?
Programming with Fortran
Authors: Holmes Neville
Published: January 2007

Changes made to, and proposed for, Fortran seem to be directed to improving the code that can be written in it. At the same time, supporters of Fortran deplore Fortran's declining popularity, and suggest improvements to improve Fortran code further. However, Fortran's popularity might be boosted by making it a better system to program in by providing support for the programming process rather than improving the product.
The role of dynamic programming & control structures in performance
Authors: Bernecky Robert
Published: January 2007

Dynamic programming is used infrequently by APL programmers, in spite of its ability to reduce the computational effort required to solve many problems. This paper uses the
String Shuffle
problem as the basis for a comparison of brute force, recursive, and dynamic programming algorithms. Simple algorithms for each of these approaches are designed and evaluated, then individually optimized and re-evaluated, to show the benefits of dynamic programming.

The dynamic programming algorithm is then recast to use flow control structures recently introduced into ISI J and APL*PLUS III. Use of control structures in conjunction with dynamic programming results in orders of magnitude performance improvement over brute force and naive recursive algorithms. APL*PLUS III control structures are shown to provide a performance improvement of up to 30% over GOTO-based loops.