I will argue that this structure is inappropriate for many application systems. I will use this to motivate the design of a new operating system, known as Charm. This operating system falls into a new class of operating systems known as exo-kernels. Charm is currently being developed at the University of Stirling by Dearle, Hulse and O'lenskie. We plan to use this new operating system for database, persistent and networked applications.
Time delays are ubiquitous in the nervous system.
In some cases, e.g. the auditory system of the barn owl, the exact timing of spikes is crucial for information processing. A Hebbian learning mechanism is presented which alters time delays rather than synaptic weights in networks of spiking neurons. The algorithm yields an equalization of delay lines resulting in the synchronization of a neuron's input signals. Possible delay adaptation mechanisms in the nervous system include the modification of synaptic properties such as the density of receptors in the postsynaptic membrane, and alterations of dendritic and axonal parameters. A network of basic call models, with a simple asynchronous communication protocol, will be developed in Promela and then analysed using a variety of techniques, including model checking for linear temporal logic formulae using XSpin.