ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
A spatially iterated memory organ patterned after the cerebral cortex
Authors: Matthew Kabrisky
Venue: Proceedings of the 1961 16th ACM national meeting (1961)

On the basis of anatomical explorations reported over sixty years ago, a rather complete block diagram of the &ldquo;wiring&rdquo; of the brain may be drawn. Unfortunately the function or mode of operation of many of the blocks are poorly understood even though we have remarkably accurate pictures of the fine structure. Our task is to fit some hypothetical model of brain operation into the (admittedly incomplete) set of restraints which are formed by the known aspects of structure and performance.
Attached processors in APL
Authors: Karl Soop
Venue: ACM SIGAPL APL Quote Quad (1983)

An extension to the semantics of APL is proposed. It allows one APL Processor (APLP) to attach another processor, which may be an (APLP) with its own workspace, or some other processor. A special case is signon from a terminal, where the attaching processor becomes a human user acting through a workstation. Attached processors communicate through shared variables, and the impact on the APL syntax is minimal. The mechanism has the potential to allow, for example, session managers, editors, and event&mdash;handling support to be implemented In a natural way through conventional APL programming. Such facilities will therefore enjoy an entirely new flexibility and open-endedness, not seen in comparative proposals, which usually depend for their realisation on new APLlansguage constructs.
Hidden plane elimination and surface shading of polygons representing buildings using APL
Authors: David L. Cornell, Warren G. Julian
Venue: ACM SIGAPL APL Quote Quad (1981)

The development of a colour perspective system for the representation of buildings creates different problems from those systems used to represent machine parts, etc. Realism is an important criterion because many users are naive with regard to computers and because they are used to sophisticated representations of buildings (e.g. photographs, rendered perspectives and physical models). The clients of architects are also interested in the realistic representation of the form of their buildings as are the planning authorities who must approve new developments. As part of a system to produce coloured views of buildings under sunlight and skylight conditions, this paper discusses the problems of colour shading on a Tektronix 4027 type VDT and the process used for hidden surface elimination, both using APL. In detail the paper explores the unique advantages of APL in implementing a modified Newell, Newell and Sancha algorithm for hidden surface elimination. In addition, it discusses the limitations of colour representation on the 4027 and proposes a technique for producing shading of polygons based on single hues and pattern generations, in order to produce realistic modelling of objects which have a single surface colour.
Self-instructional modules: Their development and use by user services
Authors: Dianne M. Smock
Venue: Proceedings of the 8th annual ACM SIGUCCS conference on User services (1980)

User Services organizations are charged with educating large numbers of users, with staffs that are often too small to meet ever-increasing demands. Two extremes in methods of educating users can be observed: 1) traditional short courses which are typically lectures and demonstrations; and 2) sophisticated audio/visual techniques or computer-aided instruction (CAI). A middle ground can be found for those user services groups who are frustrated by the time and effort involved in teaching short courses, but who do not have the money, staff, or inclination to develop CAI programs or videotapes. One such alternative is a series of written self-instructional modules, each of which includes discussion of basic computing concepts and &ldquo;hands-on&rdquo; practice using computer equipment. The modules have at least three applications: 1) they can supplement or replace lecture/demonstration-type short courses; 2) they can be distributed to faculty members who in turn can use them to teach computing concepts in academic classes; and 3) subsets of the module series can be packaged as user's guides for particular groups of users (e.g. PSS users, FORTRAN programmers), with the hope that such materials would help reduce the load on consultants.
Heuristics for program synthesis using loop invariants
Authors: Joe W. Duran
Venue: Proceedings of the 1978 annual conference - Volume 2 (1978)

The problem of automatically synthesizing programs from formal specifications can be stated as, &ldquo;constructively prove that there exists a program P which transforms valid input into output satisfying the required output assertion.&rdquo; If Prequires a loop, the proof will contain an induction. This is beyond the ability of current theorem provers and synthesis systems. In this paper, the loop invariant is used to reduce the problem of synthesizing loops to that of synthesizing three loop free sections &mdash; initialization, assignment to loop control variables, and assignment to all other program variables. The three sections are then assembled into a standard loop form, namely &ldquo;(initialization) WHILE B DO (loop body) OD&rdquo;. Second order theorem provers adequate for these subproblems have not yet been developed. Therefore, heuristics are presented for synthesizing the three sections. Several examples are presented.
Optical links for communications in local distribution
Authors: Diwakar G. Gan
Venue: Proceedings of the ACM second symposium on Problems in the optimizations of data communications systems (1971)

