ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
A Pattern Recognition Approach for Software Engineering Data Analysis
Authors: Lionel C. Briand, Victor R. Basili, William M. Thomas
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (1992)

In order to plan, control, and evaluate the software development process, one needs to collect and analyze data in a meaningful way. Classical techniques for such analysis are not always well suited to software engineering data. A pattern recognition approach for analyzing software engineering data, called optimized set reduction (OSR), that addresses many of the problems associated with the usual approaches is described. Methods are discussed for using the technique for prediction, risk management, and quality evaluation. Experimental results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the technique for the particular application of software cost estimation.
Evaluation of integrated agent architectures
Authors: Barbara Hayes-Roth
Venue: ACM SIGART Bulletin (1991)

In evaluating an integrated agent architecture, there are various questions we might hope to answer:Does the architecture provide a sufficient framework for meeting the stated requirements?
Sequential test generation at the register-transfer and logic levels
Authors: Abhijit Ghosh, Srinivas Devadas, A. Richard Newton
Venue: Proceedings of the 27th ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference (1991)

The problem of test generation for non-scan sequential VLSI circuits is addressed. A novel method of test generation that efficiently generates test sequences for stuck-at faults in the logic circuit by exploiting register-transfer-level (RTL) design information is presented. Our approach is targeted at chips with data-path like STG. The problem of sequential test generation is decomposed into three subproblems of combinational test generation, fault-free state justification and fault-free state differentiation. Standard combinational test generation algorithms are used to generate test vectors for stuck-at faults in the logic-level implementation. The required state corresponding to the test vector is justified using a fault-free justification step that is performed using the RTL specification. Similarly, if the effect of the fault has been propagated by the test vector to the flip-flop inputs alone, the faulty state produced is differentiated from the true next state by a differentiation step that uses the RTL specification. New and efficient algorithms for fault-free state justification and differentiation on RTL descriptions that contain arithmetic as well as random logic modules are described. Unlike previous approaches, this approach does not require the storage of covers or a partial STG and can be used to generate tests for entire chips without scan. Exploiting RTL information, together with a new conflict resolution technique results in improvements of up to 100X in performance over sequential test generation techniques restricted to operate at the logic level. We have successfully generated tests for the viterbi speech processor chip [18].
A performance model of system delay and user strategy selection
Authors: Steven L. Teal, Alexander I. Rudnicky
Venue: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems (1992)

This study lays the ground work for a predictive, zero-parameter engineering model that characterizes the relationship between system delay and user performance. This study specifically investigates how system delays affects a user's selection of task strategy. Strategy selection is hypothesized to be based on a cost function combining two factors: (1) the effort required to synchronize input system availability and (2) the accuracy level afforded. Results indicate that users, seeking to minimize effort and maximize accuracy, choose among three strategies &ndash; automatic performance, pacing, and monitoring. These findings provide a systematic account of the influence of system delay on user performance, based on adaptive strategy choice drive by cost.
An overview of the WPI benchmark suite
Authors: David Finkel, Robert E. Kinicki, Jonas A. Lehmann
Venue: ACM SIGMETRICS Performance Evaluation Review (1991)

The November 1990 issue of Performance Evaluation Review included a number of articles and opinions on the merits of commercial bench-mark suites. In the spirit of continuing this discussion, we present here a brief introduction to the WPI Benchmark Suite.
Finding usability problems through heuristic evaluation
Authors: Jakob Nielsen
Venue: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems (1992)

Usability specialists were better than non-specialists at performing heuristic evaluation, and &ldquo;double experts&rdquo; with specific expertise in the kind of interface being evaluated performed even better. Major usability problems have a higher probability than minor problems of being found in a heuristic evaluation, but more minor problems are found in absolute numbers. Usability heuristics relating to exits and user errors were more difficult to apply than the rest, and additional measures should be taken to find problems relating to these heuristics. Usability problems that relate to missing interface elements that ought to be introduced were more difficult to find by heuristic evaluation in interfaces implemented as paper prototypes but were as easy as other problems to find in running systems.
On the adequacy of message-passing parallel supercomputers for solving neutron transport problems
Authors: Y. Y. Azmy
Venue: Proceedings of the 1990 ACM/IEEE conference on Supercomputing (1990)

