ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Developing computer aided design technology in China
Authors: Richard S Gallagher
Venue: ACM SIGCHI Bulletin (1986)

Computer aided design (CAD) -- the use of computer graphics, geometric modeling and database technology to assist the automation of the design process -- has been one of the major technical advances in the engineering field in the last decade. As an accessible means of reducing the time and labor involved in the design cycle in industry, it is viewed by officials of the People's Republic of China as an important part of the country's modernization of technology.
Aggregating criteria with quantifiers
Authors: R R Yager
Venue: Proceedings of the ACM SIGART international symposium on Methodologies for intelligent systems (1986)

We are here concerned with the problem of forming multiple criteria decision functions when the aggregation process is controlled by a linguistic quantifier.
Videotex information packagers: a field study aimed at tomorrow's videotex authoring interface
Authors: John F. Kelley
Venue: ACM SIGCHI Bulletin (1988)

Twenty-Three professional Videotex Information Packagers (VIP: graphic artists, database architects, wordsmiths, etc.) were interviewed about current work habits with an eye toward the implications for VIP automation. Interviews were taped and transcribed for semi-mechanized content analysis. Photographs of work areas and materials were also made. Observations include: heavy continuing reliance on paper notes and records; a frequently frustrated need on the part of VIPs for a variety of database listings in different formats (graphic and textual) at differing levels of detail; desperate need for more compatibility among the various hardware and software elements in the graphics/text/database synthesis process.
Personal computers and data processing departments: interfaces, impact and implications
Authors: Satish Chandra
Venue: ACM SIGCPR Computer Personnel (1987)

The impact of the rapidly growing use of personal computers on data processing (DP) departments is analyzed using data from a national survey of DP managers. The implications of the findings are discussed in the context of policy and managing personal computers and DP departments.
Concurrent Fault Detection in Microprogrammed Control Units
Authors: Vijay S. Iyengar, L. L. Kinney
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Computers (1985)

This paper specifies procedures for defining a monitor circuit that can detect faults in microprogram sequencers. The monitor and the sequencer operate in parallel and errors are detected by comparing outputs from the monitor circuit with outputs from the sequencer. Faults that cause errors in the flow of control are detectable, as well as some faults that cause errors only in the microinstruction fields. The design procedure presented for monitors consists of four parts. First, a model of the program flow is constructed that only retains the information required to define a monitor. Second, faults in a specified fault set are modeled by the errors they cause in the program flow model. Third, the functional requirements of the monitor are specified in terms of partitions on the states of the program flow model. Fourth, the logic design of the monitor is completed.
Location Independent Remote Execution in NEST
Authors: R. Agrawal, A. K. Ezzat
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (1987)

We consider a computing environment consisting of a network of autonomous, yet cooperating personal computer workstations and shared servers. Computing cycles in such an environment can be shared by creating a pool of compute servers in the network that may be used by the workstations to supplement their computing needs. Some processors may be permanently designated to be the compute servers. In addition, through an advertisement mechanism, any workstation may make itself temporarily available for a specific duration of time to be used as a compute server. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a scheme for augmenting the UNIX® operating system with the location independent remote execution capability. This capability allows processes to be offloaded to the compute servers and preserves the execution environment of these processes as if they were still executing locally at the originating machine. Our model provides execution location independence of processes by preserving the process view of the file system, parent-child relationships, process groups, and process signaling across machine boundaries in a transparent way. We also present our scheme that allows processors to advertise themselves as available to some or all nodes in the network and withdraw as a compute server in a distributed manner. The scheme is robust in presence of node failures.
Better quality through better indexing
Authors: Paula Angerstein
Venue: Proceedings of the 4th annual international conference on Systems documentation (1986)

Readers of technical documentation generally agree that the information in those manuals is only as good as the ease with which they can find it. An informative and accurate index is one of the best tools for helping the reader find information quickly and easily. Yet indexes are one of the most neglected areas of technical documentation, in part because the tools used for creating indexes have not kept pace with other document creation tools. This paper discusses the qualities of a good index, and how different index creation tools can hinder or contribute to achieving those qualities. The method developed at Burroughs, which provides capabilities for generating high-quality indexes easily, is described.
The complexity of cutting convex polytypes
Authors: B. Chazelle, H. Edelsbrunner, L. Guibas
Venue: Proceedings of the nineteenth annual ACM symposium on Theory of computing (1987)