In the design of optical communication links for local distribution, two important aspects, which must be considered, are atmospheric transmission effects and detection techniques used in the receiver. Basic relationships for atmospheric absorption and scattering are reviewed, after which received signal variations observed on a Datran optical test link are briefly discussed. Direct and heterodyne detection techniques are reviewed and detailed expressions for shot-noise and thermal-noise limited cases are given. Shot-noise-limited detection is concluded to be more sensitive but is presently employed less in receivers.
The INGRES protection system
Authors: Michael Stonebraker, Peter Rubinstein
Venue: Proceedings of the 1976 annual conference (1976)

This paper presents the design of a protection system being implemented for the INGRES relational data base management system. A brief description of the INGRES system and its operational environment is first presented to provide the setting for the protection scheme. Mechanisms for protecting physical data files and enforcing sophisticated access control rules for shared relations are then presented. Lastly, the important design decisions concerning protection are discussed.
On the role of generalized semi-Markov processes in simulation output analysis
Authors: Peter W. Glynn
Venue: Proceedings of the 15th conference on Winter simulation - Volume 1 (1983)

A generalized semi-Markov process (GSMP) is a stochastic process description of a large class of discrete-event simulations. GSMP's are defined, and some basic properties of GSMP's are described. It is argued that GSMP's provide a convenient frame-work in which to analyze many questions of interest to practitioners.
Essential elements of software engineering education
Authors: Peter Freeman, Anthony I. Wasserman, Richard E. Fairley
Venue: Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on Software engineering (1976)

Software engineering involves the application of principles of computer science, management science, and other fields to the design and construction of software systems. Education in software engineering is fundamentally different from education in computer science, management science, or other constituent fields, even though it shares a large common area of concern. As we move toward the development of coordinated software engineering curricula, it is mandatory that we identify principles, not just random collections of techniques, on which to build them. Our research, teaching, and practical experience leads us to argue for five essential elements of any software engineering curriculum: computer science, management science, communication skills, problem solving, and design methodology. This paper will discuss these areas, illustrate their current application in courses, and indicate their implications for curriculum development.
The display of characters using gray level sample arrays
Authors: John E. Warnock
Venue: Proceedings of the 7th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques (1980)

Character fonts on raster scanned display devices are usually represented by arrays of bits that are displayed as a matrix of black and white dots. This paper reviews a filtering and sampling method as applied to characters for building multiple bit per pixel arrays. These arrays can be used as alternative character representations for use on devices with gray scale capability. Discussed in this paper are both the filtering algorithms that are used to generate gray scale fonts and some consequences of using gray levels for the representation of fonts including: 1. The apparent resolution of the display is increased when using gray scale fonts allowing smaller fonts to be used with higher apparent positional accuracy and readability. This is especially important when using low resolution displays. 2. Fonts of any size and orientation can be generated automatically from suitable high precision representations. This automatic generation removes the tedious process of &ldquo;bit tuning&rdquo; fonts for a given display.
System dynamics and conventional approaches for managing technological substitution in national security planning
Authors: M. Moussavi, I. Santoso, S. Young, D. Drew
Venue: Proceedings of the 15th conference on Winter Simulation - Volume 2 (1983)

A system dynamics model is developed to detail essential combat aircraft survivability parameters and their causal relationships for the Joint Technical Coordinating Group for Aircraft Survivability of the Department of Defense. The model is comprised of five submodels: (1) Economy Submodel, (2) Budget Submodel, (3) Procurement Submodel, (4) Attrition Submodel, and (5) Survivability Submodel. The model is illustrated using aircraft carrier oriented combat scenarios which include fleet defense, counterair, interdiction. and close surface support missions for the carrier-based aircraft. Trade-off analyses are performed to determine the allocations between procurement; operations and maintenance; and research, development, test and evaluation that will generate values of aircraft inventory, availability and survivability that optimize life cycle costs and kill-to-loss ratios.
Business and management data processing I: Optimum allocation of research/engineering manpower within a multi-project organizational structure
Authors: A. A. McGee, M. D. Markarian
Venue: Proceedings of the 1962 ACM national conference on Digest of technical papers (1962)

THIS PAPER will describe an analytic technique formulated to permit the management of an organization engaged in a number of research and engineering projects to allocate available technical manpower among and within projects. The technique has value as a device to determine in detail where men with specific skills may be best utilized and as a tool to gage the impact of proposed additional workload on available manpower resources and projects in progress.
Documentation specialists as a solution to the programmer shortage
Authors: Stephanie Rosenbaum
Venue: Proceedings of the 1st annual international conference on Systems documentation (1982)