A coarse-grained, static-scheduling parallelization of the standard iterative scheme used for solving the discrete-ordinates approximation of the neutron transport equation is described. The parallel algorithm is based on a decomposition of the angular domain along the discrete ordinates, thus naturally producing a set of completely uncoupled systems of equations in each iteration. Implementation of the parallel code on Intel's iPSC/2 hypercube, and solutions to test problems are presented as evidence of the high speedup and efficiency of the parallel code. The performance of the parallel code on the iPSC/2 is analyzed, and a model for the CPU time as a function of the problem size (order of angular quadrature) and the number of participating processors is developed and validated against measured CPU times. The performance model is used to speculate on the potential of massively parallel computers for significantly speeding up real-life transport calculations at acceptable efficiencies. We conclude that parallel computers with a few hundred processors are capable of producing large speedups at very high efficiencies in very large three-dimensional problems.
Performance of a disk array protype
Authors: Ann L. Chervenak, Randy H. Katz
Venue: ACM SIGMETRICS Performance Evaluation Review (1991)

The RAID group at U.C. Berkeley recently built a prototype disk array. This paper examines the performance limits of each component of the array usiug SCSI bus traces, Sprite operating system traces and user programs.The array performs successfully for a workload of small, random I/O operations, achieving 275 I/Os per second on 14 disks before the Sun4/280 host becomes CPU-limited. The prototype is less successful in delivering high throughput for large, sequential operations. Memory system contention on the Sun4/280 host limits throughput to 2.3 MBytes/sec under the Sprite Operating System. Throughput is also limited by the bandwidth supported by the VME backplane, disk controller and disks, and overheads associated with the SCSI protocol.We conclude that merely using a powerful host CPU and many disks will not provide the full bandwidth possible from disk arrays. Host memory bandwidth and throughput of disk controllers are equally important. In addition, operating systems should avoid unnecessary copy and cache flush operations that can saturate the host memory system.
The Series macro package
Authors: Richard C. Waters
Venue: ACM SIGPLAN Lisp Pointers (1989)

The benefits of programming in a functional style are well known. Algorithms that are expressed as compositions of functions operating on series/vectors/streams of data elements are much easier to understand and modify than equivalent algorithms expressed as loops. Unfortunately, many programmers hesitate to use series expressions. In part, this is due to the fact that series expressions are typically implemented very inefficiently.A portable Common Lisp macro package (called Series) has been implemented that can evaluate a wide class of series expressions very efficiently by transforming them into iterative loops. When using this class of series expressions, programmers can obtain the advantages of expressing computations as series expressions without incurring any runtime overhead.
A more general model for handling missing information in relational databases using a 3-valued logic
Authors: Kwok-bun Yue
Venue: ACM SIGMOD Record (1991)

Codd proposed the use of two interpretations of nulls to handle missing information in relational databases that may lead to a 4-valued logic [Codd86, Codd87]. In a more general model, three interpretations of nulls are necessary [Roth, Zani]. Without simplification, this may lead to a 7-valued logic, which is too complicated to be adopted in relational databases. For such a model, there is no satisfactory simplification to a 4-valued logic. However, by making a straightforward simplification and using some proposed logical functions, a 3-valued logic can handle all three interpretations.
Languages that are easier than their proofs
Authors: Richard Beigel, Mihir Bellare, Joan Feigenbaum, Shafi Goldwasser
Venue: Proceedings of the 32nd annual symposium on Foundations of computer science (1991)

Languages in NP are presented for which it is harder to prove membership interactively than it is to decide this membership. Similarly, languages where checking is harder than computing membership are presented. Under assumptions about triple-exponential time, incoherent sets in NP are constructed. Without any assumptions, incoherent sets are constructed in DSPACE (n to the log n), yielding the first uncheckable and non-random-self-reducible sets in that space.
Database reasoning: extracting knowledge from databases (abstract)
Authors: J. C. Esteva, Asad Khailany
Venue: Proceedings of the 1990 ACM annual conference on Cooperation (1990)

As interest in developing expert systems continues to grow, it become more important for us to increase our understanding of how to successfully build these systems. The major problem that currently constricts the development of expert systems is the formidable process of eliciting knowledge from human experts. A possible solution to alleviate this knowledge-acquisition bottlenecks is to equip historical database with some deductive capabilities that will allow us to emulate expert-system reasoning entirely in the database's terms. In this paper we describe a system that tries to extend an existing database containing component test-repair history with several features to support inferencing at the reasoning level of human trouble shooters. That is, the system features automatic knowledge-base derivation. This presentation demonistrate the structure of a system that, when queried with a test step, will provide trouble shooting advice describing the most likely cause for failure.
Analysis of Packet-Switched Multiple-Bus Multiprocessor Systems
Authors: Qing Yang, Laxmi N. Bhuyan
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Computers (1991)

