Showing papers on "Software portability published in 2007"

Intel threading building blocks : outfitting C++ for multi-core processor parallelism

Abstract: Multi-core chips from Intel and AMD offer a dramatic boost in speed and responsiveness, and plenty of opportunities for multiprocessing on ordinary desktop computers. But they also present a challenge: More than ever, multithreading is a requirement for good performance. This guide explains how to maximize the benefits of these processors through a portable C++ library that works on Windows, Linux, Macintosh, and Unix systems. With it, you'll learn how to use Intel Threading Building Blocks (TBB) effectively for parallel programming -- without having to be a threading expert. Written by James Reinders, Chief Evangelist of Intel Software Products, and based on the experience of Intel's developers and customers, this book explains the key tasks in multithreading and how to accomplish them with TBB in a portable and robust manner. With plenty of examples and full reference material, the book lays out common patterns of uses, reveals the gotchas in TBB, and gives important guidelines for choosing among alternatives in order to get the best performance. You'll learn how Intel Threading Building Blocks: * Enables you to specify tasks instead of threads for better portability, easier programming, more understandable source code, and better performance and scalability in general * Focuses on the goal of parallelizing computationally intensive work to deliver high-level solutions * Is compatible with other threading packages, and doesn't force you to pick one package for your entire program * Emphasizes scalable, data-parallel programming, which allows program performance to increase as you add processors * Relies on generic programming, which enables you to write the best possible algorithms with the fewest constraints Any C++ programmer who wants to write an application to run on a multi-core system will benefit from this book. TBB is also very approachable for a C programmer or a C++ programmer without much experience with templates. Best of all, you don't need experience with parallel programming or multi-core processors to use this book.

Brain-computer interface using a simplified functional near-infrared spectroscopy system.

Abstract: A brain-computer interface (BCI) is a device that allows a user to communicate with external devices through thought processes alone. A novel signal acquisition tool for BCIs is near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), an optical technique to measure localized cortical brain activity. The benefits of using this non-invasive modality are safety, portability and accessibility. A number of commercial multi-channel NIRS system are available; however we have developed a straightforward custom-built system to investigate the functionality of a fNIRS-BCI system. This work describes the construction of the device, the principles of operation and the implementation of a fNIRS-BCI application, 'Mindswitch' that harnesses motor imagery for control. Analysis is performed online and feedback of performance is presented to the user. Mindswitch presents a basic 'on/off' switching option to the user, where selection of either state takes 1 min. Initial results show that fNIRS can support simple BCI functionality and shows much potential. Although performance may be currently inferior to many EEG systems, there is much scope for development particularly with more sophisticated signal processing and classification techniques. We hope that by presenting fNIRS as an accessible and affordable option, a new avenue of exploration will open within the BCI research community and stimulate further research in fNIRS-BCIs.

Eon: a language and runtime system for perpetual systems

Abstract: Embedded systems can operate perpetually without being connected to a power source by harvesting environmental energy from motion, the sun, wind, or heat differentials. However, programming these perpetual systems is challenging. In response to changing energy levels, programmers can adjust the execution frequency of energy-intensive tasks, or provide higher service levels when energy is plentiful and lower service levels when energy is scarce. However, it is often difficult for programmers to predict the energy consumption resulting from these adjustments. Worse, explicit energy management can tie a program to a particular hardware platform, limiting portability.This paper introduces Eon, a programming language and runtime system designed to support the development of perpetual systems. To our knowledge, Eon is the first energy-aware programming language. Eon is a declarative coordination language that lets programmers compose programs from components written in C or nesC. Paths through the program ("flows") may be annotated with different energy states. Eon's automatic energy management then dynamically adapts these states to current and predicted energy levels. It chooses flows to execute and adjusts their rates of execution, maximizing the quality of service under available energy constraints.We demonstrate the utility and portability of Eon by deploying two perpetual applications on widely different hardware platforms: a GPS-based location tracking sensor deployed on a threatened species of turtle and on automobiles, and a solar-powered camera sensor for remote, ad-hoc deployments. We also evaluate the simplicity and effectiveness of Eon with a user study, in which novice Eon programmers produced more efficient efficient energy-adaptive systems in substantially less time than experienced C programmers.