This talk addresses two interlocking problems: the increasing shortage of technical personnel, especially programmers; and the fact that written communication is a necessary task which such people often do not perform effectively. One way to alleviate both problems is to identify certain aspects of the professional programmer's job which involve communication, especially to non-programmer audiences, and then to assign these tasks to professional communicators or documentation specialists.
A distributed flat file strategy for managing research data
Authors: Ronald W. Helms
Venue: Proceedings of the ACM 1980 annual conference (1980)

The purpose of this paper is to present a &ldquo;Distributed Flat File&rdquo; strategy and methods for designing effective systems for processing data from longitudinal research projects. First, let us consider the setting for which the strategy and corresponding techniques are intended. The methods described here are intended for longitudinal studies, those which involve studying the same subjects over a number of time periods, with data collected one or more times in each period. The length of the study is assumed to be such that irregularities will inevitably occur in the data collection: subjects will sometimes be unavailable for measurement; some subjects may perish or otherwise not complete the entire sequence of time periods, etc. It is also assumed that substantial deviations from the planned schedule may occur, and that some measurements may be made at random times, as for example, when an illness occurs.
Reference machines require non-linear time to maintain disjoint sets
Authors: Robert Endre Tarjan
Venue: Proceedings of the ninth annual ACM symposium on Theory of computing (1977)

This paper describes a machine model intended to be useful in deriving realistic complexity bounds for tasks requiring list processing. As an example of the use of the model, the paper shows that any such machine requires non-linear time in the worst case to compute unions of disjoint sets on-line. All set union algorithms known to the author are instances of the model and are thus subject to the derived bound. One of the known algorithms achieves the bound to within a constant factor.
Planning units in text editing behavior
Authors: Scott P. Robertson, John B. Black
Venue: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems (1983)

The organization of text editing behavior can be characterized by graph structures containing goals, subgoals, goal outcomes, and actions. Here we propose a model to represent the goals and plans of text editor users based on goal-fate analysis (Schank Abelson, 1977). The representation captures relationships between a user's multiple goals and shows how errors can result from badly formed plans. We discuss some data from a psychological experiment which supports the hypothesis that text editing behavior is chunked into distinct plan units. The cognitive components of pause times between keystrokes were revealed by statistically removing the physical time required between keystrokes. Finally, we suggest how a system which builds goal-fate graphs from keystroke input might be useful in providing specific help information that is keyed to a user's intentions.
Managing a training project for a complex software system
Authors: Joseph L. Bagby, Ellen G. Miller
Venue: Proceedings of the sixteenth annual SIGCPR conference (1979)

In 1975, the University of Cincinnati Computer Center (UCCC) received the first of a series of contracts from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Drinking Water (ODW). The contracts required: (1) detailed design, programming, testing and documentation of a computer software system; (2) a needs assessment and development of training packages based on identified needs; and (3) installation of the computer software and delivery of the training program. The computer system, known as the Model State Information System (MSIS), was designed to meet all annual reporting requirements of the National Interim Primary Drinking Water Regulations (NIPDWR). These regulations expand general mandates of the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974. MSIS characteristics included: 73 program modules; IBM, UNIVAC, and Honeywell versions; structured, top-down, programming; over four feet of systems documentation; 70 input forms; 50 standard reports; and more than 200,000 lines of ANS COBOL source code. ODW realized that the complexity of MSIS required intensive user training to achieve good system utilization. The authors, who were responsible for managing all phases of MSIS training, began with a literature search. A review of this literature, and the decisions which resulted in the MSIS training design and delivery, are described
The N.mPc runtime environment
Authors: Frederic I. Parke, Donald C. Hewitt,  Jr., Charles W. Rose
Venue: Proceedings of the 16th Design Automation Conference (1979)

Presents the N.mPc runtime environment consisting of the Ecologist, Simulated Memory Processor, Kernel, Command Interpreter, and Simulated, Memory Manager. The Ecologist and Simulated Memory Processor assemble the hardware and software modules to form network simulations. The Kernel, Command Inter prater, and Simulated Memory Manger provide the runtime environment The Kernel performs all process scheduling, data structure manipulation, and manages simulation breakpoint and monitor functions. Simulated memories are handled by the Simulated Memory Manager. The interface between the simulation and the user is handled but he Command Interpreter which accepts commands from the user to examine or modify simulation states, to control simulation execution, or to set up data collection from executing simulations
A case study of VAX-11 instruction set usage for compiler execution
Authors: Cheryl A. Wiecek
Venue: ACM SIGARCH Computer Architecture News (1982)