Performance analyses of packet-switched multiple-bus multiprocessor systems are presented. Approximate queuing network models are developed for both synchronous and asynchronous control schemes, and the results are shown to be in good agreement with simulation results. The analysis of the synchronous system is based on a decomposition technique, with each of the shared resources in the system being represented as a single-server queue. For asynchronous systems, the analysis is based on the flow equivalence technique. Numerical results obtained from the analyses indicate that packet-switched multiple-bus multiprocessors with only a few buses perform almost as well as crossbar-based multiprocessors.
The diffusion of database machines
Authors: Jeffrey A. Hoffer, Mary B. Alexander
Venue: ACM SIGMIS Database (1992)

This article reports the results of an investigation of organizational assimilation of an emerging information technology&mdash;database machines. Results of database machine adoption and implementation are reported, with emphasis on practical implications for managing information technology diffusion. The importance of top management support and champions who push for adoption and implementation are indicated. Other factors discussed include technological awareness, vendor involvement,and training, among others. Built on innovation diffusion and IS implementation studies, a model of organizational-level adoption and implementation underpins the interpretation of the results.
Online minimization of transition systems (extended abstract)
Authors: David Lee, Mihalis Yannakakis
Venue: Proceedings of the twenty-fourth annual ACM symposium on Theory of computing (1992)

We are given a transition system implicitly through a compact representation and wish to perform simultaneously reachability analysis and minimization without constructing first the whole system graph. We present an algorithm for this problem that applies to general systems, provided we have appropriate primitive operations for manipulating blocks of states and we can determine termination; the number of operations needed to construct the minimal reachable graph is quadratic in the size of this graph. We specialize the method to obtain efficient algorithms for extended finite state machines that apply separable affine transformations on the variables.
History lesson
Authors: H. K. Hodge
Venue: ACM SIGSMALL/PC Notes (1991)

I have recently been diverted by another combination of interests -- this time programming and history.
Unsupervised Texture Segmentation Using Markov Random Field Models
Authors: B. S. Manjunath, R. Chellappa
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (1991)

The problem of unsupervised segmentation of textured images is considered. The only explicit assumption made is that the intensity data can be modeled by a Gauss Markov random field (GMRF). The image is divided into a number of nonoverlapping regions and the GMRF parameters are computed from each of these regions. A simple clustering method is used to merge these regions. The parameters of the model estimated from the clustered segments are then used in two different schemes, one being all approximation to the maximum a posterior estimate of the labels and the other minimizing the percentage misclassification error. The proposed approach is contrasted with the algorithm of S. Lakshamanan and H. Derin (1989), which uses a simultaneous parameter estimation and segmentation scheme. The results of the adaptive segmentation algorithm of Lakshamanan and Derin are compared with a simple nearest-neighbor classification scheme to show that if enough information is available, simple techniques could be used as alternatives to computationally expensive schemes.
Denotational semantics of a goal-directed language
Authors: David A. Gudeman
Venue: ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS) (1992)

Goal-directed evaluation is a very expressive programming language paradigm that is supported in relatively few languages. It is characterized by evaluation of expressions in an attempt to meet some goal, with resumption of previous expressions on failure. This paradigm is found in SNOBL4 in its pattern-matching facilities, and in Icon as a general part of the language. This paper presents a denotational semantics of Icon and shows how Icon is in fact a combination of two distinct paradigms, goal-directed evaluation and functional application. The two paradigms are not supported separately in different contexts, but integrated fully into a single evaluation mechanism.
Translation of the Problem of Complete Test Set Generation to Pseudo-Boolean Programming
Authors: Pramode Ranjan Bhattacharjee, Sanjoy Kumar Basu, Jogesh Chandra Paul
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Computers (1991)

An attempt is made to demonstrate that the problem of complete test set generation is amenable to the problem of pseudo-Boolean programming. For this purpose, various types of faults, viz., single faults, multiple faults, and bridging faults, are considered. The key issue is to obtain logical expressions for the primary output line in terms of different faulty internal nodes to find real transforms. Using standard rules, the real transforms of a Boolean function can be obtained directly without any algebraic manipulation.
A Packaging System for Heterogeneous Execution Environments
Authors: John R. Callahan, James M. Purtilo
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (1991)

A packaging system that allows diverse software components to be easily interconnected within heterogeneous programming environments is described. Interface software and stubs are generated for programmers automatically once the programmers express their application's geometry in a few simple rules and module interconnection language attributes. By generating custom interface code for each application, based on analysis and extraction of interfacing requirements, the system is able to produce executables whose run-time performance is comparable to manually integrated applications. The system is implemented within the Unix environment.
Parsers in ML
Authors: Michel Mauny, Daniel de Rauglaudre
Venue: Proceedings of the 1992 ACM conference on LISP and functional programming (1992)