Throughout this paper, we use the term subdivision as a shorthand for &ldquo;a subdivision of E2 into convex regions&rdquo;. A subdivision is said to be of size n if it is made of n convex (open) regions, and it is of degree d if every region is adjacent to at most d other regions. We define the line span of a subdivision as the maximum number of regions which can be intersected by a single line (section 3).
Possible evolution strategies: single centralized system versus multi-processor architectures
Authors: Fabrizio Massimo Ferrara
Venue: ACM SIGSMALL/PC Notes (1988)

The technological evolution and the increasing number of the hardware and software products available on the market make a wide range of possible solutions available to the system designer when defining the architecture to be used for implementing new computer--supported applications.
A snapshot differential refresh algorithm
Authors: Bruce Lindsay, Laura Haas, C. Mohan, Hamid Pirahesh, Paul Wilms
Venue: Proceedings of the 1986 ACM SIGMOD international conference on Management of data (1986)

This article presents an algorithm to refresh the contents of database snapshots. A database snapshot is a read-only table whose contents are extracted from other tables in the database. The snapshot contents can be periodically refreshed to reflect the current state of the database. Snapshots are useful in many applications as a cost effective substitute for replicated data in a distributed database system. When the snapshot contents are a simple restriction and projection of a single base table, differential refresh techniques can reduce the message and update costs of the snapshot refresh operation. The algorithm presented annotates the base table to detect the changes which must be applied to the snapshot table during snapshot refresh. The cost of maintaining the base table annotations is minimal and the amount of data transmitted during snapshot refresh is close to optimal in most circumstances.
Human factors in computer systems: some useful readings
Authors: Paul Green
Venue: ACM SIGCHI Bulletin (1987)

Four years ago I began teaching a course on Human Factors and Computer Systems at the University of Michigan (formerly Industrial and Operations Engineering (IOE) 491, now IOE 436). An overview of that course is given in a paper that appeared in IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications (Green, 1984). That paper sparked the interest of many people outside the University and, as a consequence, I have received requests for additional information. While there have been many improvements in the class exercises and software used for the course since that article, a significant change was the addition of a collection of readings two years ago. This article identifies those materials and comments on them. That information should be useful to educators developing their own courses and to practitioners interested in current developments in user interface design.
Fault Tolerance Capabilities in Multistage Network-Based Multicomputer Systems
Authors: Israel Gazit, Miroslaw Malek
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Computers (1988)

The inherent fault tolerances of systems based on nonredundant multistage interconnection networks (MINs) is investigated. Graph models are used to describe the system, indicate faults, study their effects, and aid in mathematical formulation of these effects. Methodical terminology for defining functionality of two-sided-MIN-based multicomputer systems and specifying their fault tolerance of such systems is analyzed. The effects of a single faulty vertex and a single faulty edge are studied, and single fault tolerance, with respect to various definitions of system functionality, is evaluated. Multiple faults are analyzed. A practical example of the banyan network used in the Texas reconfigurable array computer (TRAC) and its fault tolerance capabilities are given.
Stochastic Modeling of Branch-and-Bound Algorithms with Best-First Search
Authors: Benjamin W. Wah, Chee F. Yu
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (1985)

Branch-and-bound algorithms are organized and intelligently structured searches of solutions in a combinatorially large problem space. In this paper, we propose an approximate stochastic model of branch-and-bound algorithms with a best-first search. We have estimated the average memory space required and have predicted the average number of subproblems expanded before the process terminates. Both measures are exponentials of sublinear exponent. In addition, we have also compared the number of subproblems expanded in a best-first search to that expanded in a depth-first search. Depth-first search has been found to have computational complexity comparable to best-first search when the lower-bound function is very accurate or very inaccurate; otherwise, best-fit search is usually better. The results obtained are useful in studying the efficient evaluation of branch-and-bound algorithms in a virtual memory environment. They also confirm that approximations are very effective in reducing the total number of iterations.
A cost-benefit decision model: analysis, comparison amd selection of data management
Authors: Stanley Y. W. Su, Jozo Dujmovic, D. S. Batory, S. B. Navathe, Richard Elnicki
Venue: ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS) (1987)

