ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
The Dynamics of Software Project Staffing: A System Dynamics Based Simulation Approach
Authors: Tarek K. Abdel-Hamid
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (1989)

The author focuses on the dynamics of software project staffing throughout the software-development lifecycle. The research vehicle is a comprehensive system-dynamics model of the software-development process. A detailed discussion of the model's structure as well as its behavior is provided. The results of a case study in which the model is used to simulate the staffing practices of an actual software project are then presented. The experiment produces some interesting insights into the policies (both explicit and implicit) for managing the human resource, and their impact on project behavior. The decision-support capability of the model to answer what-if questions is also demonstrated. In particular, the model is used to test the degree of interchangeability of men and months on the particular software project.
Capturing software processes through the generated objects
Authors: M. Rueher, D. Ladret, B. Legeard
Venue: Proceedings of the 4th international software process workshop on Representing and enacting the software process (1988)

This paper mainly focusses on the representation of actual specification processes. However, the proposed scheme can be extended to the whole software process. The specification process is the sequence of operations required for building up a complete specification. Performing these operations mainly yields information objects that can be as various as informal statements, exploratory prototypes, test cases, axiomatic descriptions, user constraints for the elaboration process, etc. Thus, we propose to materialise the specification process through the representation of all the useful characteristics of these objects. The reason for this choice is the fact that objects are easier to comprehend than processes [Ost87].
An optical system for full text search
Authors: P. A. Mitkas, P. S. Guilfoyle
Venue: ACM SIGIR Forum (1989)

In this paper we propose a full text search system based on optics. The storage and processing of the textual data are performed by an optical back-end system to an electronic computer. In this way we can take advantage of the speed and parallelism of digital optical processing. Using the proposed configuration we show how one might implement a set of text processing operations using lasers, spatial light modulators and photodetectors.
A Spatial Sampling Criterion for Sonar Obstacle Detection
Authors: R. Kuc
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (1990)

A spatial sampling criterion for sonar systems that allows all obstacles within a given radius from the sensor to be detected is described. The environment considered is a two-dimensional floor plan that is extended into the third dimension, in which the scanning is performed in the horizontal plane. In this environment, edgelike reflectors, such as edges of doors or doorways, and oblique surfaces are the most difficult to detect. By considering the physics of sound propagation, the sonar scanning density required to detect these objects is determined. An experimental verification is included. The limitations of detecting objects with sonar in a more general environment are discussed. These results can be used to determine the necessary spacing in a transducer ring array and the maximum step size that a mobile robot can translate without danger of collision.
Distributed Ada-approach and implementation
Authors: R. Jha, G. Eisenhauer
Venue: Proceedings of the conference on Tri-Ada '89: Ada technology in context: application, development, and deployment (1989)

The task of programming distributed applications in Ada may be addressed in several ways. Most of these require the application developer to factor the hardware configuration into software design very early in the development process. The resulting software is sensitive to changes in hardware, does not lend itself to design iteration, is not easily transportable across different hardware configurations, and is not stable against changes during the life-cycle of the application. In Section 2, we describe an approach that achieves separation of concerns between program design and program partitioning for distributed execution. The entire application is written as a single Ada program using the full capabilities of the language for program structuring, separate compilation, and type checking. Then in a distinct second phase of design, the program is partitioned and prepared for distributed execution. The two-phase design approach helps reduce design complexity by problem decomposition, and allows experimentation with different strategies for allocating software to hardware without requiring software redesign. Section 3 reviews other work and presents a comparative evaluation. Two implementations of this approach have been completed and tested with the Ada Compiler Validation Capability (ACVC) test-suite. Implementation issues are discussed, and the key features of our implementation approach are presented in Section 4. Finally, Section 5 concludes the paper with pointers to future work.
Tense quantifiers, and contexts
Authors: Erhard W. Hinrichs
Venue: Computational Linguistics (1988)

This paper describes a compositional semantics for temporal expressions as part of the meaning representation language (MRL) of the JANUS system, a natural language understanding and generation system under joint development by BBN Labs and ISI. The analysis is based on a higher-order intensional logic described in detail in Hinrichs (1987a). Temporal expressions of English are translated into this language as quantifiers over times that bind temporal indices on predicates. The semantic evaluation of time-dependent predicates is defined relative to a set of discourse contexts, which, following Reichenbach (1947), include the parameters of speech time and reference time. The resulting context-dependent and multi-indexed interpretation of temporal expressions solves a set of well-known problems that arise when traditional systems of tense logic are applied to natural language semantics. Based on the principle of rule-to-rule translation, the compositional nature of the analysis provides a straightforward and well-defined interface between the parsing component and the semantic-interpretation component of JANUS.
Video conferencing as a technology to support group work: a review of its failures
Authors: Carmen Egido
Venue: Proceedings of the 1988 ACM conference on Computer-supported cooperative work (1988)