High-performance Earth system modeling with NASA/GSFC’s Land Information System

Abstract: The Land Information System software (LIS; http://lis.gsfc.nasa.gov/, 2006) has been developed to support high-performance land surface modeling and data assimilation. LIS integrates parallel and distributed computing technologies with modern land surface modeling capabilities, and establishes a framework for easy interchange of subcomponents, such as land surface physics, input/output conventions, and data assimilation routines. The software includes multiple land surface models that can be run as a multi-model ensemble on global or regional domains with horizontal resolutions ranging from 2.5° to 1 km. The software may execute serially or in parallel on various high-performance computing platforms. In addition, the software has well-defined, standard-conforming interfaces and data structures to interface and interoperate with other Earth system models. Developed with the support of an Earth science technology office (ESTO) computational technologies project round~3 cooperative agreement, LIS has helped advance NASA’s Earth–Sun division’s software engineering principles and practices, while promoting portability, interoperability, and scalability for Earth system modeling. LIS was selected as a co-winner of NASA’s 2005 software of the year award.

Jeannie: granting java native interface developers their wishes

Abstract: Higher-level languages interface with lower-level languages such as C to access platform functionality, reuse legacy libraries, or improve performance. This raises the issue of how to best integrate different languages while also reconciling productivity, safety, portability, and efficiency. This paper presents Jeannie, a new language design for integrating Java with C. In Jeannie, both Javaand C code are nested within each other in the same file and compile down to JNI, the Java platform's standard foreign function interface. By combining the two languages' syntax and semantics, Jeannie eliminates verbose boiler-plate code, enables static error detection across the language boundary, and simplifies dynamic resource management. We describe the Jeannie language and its compiler, while also highlighting lessons from composing two mature programming languages.

Dynamically Controlled Ankle-Foot Orthosis (DCO) with Regenerative Kinetics: Incrementally Attaining User Portability

Abstract: A portable wearable robotic device that can actively supplement locomotion of partially limited ambulators in their normal environment (variable terrain, weather, man made structures, etc.) seems highly desirable but currently short of attainment due to several key technology gaps. Low energy and power density in current actuation technology, inadequate control schemes and safety of use are leading challenges towards a portable, complementary device. This paper presents the dynamically controlled ankle-foot orthosis (DCO) with regenerative kinetics which seek to incrementally attain portability by solving the energy/power density issue in powered elements by harnessing elastic energy of uniquely tuned mechanical elements and reducing the control problem and increasing safety by introducing compliant elements between the human-machine-environment interfaces.

Thread scheduling for multi-core platforms

Abstract: As multi-core processors with tens or hundreds of cores begin to proliferate, system optimization issues once faced only by the high-performance computing (HPC) community will become important to all programmers. However, unlike with HPC, the focus of the multicore programmer will be on programming productivity and portability as much as performance. We introduce in this paper a novel scheduling framework for multicore processors that strikes a balance between control over the system and the level of abstraction. Our framework uses high-level information supplied by the user to guide thread scheduling and also, where necessary, gives the programmer fine control over thread placement.

On the deployment of Mobile Trusted Modules

Abstract: In its recently published TCG Mobile Reference Architecture, the TCG Mobile Phone Work Group specifies a new concept to enable trust into future mobile devices. For this purpose, the TCG devises a trusted mobile platform as a set of trusted engines on behalf of different stakeholders supported by a physical trust-anchor. In this paper, we present our perception on this emerging specification. We propose an approach for the practical design and implementation of this concept and how to deploy it to a trustworthy operating platform. In particular we propose a method for the take-ownership of a device by the user and the migration (i.e., portability) of user credentials between devices.

Scalable parallel collision detection simulation

Abstract: Several simulations for parallel collision detection have been suggested during the last years. The algorithms usually greatly depend on the parallel infrastructure and this dependency causes in many times non-scalability performance. The dependency also harms the portability of the simulation. This paper suggests a scalable and portable parallel algorithm for collision detection simulation that fits both clusters and MPI machines.

