ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Multivariate interpolation of large sets of scattered data
Authors: Robert J. Renka
Venue: ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software (TOMS) (1988)

This paper presents a method of constructing a smooth function of two or more variables that interpolates data values at arbitrarily distributed points. Shepard's method for fitting a surface to data values at scattered points in the plane has the advantages of a small storage requirement and an easy generalization to more than two independent variables, but suffers from low accuracy and a high computational cost relative to some alternative methods. Localizations of this method have reasonably low computational costs, but remain relatively inaccurate. We describe a modified Shepard's method that, without sacrificing the advantages, has accuracy comparable to other local methods. Computational efficiency is also improved by using a cell method for nearest-neighbor searching. Test results for two and three independent variables are presented.
Information technology assessment and adoption: understanding the information centre role
Authors: Malcolm C Munro, Sid L Huff
Venue: Proceedings of the twenty-first annual conference on Computer personnel research (1985)

This paper reports the results of a study of the impact of end user computing strategies, and in particular organizational Information Centre activities, upon an organization's information technology assessment and adoption process. Over 40 managers in ten organizations were interviewed using a discussion questionnaire. The purpose of the interviews was to probe, in a semi-structured way, various aspects of the roles played by these firms' Information Centres in identifying, assessing and absorbing new information technology into the firm. It was found that the impact of Information Centres on technology absorption could be broadly characterized using two constructs: Acceleration (the rate at which new technology is introduced) and Control (the variety of choices made possible to users of the technology). By considering Acceleration and Control together, four different states are identified and characterized. Typical growth patterns through the different states are described, based on actual histories from the companies studied. Also, the major factors that influence end user computing strategies, and the various tactics available for implementing user computing as a function of the various states, are delineated.
Interact '87
Authors: Jakob Nielsen
Venue: ACM SIGCHI Bulletin (1988)

INTERACT'87 was the second major European conference in the computer-human interaction field. The first was INTERACT'84 in London.
HPEX: a hierarchical parasitic circuit extractor
Authors: S.-L. Su, V. B. Rao, T. N. Trick
Venue: Proceedings of the 24th ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference (1987)

A hierarchical parasitic circuit extractor HPEX for Manhattan layouts is described. HPEX can model interconnection lines as distributed lumped circuits directly from a circuit layout by using analytical formulas instead of numerical methods. The difference in feature sizes between mask layouts and actual fabricated conductors is also taken into account by a geometrical preprocessing algorithm based on a novel Y-X scanline method and a simple rectangle data structure. In addition, a simple and accurate node reduction technique based on the concept of Elmore's delay is employed in HPEX to make layout verification simpler. All features mentioned above clearly indicate that HPEX will be a promising tool in verifying VLSI system performance especially when interconnect parasitics associated with VLSI circuits are taken into consideration.
Semiautomatic Implementation of Communication Protocols
Authors: Gregor v. Bochmann, George Walter Gerber, Jean-Marc Serre
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (1987)

The use of formal specifications in software development allows the use of certain automated tools during the specification and software development process. Formal description techniques have been developed for the specification of communication protocols and services. This paper describes the partial automation of the protocol implementation process based on a formal specification of the protocol to be implemented. An implementation strategy and a related software structure for the implementation of state transition oriented specifications is presented. Its application is demonstrated with a much simplified Transport protocol. The automated translation of specifications into implementation code in a high-level language is also discussed. A semiautomated implementation strategy is explained which highlights several refinement steps, part of which are automated, which lead from a formal protocol specifieation to an implementation. Experience with several full implementations of the OSI Transport protocol is described.
An Optimal Algorithm for Assigning Cryptographic Keys to Control Access in a Hierarchy
Authors: Stephen J. MacKinnon, Peter D. Taylor, Henk Meijer, Selim G. Akl
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Computers (1985)

A cryptographic scheme for controlling access to information within a group of users organized in a hierarchy was proposed in [1]. The scheme enables a user at some level to compute from his own cryptographic key the keys of the users below him in the organization.
Information requirements determination: obstacles within, among and between participants
Authors: John R Valusek, Dennis G Fryback
Venue: Proceedings of the twenty-first annual conference on Computer personnel research (1985)

Information Requirements Determination (IRD) is presented as a process with obstacles WITHIN individual &ldquo;users&rdquo;, AMONG &ldquo;users&rdquo;, and BETWEEN &ldquo;users&rdquo; and systems developers. A distinction is made between IRD and Information Requirements Analysis (IRA), two labels which are often used interchangeably. The triple-obstacle view of IRD/IRA problems and the distinction between IRD and IRA is suggested as an approach for research into the requirements determination process. A user-oriented IRD tool designed to attack the &ldquo;within&rdquo; obstacles is identified as the basis for the authors' current research into how to improve the user's lot in the development of information systems.
Formally based static analysis of microcode
Authors: J. M. Foster
Venue: Proceedings of the 19th annual workshop on Microprogramming (1986)