This paper describes a general cost-benefit decision model that is applicable to the evaluation, comparison, and selection of alternative products with a multiplicity of features, such as complex computer systems. The application of this model is explained and illustrated using the selection of data management systems as an example. The model has the following features: (1) it is mathematically based on an extended continuous logic and a theory of complex criteria; (2) the decision-making procedure is very general yet systematic, well-structured, and quantitative; (3) the technique is based on a comprehensive cost analysis and an elaborate analysis of benefits expressed in terms of the decision maker's preferences. The decision methodology, when applied to the problem of selecting a data management system, takes into consideration the life cycle of a DMS and the objectives and goals for the new systems under evaluation. It allows the cost and preference analyses to be carried out separately using two different models. The model for preference analysis makes use of comprehensive performance (or preference) parameters and allows what we call a &ldquo;logic scoring of preferences&rdquo; using continuous values between zero and one, to express the degree with which candidate systems satisfy stated requirements. It aggregates preference parameters based on their relative weights and logical relationships to compute a global performance (preference) score for each system. The cost model incorporates an aggregation of costs which may be estimated over different time horizons and discounted at appropriate discount rates. A procedure to establish an overall ranking of alternative systems based on their global preference scores and global costs is also discussed.
Bell polynomials
Authors: F. S. Wheeler
Venue: ACM SIGSAM Bulletin (1987)

An introduction to Bell polynomials is given in order to see how they can be used to compute some of the classical counting functions of Combinatorics. They are also used to compute the Taylor coefficients of formal power series given as a composition of two power series along with computing the composition inverse of a power series.
A sweepline algorithm for Voronoi diagrams
Authors: S Fortune
Venue: Proceedings of the second annual symposium on Computational geometry (1986)

We present a transformation that can be used to compute Voronoi diagrams with a sweepline technique. The transformation is used to obtain simple algorithms for computing the Voronoi diagram of point sites, of line segment sites, and of weighted point sites. All algorithms have &Ogr;(n log n) worst case running time and use &Ogr;(n) space.
Disk file allocation based on the buddy system
Authors: Philip D. L. Koch
Venue: ACM Transactions on Computer Systems (TOCS) (1987)

The buddy system is known for its speed and simplicity. However, high internal and external fragmentation have made it unattractive for use in operating system file layout. A variant of the binary buddy system that reduces fragmentation is described. Files are allocated on up to t extents, and inoptimally allocated files are periodically reallocated. The Dartmouth Time-Sharing System (DTSS) uses this method. Several installations of DTSS, representing different classes of workload, are studied to measure the method's performance. Internal fragmentation varies from 2-6 percent, and external fragmentation varies from 0-10 percent for expected request sizes. Less than 0.1 percent of the CPU is spent executing the algorithm. In addition, most files are stored contiguously on disk. The mean number of extents per file is less than 1.5, and the upper bound is t. Compared to the tile layout method used by UNIX, the buddy system results in more efficient access but less efficient utilization of disk space. As disks become larger and less expensive per byte, strategies that achieve efficient I/O throughput at the expense of some storage loss become increasingly attractive.
Comments on postwar development of computational mathematics in some countries of Eastern Europe
Authors: I. Babuska
Venue: Proceedings of the ACM conference on History of scientific and numeric computation (1987)

At the request of the organizing committee, I would like to share some of my observations and remembrances about the development of computational mathematics in Czechoslovakia and the USSR. My observations will be very subjective and broad in scope.
AUTOMAT, an end-user approach in handling applications as multi-dimensional arrays
Authors: Jean Marie Monnier
Venue: Proceedings of the international conference on APL: APL in transition (1987)

&ldquo;AUTOMAT&rdquo; is an end user, general purpose tool developed initially in APL-SV currently running under VSAPL and APL2 (IBM PC version currently under consideration). The basic underlying concept is to tap the power of APL in handling multi-dimensional arrays, and make it available to the end user in a very natural and intuitive fashion. The productivity gains generated by the system are extremely high, as a new application can be set up in terms of fraction of hours, with immediately usable results. A lot of provisions have been made to handle instantaneously any changes in the structures, whether they are due to new business requirements or to initially overlooked facts. The system has been and still is successfully used for Data consolidation / analysis, Planning Models and application prototypes. The use of APL as internal language enables the system to communicate very easily with other applications (e.g. Graphics).
Safety Analysis Using Petri Nets
Authors: N. G. Leveson, J. L. Stolzy
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (1987)

The application of Time Petri net modeling and analysis techniques to safety-critical real-time systems is explored and procedures described which allow analysis of safety, recoverability, and fault-tolerance.
A new class of heuristic algorithms for weighted perfect matching
Authors: M. D. Grigoriadis, B. Kalantari
Venue: Journal of the ACM (JACM) (1988)

The minimum-weight perfect matching problem for complete graphs of n vertices with edge weights satisfying the triangle inequality is considered. For each nonnegative integer k &le; log3n, and for any perfect matching algorithm that runs in t(n) time and has an error bound of &fnof;(n) times the optimal weight, an O(max{n2, t(3-kn)})-time heuristic algorithm with an error bound of (7/3)k(1 + &fnof;(3 kn)) - 1 is given. By the selection of k as appropriate functions of n, heuristics that have better running times and/or error bounds than existing ones are derived.
TEXTNET: a network-based approach to text handling
Authors: Randall H. Trigg, Mark Weiser
Venue: ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS) (1986)