We present the operational semantics of streams and stream matching as discussed in. Streams are data structures such as lists, but with different primitive operations. Streams not only provide an interface to usual imput/output channels, but may used as a data structure per se, holding any kind of element. A special pattern matching construct is dedicated to streams and the actual matching process will be called parsing. The primary parsing semantics that we propose here is predictive parsing, i.e. recursive descent semantics with a one token look-ahead: although this choice seems to restrict us to the recognition of LL9(1) languages, we show by examples that full functionality and parameter passing allow us to write parsers for complex languages. The operational semantics of parsers is given by transforming parsers into regular functions. We introduce a non-strict semantics of streams by translating stream expression into more classical data structures; we also investigate different sharing mechanisms for some of the stream operations.
A mechanism of process group for application reliability in distributed systems
Authors: Zhao Hong, Huatian Li
Venue: ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review (1992)

Reliability is a very important aspect in distributed system studies and developments. In procedure control system and computer integrated manufacture system, for example, an application may relate to many application entities (processes) which may locate at several different sites. If one of the entities fails, the others may be affected. So every entity should be maintained to tolerate failures. We here propose a mechanism for tolerating failure, called distributed application entity group (DAEG), that will make an application entity reliable. In this mechanism, an application entity will be implemented with a process group, including several members that may locate at different sites. We present how the group communicates with other groups/entities in an application, how the entities in a group cooperate with each other and hold a consistent view about the group. In addition, time requirement is guaranteed by setting the timers. We introduce a method by which timer is used to check failures and to select a new group leader to let application it supports continue. We believe that the mechanism could support various application in distributed systems
Automatic transformation of series expressions into loops
Authors: Richard C. Waters
Venue: ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS) (1991)

The benefits of programming in a functional style are well known. In particular, algorithms that are expressed as compositions of functions operating on sequences/vectors/streams of data elements are easier to understand and modify than equivalent algorithms expressed as loops. Unfortunately, this kind of expression is not used anywhere near as often as it could be, for at least three reasons: (1) most programmers are less familiar with this kind of expression than with loops; (2) most programming languages provide poor support for this kind of expression; and (3) when support is provided, it is seldom effcient. In any programming language, the second and third problems can be largely solved by introducing a data type called series, a comprehensive set of procedures operating on series, and a preprocessor (or compiler extension) that automatically converts most series expressions into efficient loops. A set of restrictions specifies which series expressions can be optimized. If programmers stay within the limits imposed, they are guaranteed of high efficiency at all times. A common Lisp macro package supporting series has been in use for some time. A prototype demonnstrates that series can be straightforwardly supported in Pascal.
Variation ranks of communication matrices and lower bounds for depth two circuits having symmetric gates with unbounded fan-in
Authors: Matthias Krause, Stephan Waack
Venue: Proceedings of the 32nd annual symposium on Foundations of computer science (1991)

An exponential lower bound for depth two circuits with arbitrary symmetric gates in the bottom level and with a MOD/sub m/-gate in the top level is proved. This solves a problem posed by R. Smolensky (1990). The method uses the variation rank of communication matrices. A variant of this method is used for deriving lower bounds for the size of depth-two circuits having a threshold gate at the top.
Performance of various computers using standard linear equations software
Authors: Jack J. Dongarra
Venue: ACM SIGARCH Computer Architecture News (1992)

This report compares the performance of different computer systems in solving dense systems of linear equations. The comparison involves approximately a hundred computers, ranging from a CRAY Y-MP to scientific workstations such as the Apollo and Sun to IBM PCs.
O.LISP theoretical basis and description
Authors: Choun Tong Lieu, Djamil Sarni
Venue: ACM SIGPLAN Notices (1990)

We describe, in this article, O. LISP: a functional language based on the manipulation of expressions issued from the syntax of lambda-calculus on occurrence ( lambda;()-caculus [8]). In this theoretical framework, the functions are constructed without variables, we essentially use indexes of occurrences and basic terms.In O. LISP new primitives, like SUBO or UNSUBO, realize, respectively, a substitution (without variable, by creating links between numbers of occurrences and arguments) and a locking on some of these links.A first version of O. LISP has been implemented on a LISP interpret We present, at the end of this article, some examples which are extracted from this implementation.
Participatory design of a portable torque-feedback device
Authors: Michael Good
Venue: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems (1992)

Customer-driven design processes such as participatory design can be used to develop new presence, or virtual reality, technology. Chemists worked together with computer company engineers to develop scenarios for how present technology could be used to support future molecular modeling work in drug design. These scenarios led to the development of a portable torque-feedback device which can be used with either workstation or virtual reality technology. This paper discusses both the experience with the participatory design process and the novel features of the portable torque-feedback device.