Teleconferencing systems and services, are the main set of technologies developed thus far to support group work. Within this set of technologies, videoconferencing is often thought of as a new, futuristic communication mode that lies between the telephone call and the face-to-face meeting. In fact, videoconferencing has been commercially available for over two decades, and, despite consistently brilliant market forecasts, to date it has failed to succeed except in limited niche markets. This paper reviews existing teleconferencing literature and provides an analysis of the reasons behind the failure of videoconferencing.
HyperHyper: developments across the field of hypermedia&mdash;a mini trip report
Authors: J. Nielsen
Venue: ACM SIGCHI Bulletin (1989)

HyperHyper was a nice small meeting with about 70 participants, mostly from the UK but with a few participants from Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands as well as some Americans currently living in England. One of the organizers, Dianne Murray from the National Physical Laboratory introduced the workshop by quoting an article from InfoWorld which complained that every new product these days claim to have "hypertext-like" features. Actually I use one such product and am reasonably satisfied with it (Data Desk Professional which has hyperviews to connect related statistical analyses). I don't mind integrating hypertext ideas with other computational ideas. In fact, more hybrid interaction styles may achieve a better match with the way we work (a concept called task integration).
Fault-Tolerant Computing: Fundamental Concepts
Authors: Victor P. Nelson
Venue: Computer (1990)

The basic concepts of fault-tolerant computing are reviewed, focusing on hardware. Failures, faults, and errors in digital systems are examined, and measures of dependability, which dictate and evaluate fault-tolerance strategies for different classes of applications, are defined. The elements of fault-tolerance strategies are identified, and various strategies are reviewed. They are: error detection, masking, and correction; error detection and correction codes; self-checking logic; module replication for error detection and masking; protocol and timing checks; fault containment; reconfiguration and repair; and system recovery.
Formal Specification and Design Time Testing
Authors: Christopher Paul Garrard, Derek Coleman, Robin M. Gallimore
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (1990)

It is shown how design time testing can be used in conjunction with formal specification. Emphasis is placed on the benefits of using an executable specification language OBJ, of having a design controlled by requirements specification, and of adherence to the regularity and uniformity hypotheses in dynamic validation. It is shown that such an approach offers positive benefits by providing early design validation and a controlled, disciplined design process.
Trace scheduling optimization in a retargetable microcode compiler
Authors: Michael A. Howland, Robert A. Mueller, Philip H. Sweany
Venue: ACM SIGMICRO Newsletter (1988)

We discuss the integration of a trace scheduling optimizer into a retargetable optimizing microcode compiler that handles complex timing relations. The trace scheduler requires no special treatment when retargeting the compiler, being constructed from machine independent algorithms that extract target micro-architecture details from a machine description used by the other compiler processes. We focus on the machine independent basis of the trace scheduler and demonstrate it on a hypothetical micro-architecture.
Local Correction of Helix(k) Lists
Authors: Ian J. Davis
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Computers (1989)

A helix (k) list is a robust multiply linked list having k pointers in each node. In general, the ith pointer in each node addresses the ith previous node. However, the first pointer in each node addresses the next node, rather than the previous. An algorithm for performing local correction in a helix (k¿3) list is presented. Given the assumption that at most k errors are encountered during any single correction step, this algorithm performs correction whenever possible, and otherwise reports failure. The algorithm generally reports failure only if all k pointers addressing a specific node are damaged, causing this node to become disconnected. However, in a helix (k=3) structure, one specific type of damage that causes disconnection is indistinguishable from alternative damage that does not. This also causes the algorithm to report failure.
Redundancy in spatial databases
Authors: J. A. Orenstein
Venue: ACM SIGMOD Record (1989)

Spatial objects other than points and boxes can be stored in spatial indexes, but the techniques usually require the use of approximations that can be arbitrarily bad. This leads to poor performance and highly inaccurate responses to spatial queries. The situation can be improved by storing some objects in the index redundantly. Most spatial indexes permit no flexibility in adjusting the amount of redundancy. Spatial indexes based on z-order permit this flexibility. Accuracy of the query response increases with redundancy, (there is a &ldquo;diminishing return&rdquo; effect). Search time, as measured by disk accesses first decreases and then increases with redundancy. There is, therefore, an optimal amount of redundancy (for a given data set). The optimal use of redundancy for z-order is explored through analysis of the z-order search algorithm and through experiments.
A critical investigation of recall and precision as measures of retrieval system performance
Authors: Vijay Raghavan, Peter Bollmann, Gwang S. Jung
Venue: ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS) (1989)