Textnet is a new system for structuring text. The Textnet approach uses one uniform data structure to capture graphlike pools of text, as well as embedded hierarchical structures. By using a semantic network formalism of nodes connected by typed links, the relationships between neighboring pieces of text are made explicit. Also described is our partial implementation of the Textnet approach, which makes use of an object-oriented window/menu-driven user interface. Users peruse the network by moving among object menus or by reading text along a path through the network. In addition, critiquing, reader linking, searching, and jumping are easily accessible operations. Finally, the results of a short trial with users are presented.
Logical composition of object-oriented interfaces
Authors: Mark Grossman, Raimund K. Ege
Venue: ACM SIGPLAN Notices (1987)

This paper describes an approach to object-oriented interface design that goes beyond mere object decomposition. In our user interface management system we use logic and filters to declaratively specify and control a space of ways that objects may be composed to create interfaces. A filter is a package of constraints and associated typed objects that express the relationship of data and representation objects. Conceptually our system is completely based on constraints. Filters provide the high bandwidth constraints to maintain the components of the direct-manipulation interface while the logic forms the low bandwidth constraints to combine and provide communication between these components. The use of Horn-clause logic to compose separate interface objects facilitates both the distribution of computation onto multiple processors and the generation of multiple views of data. Intelligent backtracking implemented in the logic allows for user- and system-initiated undo operations to correct errors and/or try alternative approaches to a problem. We illustrate the power and flexibility of this approach by describing a floor layout and design system.
Constructing disjoint paths on expander graphs
Authors: D. Peleg, E. Upfal
Venue: Proceedings of the nineteenth annual ACM symposium on Theory of computing (1987)

In a typical parallel or distributed computation model processors are connected by a sparse interconnection network. To establish open-line communication between pairs of processors that wish to communicate interactively, a set of disjoint paths has to be constructed on the network. Since communication needs vary in time, paths have to be dynamically constructed and destroyed. We study the complexity of constructing disjoint paths between given pairs of vertices on expander interconnection graphs. These graphs have been shown before to possess desirable properties for other communication tasks. We present a sufficient condition for the existence of &Kgr; &le; np edge-disjoint paths connecting any set of &Kgr; pairs of vertices on an expander graph. We then show that the computational problem of constructing these paths lies in the classes Deterministic-P and Random-NC. Furthermore, we show that the set of paths can be constructed in probabilistic polylog time in the parallel-distributed model of computation, in which the n participating processors reside in the nodes of the communication graph and all communication is done through edges of the graph. Thus, the disjoint paths are constructed in the very computation model that uses them. Finally, we show how to apply variants of our parallel algorithms to find sets of vertex-disjoint paths when certain conditions are satisfied.
Networking elements in a files course
Authors: Lillian N. Cassel
Venue: ACM SIGCSE Bulletin (1987)

Courses in Computer Science and Information Systems are constantly in need of revision to remain relevant. Often entire new courses become needed as an area develops. These can be the most challenging alterations to a curriculum. In some cases, while provisions are being made to introduce a new course, key components of the course can be introduced as modules of already existing courses. An example is considered in which seemingly dissimilar courses meet, and new material is given a forum in a standard curriculum. An extension to a standard file processing course to include the files-affecting impact of computer networks is proposed.
Essential Elements of Software Engineering Education Revisited
Authors: Peter Freeman
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (1987)

A basis for software engineering education proposed in 1976 is reviewed and found to still be valid today, although needing more emphasis on design and better delivery mechanisms. Specific recommendations are made.
Systems analysis and design in an uncontrolled management environment
Authors: John C. Stoob
Venue: ACM SIGCSE Bulletin (1987)

Most published schemes for developing computer data systems base themselves on very structured, well established milestones in the development process. Further, they emphasize frequent and complete liason with users. They also imply that the funding required to form and operate the development teams and oversight committees are reasonably available and that the management environment is flexible enough to establish these requisite management organizations. What if, though, a computer system was being developed in an environment where there was no ready agreement as to the approach towards the development, where current information systems decisions were made by a high level committee and where that committee could not agree on basic information systems concepts. Further, what if there was no one individual or authority in management who had the stature to provide the necessary leadership to get the process going properly. This paper outlines such a situation, how systems are being designed and implemented in that situation, and suggests that any course on systems analysis and design must include this much less that ideal management environment in its content.