Algebraic methods have been widely used to find properties of programs, especially for use in compiler optimisation. This paper describes the use of this kind of method to prove the absence of particular errors in microcode, or to detect and locate such errors. In order to show the kind of error which may be found we consider a number of examples. All of these have found errors in practical microcode, written for the PERQ computer.
User-derived impact analysis as a tool for usability engineering
Authors: M. Good, T. M. Spine, J. Whiteside, P. George
Venue: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems (1986)

A unified approach to improved usability can be identified in the works of Gilb (1981, 1984), Shackel (1984), Bennett (1984), Carroll and Rosson (1985), and Butler (1985). We term this approach &ldquo;usability engineering,&rdquo; and seek to contribute to it by showing, via a product development case study, how user-derived estimates of the impact of design activities on engineering goals may be made.1
High-Speed VLSI Multiplication Algorithm with a Redundant Binary Addition Tree
Authors: Naofumi Takagi, Hiroto Yasuura, Shuzo Yajima
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Computers (1985)

A high-speed VLSI multiplication algorithm internally using redundant binary representation is proposed. In n bit binary integer multiplication, n partial products are first generated and then added up pairwise by means of a binary tree of redundant binary adders. Since parallel addition of two n-digit redundant binary numbers can be performed in a constant time independent of n without carry propagation, n bit multiplication can be performed in a time proportional to log2 n. The computation time is almost the same as that by a multiplier with a Wallace tree, in which three partial products will be converted into two, in contrast to our two-to-one conversion, and is much shorter than that by an array multiplier for longer operands. The number of computation elements of an n bit multiplier based on the algorithm is proportional to n2. It is almost the same as those of conventional ones. Furthermore, since the multiplier has a regular cellular array structure similar to an array multiplier, it is suitable for VLSI implementation. Thus, the multiplier is excellent in both computation speed and regularity in layout. It can be implemented on a VLSI chip with an area proportional to n2 log2 n. The algorithm can be directly applied to both unsigned and 2's complement binary integer multiplication.
State of researches on the problem solver ARGOS-II
Authors: Bernard Fade, Jean-Francois Picardat
Venue: Issue 100 (April 1987) (1987)

Several years ago, our team began researche on problem solvers. The first program which issues from this is ARGOS-I [CAY.76] [CAY.78] (Automatic Robot Generating its Own Strategy). It was a program written in PASCAL which tried to simulated the the evolution of an elementary robot in an "a priori" unknown world. ARGOS-I built plans of movements. It ran into two steps: the first objective deciding, and second path determining in order to reach the objective. Then it monitored its own movement (simulated).
Abstraction-based software development
Authors: Valdis Berzins, Michael Gray, David Naumann
Venue: Communications of the ACM (1986)

A five-year experience with abstraction-based software-development techniques in the university environment indicates that the investment required to support the paradigm in practice is returned in terms of greater ability to control complexity in large projects&mdash;provided there exists a set of software tools sufficient to support the approach.
Array optimization for VLSI synthesis
Authors: D. F. Wong, C. L. Liu
Venue: Proceedings of the 24th ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference (1987)

We present in this paper an algorithm that solves a general array optimization problem. The algorithm can be used for compacting Gate Matrix layouts, SLA's, Weinberger Arrays, and for multiple folding of PLA's. Our approach is based on the technique of simulated annealing. A major contribution of this paper is the formulation of the solution space which facilitates an effective search for an optimal solution. Experimental results are very encouraging.
Rating the major computing periodicals on readability
Authors: Ronald S. Lemos
Venue: Communications of the ACM (1985)

The readability of the ten major computing periodicals is analyzed using the Flesch Reading Ease Index.
On coupling many small systems for transaction processing
Authors: D. M. Dias, B. R. Iyer, P. S. Yu
Venue: Proceedings of the 13th annual international symposium on Computer architecture (1986)