Recall and precision are often used to evaluate the effectiveness of information retrieval systems. They are easy to define if there is a single query and if the retrieval result generated for the query is a linear ordering. However, when the retrieval results are weakly ordered, in the sense that several documents have an identical retrieval status value with respect to a query, some probabilistic notion of precision has to be introduced. Relevance probability, expected precision, and so forth, are some alternatives mentioned in the literature for this purpose. Furthermore, when many queries are to be evaluated and the retrieval results averaged over these queries, some method of interpolation of precision values at certain preselected recall levels is needed. The currently popular approaches for handling both a weak ordering and interpolation are found to be inconsistent, and the results obtained are not easy to interpret. Moreover, in cases where some alternatives are available, no comparative analysis that would facilitate the selection of a particular strategy has been provided. In this paper, we systematically investigate the various problems and issues associated with the use of recall and precision as measures of retrieval system performance. Our motivation is to provide a comparative analysis of methods available for defining precision in a probabilistic sense and to promote a better understanding of the various issues involved in retrieval performance evaluation.
Real-time rendering of trimmed surfaces
Authors: Alyn Rockwood, Kurt Heaton, Tom Davis
Venue: ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics (1989)

Rational tensor product surfaces, (B eacute;zier, NURBS, Hermite, polynomial, etc.) are rendered in real-time by uniform faceting. The described methods are modular and can be balanced for optimal implementation on different hardware platforms. Discretization anomalies such as angularities, Mach banding, cracking etc. are avoided by tessellating the surface patches and segmenting the trimming curves based on the view.
A partial-multiple-bus computer structure with improved cost effectiveness
Authors: H. Jiang, K. C. Smith
Venue: ACM SIGARCH Computer Architecture News (1988)

This paper addresses the design and performance analysis of partial-multiple-bus interconnection networks. One such structure, called processor-oriented partial-multiple-bus (or PPMB), is proposed. It serves as an alternative to the conventional structure called memory-oriented partial-multiple-bus (or MPMB) and is aimed at higher system performance at less or equal system cost. PPMB's structural feature, which distinguishes itself from the conventional, is to provide every memory module with B paths to processors (where B is the total number of buses). This in contrast to the mere B/g paths provided in the conventional MPMB structure (where g is the number of groups), suggests a potential for higher system bandwidth. This potential is fully fulfilled by the load-balancing arbitration mechanism suggested, which in turn highlights the advantages of the proposed structure. As a result, it has been shown, both analytically and by simulation, that a substantial increase in system bandwidth (up to 20%) is achieved by the PPMB structure over the MPMB structure. In addition to the fact that the cost of PPMB is less than, or equal to, that of MPMB, its reliability is shown to be slightly increased as well.
Knowledge based systems and Ada: an overview of the issues
Authors: P. Collard, A. Goforth
Venue: ACM SIGAda Ada Letters (1988)

The goal of this paper is to present an overview of the issues of using Ada in Artificial Intelligence (AI). The purpose of this paper is to act as a catalyst and a focus for these ongoing discussions. Our perspective is one from a cross-cultural vantage point. On one side is the Ada community that represents the engineer's "how to" culture; and, on the other side, the AI community that represents the scientist's "what" and "why" culture. Differences in communication media - i.e. programming languages - are the direct result of the different focus of the two cultures. We discuss some of the obstacles to a marriage of the two and assess what are the current promising development paths for overcoming these.
NOVA: state assignment of finite state machines for optimal two-level logic implementations
Authors: T. Villa, A. Sangiovanni-Vincentelli
Venue: Proceedings of the 26th ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference (1989)

The problem of encoding the states of a synchronous Finite State Machine (FSM), so that the area of a two-level implementation of the combinational logic is minimized, is addressed. As in previous approaches, the problem is reduced to the solution of the combinatorial optimization problems defined by the translation of the cover obtained by a multiple-valued logic minimization or by a symbolic minimization into a compatible Boolean representation. In this paper we present algorithms for their solution, based on a new theoretical framework that offers advantages over previous approaches to develop effective heuristics. The algorithms are part of NOVA, a program for optimal encoding of control logic. Final areas averaging 20% less than other state assignment programs and 30% less than the best random solutions have been obtained. Literal counts averaging 30% less than the best random solutions have been obtained.
Towards an information logic
Authors: C. J. van Rijsbergen
Venue: Proceedings of the 12th annual international ACM SIGIR conference on Research and development in information retrieval (1989)