A Mashup-Based Strategy for Migration to Service-Oriented Computing

Abstract: Service-Oriented Computing holds great promises to realize the vision of on-demand services available anytime and anywhere. It is still not clear, however, when and how the existing systems will benefit from this new wave. The problem is particularly acute for the software embedded in myriad devices. This work charts a roadmap for migration of legacy software to pervasive service-oriented computing. A key idea is to achieve integration even at the presentation layer, not only at backend layers like application or data. This requires re-inventing the popular mashup technology for the enterprise level. Domain-Specific-Kits, which has been originally introduced within the context of software factory automation, has been reshaped as another enabling technology towards migrating to the service harmonization platform.

YETI: a graduallY extensible trace interpreter

Abstract: The design of new programming languages benefits from interpretation, which can provide a simple initial implementation, flexibility to explore new language features, and portability to many platforms. The only downside is speed of execution, as there remains a large performance gap between even efficient interpreters and mixed-mode systems that include a just-in-time compiler (or JIT for short). Augmenting an interpreter with a JIT, however, is not a small task. Today, JITs used for Java™ are loosely-coupled with the interpreter, with callsites of methods being the only transition point between interpreted and native code. To compile whole methods, the JIT must duplicate a sizable amount of functionality already provided by the interpreter, leading to a "big bang" development effort before the JIT can be deployed. Instead, adding a JIT to an interpreter would be easier if it were possible to leverage the existing functionality.In earlier work we showed that packaging virtual instructions as lightweight callable routines is an efficient way to build an interpreter. In this paper we describe how callable bodies help our interpreter to efficiently identify and run traces. Our closely coupled dynamic compiler can fall back on the interpreter in various ways, permitting an incremental approach in which additional performance gains can be realized as it is extended in two dimensions: (i) generating code for more types of virtual instructions, and (ii) identifying larger compilation units. Currently, Yeti identifies straight line regions of code and traces, and generates non-optimized code for roughly 50 Java integer and object bytecodes. Yeti runs roughly twice as fast as a direct-threaded interpreter on SPECjvm98 benchmarks.

Lightweight kernel-level primitives for high-performance MPI intra-node communication over multi-core systems

Abstract: Modern processors have multiple cores on a chip to overcome power consumption and heat dissipation issues. As more and more compute cores become available on a single node, it is expected that node-local communication will play an increasingly greater role in overall performance of parallel applications such as MPI applications. It is therefore crucial to optimize intra-node communication paths utilized by MPI libraries. In this paper, we propose a novel design of a kernel extension, called LiMIC2, for high-performance MPI intra-node communication over multi-core systems. LiMIC2 can minimize the communication overheads by implementing lightweight primitives and provide portability across different interconnects and flexibility for performance optimization. Our performance evaluation indicates that LiMIC2 can attain 80% lower latency and more than three times improvement in bandwidth. Also the experimental results show that LiMIC2 can deliver bidirectional bandwidth greater than 11GB/s.

Integrated medical software system with enhanced portability

Abstract: An integrated system for the management of a healthcare provider is disclosed and has a scheduling module for supporting scheduling encounters with the patients, a registration component for registering the patients, an account management module for maintaining patient financial information, and a clinical module for maintaining electronic patient records. The integrated system is stored on a portable computer-readable resource and run on a processor connected to the portable computer-readable resource.