The prospect of coupling a large number of small inexpensive microprocessor based systems to deliver the performance of a large transaction processing system at lower cost has not been realized, to date. Inter-system interference, multi-system coupling protocol overhead and the increased processing time for smaller systems can cause considerable degradation. A methodology is developed to determine the number of processors needed to satisfy transaction throughput and response time requirements for processors of different MIPS (sizes). The minimum MIPS per processor required to satisfy response time, throughput and utilization constraints in a transaction processing complex of N coupled systems is also determined, by using an approximate analytical model driven by measured workload parameters. Despite large assumed cost advantages on a per MIPS basis we find that small systems do not match up to the cost/performance of some larger systems. Besides multi-system's coupling degradation, there is a small system effect. Because of the increased transaction execution time in smaller systems, transaction hold on to resources longer, thereby causing increased inter-system interference. Our cost criterion indicates that there is an optimum processor size below which total system costs would increase appreciably. Ways to reduce the inter-system interference and coupling protocol overheads are investigated and shown to shift this optimum.
A fast implementation of polynomial factorization
Authors: Michael Lucks
Venue: Proceedings of the fifth ACM symposium on Symbolic and algebraic computation (1986)

A new package for factoring polynomials with integer coefficients is described which yields significant improvements over previous implementations in both time and space requirements. For multivariate problems, the package features an inexpensive method for early detection and correction of spurious factors. This essentially solves the multivariate extraneous factor problem and eliminates the need to factor more than one univariate image, except in rare cases. Also included is an improved technique for coefficient prediction which is successful more frequently than prior versions at short-circuiting the expensive multivariate Hensel lifting stage. In addition some new approaches are discussed for the univariate case as well as for the problem of finding good integer substitution values. The package has been implemented both in Scratchpad II and in an experimental version of muMATH.
Exploring Algorithms Using Balsa-II
Authors: Marc H. Brown
Venue: Computer (1988)

The use of the Balsa-II algorithm animation environment to investigate the dynamic behavior of programs is discussed. Balsa-II is examined first from a user's perspective and then from a programmer's perspective. Some related systems are briefly considered.
Thirty Years of Computer Science Developments in the People's Republic of China: 1956-1985
Authors: John H. Maier
Venue: IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (1988)

The article summarizes computer science developments from their inception in the People's Republic of china in 1956, through three decades (1956-1985) of PRC computer science research and development progress. The article identifies the PRC's critical turn to the West after 1972, and it describes and analyzes the resulting process by which computer-related technology transfer from the West then occurred. The PRC, as a developing country, is analyzed as a very large unique environment in which modern computer science is being nourished and implemented.
Computer science vs. software engineering
Authors: Rivhard A. Zahniser
Venue: ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes (1988)

What's the difference between Computer Science and Software Engineering? The Serendipity Principle gives us the answer.
Applicative caching
Authors: Robert M. Keller, M. R. Sleep
Venue: ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS) (1986)

The &ldquo;referential transparency&rdquo; principle of applicative language expressions stipulates that a single value exists for all occurrences of an expression in a given context (where a context is a set of bindings of variables to values). In principle, each such value therefore need to be computed only once. However, in applicative language systems supporting recursive programming or tasking notions, the bindings are not all precomputed and explicit. As a result, textual recognition of all multipleoccurrences is precluded, with the unfortunate consequence that such occurrences are recomputed. We elaborate upon the early notion of &ldquo;memo function&rdquo; for solving this problem. We suggest syntactic and semantic constructs providing programmer control for avoiding recomputation, which is incorporated into a &ldquo;building-block&rdquo; approach.
Dining philosophers in JSD
Authors: P. Kokol
Venue: ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes (1987)

In this article we use the JSD methodology in solving a classical problem: the problem of "Dining philosophers".
Optimism and consistency in partitioned distributed database systems
Authors: Susan B. Davidson
Venue: ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS) (1984)

A protocol for transaction processing during partition failures is presented which guarantees mutual consistency between copies of data-items after repair is completed. The protocol is &ldquo;optimistic&rdquo; in that transactions are processed without restrictions during failure; conflicts are then detected at repair time using a precedence graph, and are resolved by backing out transactions according to some backout strategy. The resulting database state then corresponds to a serial execution of some subset of transactions run during the failure. Results from simulation and probabilistic modeling show that the optimistic protocol is a reasonable alternative in many cases. Conditions under which the protocol performs well are noted, and suggestions are made as to how performance can be improved. In particular, a backout strategy is presented which takes into account individual transaction costs and attempts to minimize total backout cost. Although the problem of choosing transactions to minimize total backout cost is, in general, NP-complete, the backout strategy is efficient and produces very good results.
Reducing consumer anxiety about EFTS security
Authors: Martin Richards, Jan Guynes
Venue: ACM SIGSAC Review (1986)