Analysis of an instruction set as large and varied as the one specified for the VAX-11 architecture is important for aiding processor design evaluation. This paper looks at dynamic VAX-11 instruction set usage by one class of programs, and discusses the methodology and tools which have been developed to provide that information. Six VAX/VMS native mode compilers from Digital Equipment Corporation were used: BASIC, BLISS, COBOL, FORTRAN, PASCAL, and PL/I. A summary of results generated by analyzing executions of these six compilers is presented. Information is included for instruction and class frequency, general instruction features, operand specifiers, the memory data stream, register utilization, instruction sequencing, and branch displacements.
Performance monitor for a relational information system
Authors: N. N. Oliver, John D. Joyce
Venue: Proceedings of the 1976 annual conference (1976)

Although some relational information systems have recently become available for production use, very few, if any of them, contain facilities to collect performance data. This paper describes a method for implementing a performance monitor and some of the data collected by this performance monitor which was recently installed in the REGIS (RElational General Information System). REGIS is currently being used within General Motors. The performance monitor is used to collect data about the usefulness of the command language, performance improvements following major system upgrades and performance predictions based on past runs. While installing the performance monitor several system deficiencies were uncovered. Correction of the deficiencies has already improved performance by almost an order of magnitude. Future improvements are expected to improve performance by at least another order of magnitude.
The variable cell length listprocessor VARLIST
Authors: Dorothea A. Klip
Venue: Proceedings of the 1974 annual conference - Volume 1 (1974)

A listprocessing system which allows assignment of cells of any length, expressed in a discrete number of computer words, is proposed for a wider range of problems than just for the algebraic manipulation systems for which it was designed. Erasure of lists is done while preserving contiguity of space by means of an internal and external linkage technique. A compacting routine which copies used blocks into empty blocks can be applied provided that the liststructures have a canonical form which can be identified through the type field so that all pointers can be accessed for readdressing. An application program outside the mathematical area is discussed.
Automatic VLSI layout verification
Authors: Laurin Williams
Venue: Proceedings of the 18th Design Automation Conference (1981)

Xerox has instituted a set of software tools that close the loop between circuit design and mask generation of VLSI and provide checks and analysis along the way. The software includes circuit extraction, capacitance calaulation, nodal analysis and logic recognition as well as interfaces to graphic systems. The systematic method of capturing circuit designs and the software packages for analyzing mask data are described in this paper. The kinds of errors checked and the method of reporting errors are explained. This paper traces a single design from circuit description to mask making. It shows all the check points and verification tools presently available to a designer at Xerox. The example used for demonstration is the design of a small component of a chip called a cell. It should be pointed out that the tools described are not restricted to cell verification. For the most part they will accommodate up to full chip designs.
Direct Execution Of An Algebraic Oriented Language
Authors: D. Dromard, F. Dromard
Venue: Proceedings of the 1978 annual conference (1978)

Now, new high level languages are being developed to make easier the program writing. These languages provide program proving facilities, to make the software more reliable. They are intended to describe the user's problems and to ignore voluntarily the execution constraints on a computer. For these languages, the direct execution is an attractive solution so we are building a machine executing directly a very high level language suited to the algebraic problems. This language has some unconventional features, such as: non-ordered statements, equivalence between equations and instructions, explicit recurrence description. These language peculiarities led to a machine organization composed of specific &ldquo;mechanisms&rdquo;, most of these mechanisms being reentrant. In this paper, we describe in a first section the language properties. In a second section, we describe the direct execution problems and finally we discuss the general features of our machine.
Use of continued fractions in high-speed computing
Authors: D. Teichroew
Venue: Proceedings of the 1952 ACM national meeting (Toronto) (1952)

Three numerical methods for evaluating continued fractions are discussed. An Arithmetic example is given for each method. A comparison is made of the speed of convergence of power series expansions and continued fraction expansions for several functions. Recommendations are made for the most efficient method of evaluating continued fractions for different types of computing machines.
Current problems related to LSI functional testing
Authors: Robert W. Rozeboom
Venue: Proceedings of the 13th Design Automation Conference (1976)

Functional testing problems introduced by the advent of LSI device families are discussed. The problems of using current test generation techniques for LSI functional test design are noted and suggestions for future research are made.