'Probability is expectation founded upon partial knowledge.' (Boole, 1854) Information retrieval based on stored program electronic computers has been an active area of research since the time these machines were invented. It is therefore somewhat surprising that even now no formal computational model for IR exists. There is no well-defined logic to describe information retrieval, and there is no proof or model theory to talk about the truths of IR. This paper argues that much of the research work in the past has been steps in the direction of a logic for IR. These steps have been taken by developing formal models for information retrieval, but to date none of these are complete nor could any claim to be a computational model for IR. To appreciate this development I shall present a picture of IR, describing bits of a puzzle which may fit together to point to a new framework within which a computational model or logic could be described.
Heuristic Algorithms for Task Assignment in Distributed Systems
Authors: V. M. Lo
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Computers (1988)

Investigate the problem of static task assignment in distributed computing systems, i.e. given a set of k communicating tasks to be executed on a distributed system of n processors, to which processor should each task be assigned? The author proposes a family of heuristic algorithms for Stone's classic model of communicating tasks whose goal is the minimization of the total execution and communication costs incurred by an assignment. In addition, she augments this model to include interference costs which reflect the degree of incompatibility between two tasks. Whereas high communication costs serve as a force of attraction between tasks, causing them to be assigned to the same processor, interference costs serve as a force of repulsion between tasks, causing them to be distributed over many processors. The inclusion of interference costs in the model yields assignments with greater concurrency, thus overcoming the tendency of Stone's model to assign all tasks to one or a few processors. Simulation results show that the algorithms perform well and in particular, that the highly efficient Simple Greedy Algorithm performs almost as well as more complex heuristic algorithms.
New results on deriving protocol specifications from service specifications
Authors: F. Khendek, G. von Bochmann, C. Kant
Venue: ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review (1989)

Previous papers describe an algorithm for deriving a specification of protocol entities from a given service specification. A service specification defines a particular ordering for the execution of service primitives at the different service access points using operators for sequential, parallel and alternative executions. The derived protocol entities ensure the correct ordering by exchanging appropriate synchronization messages, between one another through the underlying communication medium. This paper presents several new results which represent important improvements to the above protocol derivation approach. First the language restriction to finite behaviors is removed by allowing for the definition of procedures which can be called recursively. Secondly, a new derivation algorithm has been developed which is much simpler than the previous one. Third, the resulting protocol specifications are much more optimized than those obtained previously.
On the use of spreading activation methods in automatic information
Authors: G. Salton, C. Buckley
Venue: Proceedings of the 11th annual international ACM SIGIR conference on Research and development in information retrieval (1988)

Spreading activation methods have been recommended in information retrieval to expand the search vocabulary and to complement the retrieved document sets. The spreading activation strategy is reminiscent of earlier associative indexing and retrieval systems. Some spreading activation procedures are briefly described, and evaluation output is given, reflecting the effectiveness of one of the proposed procedures.
A Critical Analysis of Incremental Iterative Data Flow Analysis Algorithms
Authors: Michael G. Burke, Barbara G. Ryder
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (1990)

A model of data flow analysis and fixed point iteration solution procedures is presented. The faulty incremental iterative algorithm is introduced. Examples of the imprecision of restarting iteration from the intraprocedural and interprocedural domains are given. Some incremental techniques which calculate precise data flow information are summarized.
I370 - a new dimension of microprogramming
Authors: Juergen Maergner, Hartmut R. Schwermer
Venue: ACM SIGMICRO Newsletter (1988)

The internal 370 mode (I370) is a high level microprogramming interface. It significantly improves microcode development productivity and portability.I370 is a subset of the S/370 architecture and has special functions for access to non-S/370 system resources. It facilitates the utilization of existing high-level languages for microprogramming.In general, I370 can be supported by any S/370 CPU, independent of its internal design and implementation. It is used in the IBM 9377 Model 90 system to implement major parts of S/370 microcode.
Design for e-beam testability - A demand for e-beam testing of future device generations ?
Authors: K. D. Herrmann, E. Kubalek
Venue: Microelectronic Engineering (1988)

Based on the trends in development of integrated circuits (IC) until the year 2000 it is shown that, presuming the present capability of electron beam test systems, in future an electron beam test (EBT) will not be practicable anymore. This is mainly due to long measurement times, large measurement errors at passivated IC and the restricted test access. Of course, the performance of EBT may be improved significantly by improved equipment in order to meet the requirements given by the IC development as will be pointed out in this work. However, the physical limitations can already be foreseen. Therefore alternatively to the improvements of equipment a design for e-beam testability (DFEBT) has to be realized. Measures for a DFEBT will be discussed.