Electronic Funds Transfer Systems (EFTS) are facing a crisis that must soon be overcome. In order to achieve the maximum cost benefits of EFTS, it is necessary that automated banking transactions be accepted on a widespread basis. General acceptance has not yet occured because of problems with EFTS perceived by consumers and bankers. The potential for loss through any number of new exposures is too great in the minds of many. This attitude must change before widespread acceptance of EFTS is to be accomplished.
Source code security: checklist for managers
Authors: Jon Corelis
Venue: ACM SIGSAC Review (1987)

Although computer security is usually thought of as data security, the protection of the executable software which creates and maintains that data is an equally important aspect of security. This article will describe the general principles for securing source code integrity in the computer services department of a medium to large size organization. It is addressed to the EDP manager, auditor, or user who has primary administrative, rather than technical, responsibility for the security of such code. My treatment of these issues will inevitably reflect my own primary experience of them, which has been with mainframe batch data processing applications. But the underlying principles of source code security are the same for all types of software, whether batch, interactive, or micro. Accordingly, I may hope that my discussion of these problems will be of some use also to those who must manage other types of data processing.
An integrated microprogram development methodology based on APL
Authors: Jan W. M. Jacobs, Roger J. H. Hacking
Venue: ACM SIGAPL APL Quote Quad (1987)

This paper describes a development methodology for generating code for a microprogrammable processor. The development system is built around a formal model of the required functionality and some tools that automate, to a large extent, the generation of the final microcode. The tools include the generation and validation of the model, the generation of the symbolic microcode and an assembler for translation into the final microcode. The main advantage of using this method is the reduction in development time and the removal of all logic errors in early stages of the design (prototyping).
Shared books: collaborative publication management for an office information system
Authors: Brian T. Lewis, Jeffrey D. Hodges
Venue: Proceedings of the ACM SIGOIS and IEEECS TC-OA 1988 conference on Office information systems (1988)

A Shared Book helps the users of an office information system create a multiple-part publication and manage it throughout its life cycle. The Shared Book supports simultaneous collaboration both by allowing different workers to work on different parts at the same time and by ensuring that workers use the current revision of each part. It protects publication information by providing locking and access control. The Shared Book communicates the publication's current state to each worker through a What-You-See-Is-What-I-See (WYSIWIS) display. Early users report that the Shared Books application has improved their productivity by simplifying their file management and by helping them track the production status of their publications. Shared Books will be part of the next release of the Xerox ViewPoint document processing system. In this paper we present the results of our study of publication management needs and describe how Shared Books supports them. We also describe some interesting aspects of its user interface and implementation.
Complexity of Matrix Product on a Class of Orthogonally Connected Systolic Arrays
Authors: L. Melkemi M. Tchuente
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Computers (1987)

This correspondence studies the time complexity of the parallel computation of the product C = A.B of two dense square matrices A, B of order n, on a class of rectangular orthogonally connected systolic arrays, which are the two-dimensional extensions of the classical pipeline scheme. Such arrays are composed of multiply-add cells without local memory, and, as C is computed, the coefficients cij m
Software reliability applied to computer-based network operation systems
Authors: W. W. Everett
Venue: Proceedings of the 1987 Fall Joint Computer Conference on Exploring technology: today and tomorrow (1987)

This talk discusses our experiences in applying Software Reliability Measurement (SRM) techniques as outlined in reference [1] to one of our software products. Our products are computer-based systems which mechanize the management and operations of telephone and data communications networks in AT T Communications and the Regional Bell Operating Companies. We conducted a pilot effort with one of our products to assess how SRM techniques could be applied and the benefits of using such methods with our product line. The product selected had Software Reliability Objectives established for it. However, we quickly noted two deficiencies in our objectives when we tried to apply SRM techniques: 1). the lack of an &ldquo;Operational Profile&rdquo; establishing conditions under which our reliability objectives would be met, 2). the distinction between elapsed (calendar) time and execution (CPU) time. One of the first things we did was to base-line an &ldquo;Operational Profile&rdquo; of command activity reflecting anticipated usage by our customers and to relate calendar time to execution time (SRM techniques provided a useful framework for understanding how to do this). Then, we calibrated a software reliability model using existing project data. The model was used to develop a-priori estimates of testing effort needed to certify the software would meet a specified level of reliability. Test scripts based on the &ldquo;Operational Profile&rdquo; were set up and procedures were put in place to collect failure data during system test. Following several months of system testing our product, post-analysis was done on the collected failure data and compared to the a-priori estimates of test effort generated by the model. Estimates of initial failure rate (one of the model parameters) using actual failure data validated well with our a-priori estimates. Computed failure rates during latter stages of testing deviated from our model's predictions. Reasons for this deviation are discussed. Finally, this talk summarizes our problems and successes in applying SRM techniques and our continued use of such techniques within our product line.