Error awareness and recovery in conversational spoken language interfaces

Abstract: One of the most important and persistent problems in the development of conversational spoken language interfaces is their lack of robustness when confronted with understanding-errors. Most of these errors stem from limitations in current speech recognition technology, and, as a result, appear across all domains and interaction types. There are two approaches towards increased robustness: prevent the errors from happening, or recover from them through conversation, by interacting with the users. In this dissertation we have engaged in a research program centered on the second approach. We argue that three capabilities are needed in order to seamlessly and efficiently recover from errors: (1) systems must be able to detect the errors, preferably as soon as they happen, (2) systems must be equipped with a rich repertoire of error recovery strategies that can be used to set the conversation back on track, and (3) systems must know how to choose optimally between different recovery strategies at run-time, i.e. they must have good error recovery policies . This work makes a number of contributions in each of these areas. First, to provide a real-world experimental platform this error handling research program, we developed RavenClaw, a plan-based dialog management framework for task-oriented domains. The framework has a modular architecture that decouples the error handling mechanisms from the do main-specific dialog control logic; in the process, it lessens system authoring effort, promotes portability and reusability, and ensures consistency in error handling behaviors both within and across domains. To date, RavenClaw has been used to develop and successfully deploy a number of spoken dialog systems spanning different domains an interaction types. Together with these systems, RavenClaw provides the infrastructure for the error handling work described in this dissertation. To detect errors, spoken language interfaces typically rely on confidence scores. In this work we investigated in depth current supervised learning techniques for building error detection models. In addition, we proposed a novel, implicitly-supervised approach for this task. No developer supervision is required in this case; rather, the system obtains the supervision signal online, from naturally-occurring patterns in the interaction. We believe this learning paradigm represents an important step towards constructing autonomously self-improving systems. Furthermore, we developed a scalable, data-driven approach that allows a system to continuously monitor and update beliefs throughout the conversation; the proposed approach leads to significant improvements in both the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the interaction. We developed and empirically investigated a large set of recovery strategies, targeting two types of understanding-errors that commonly occur in these systems: misunderstandings and nonunderstandings. Our results add to an existing body of knowledge about the advantages and disadvantages of these strategies, and highlight the importance of good recovery policies. In the last part of this work, we proposed and evaluated a novel online-learning based approach for developing recovery policies. The system constructs runtime estimates for the likelihood of success of each recovery strategy, together with confidence bounds for those estimates. These estimates are then used to construct a policy online, while balancing the system's exploration and exploitation goals. Experiments with a deployed spoken dialog system showed that the system was able to learn a more effective recovery policy in a relatively short time period.

PRISMA - A Multidimensional Information Visualization Tool Using Multiple Coordinated Views

Abstract: Information visualization techniques have been successfully used to build visual and interactive analysis of data and data relationships. However, dimensionality, volume and diversity make it difficult for a single technique to completely solve the problem. Information visualization tools that support multiple coordinated views allow the user to better understand the dataset by providing different perspectives based on the same set of data items. These tools support the correlation between data views and the coordinated real-time interaction mechanisms. The goal of this paper is to present the PRISMA information visualization tool that explores the use of multiple coordinated views. PRISMA provides usability, portability and extensibility. Initial usability essays are discussed.

Java takes flight: time-portable real-time programming with exotasks

Abstract: Existing programming methodologies for real-time systems suffer from a low level of abstraction and non-determinism in both the timing and the functional domains. As a result, real-time systems are difficult to test and must be re-certified every time changes are made to either the software or hardware environment. Exotasks are a novel Java programming construct that achievedeterministic timing, even in the presence of other Java threads, and across changes of hardware and software platform. They are deterministic functional data-flow tasks written in Java, combined with an orthogonal scheduling policy based on the logical execution time (LET) model. We have built a quad-rotor model helicopter, the JAviator, which we use as a testbed for this work. We evaluate our implementation of exotasks in IBM's J9 real-time virtual machine using actual flights of the helicopter. Our experiments show that we are able to maintain deterministic behavior in the face of variations in both software load and hardware platform.

Manufacturing system and method

Abstract: One aspect related to design of systems and methods for product manufacturing is portability, i.e., allowing for manufacture at multiple locations independent of the skill set of the contract manufacturer (104). Another aspect includes making data needed and generated during the manufacturing process readily accessible to various elements of the system infrastructure. The present invention contemplates design of manufacturing systems for products that incorporate technology in skilled areas. A preferred approach includes design of the product itself, data exchange between infrastructure elements, and making data accessible also for post-manufacturing functions. This includes storing manufacturing related data in a server (106) and making such data substantially instantly accessible once the data is written in the server (106). Such data preferably includes software to configure production stations (110) in a production portion of the system. A system design using this approach is particularly useful in the manufacture of a microwave radio.

Releasing a Multimodal Dialogue System into the Wild: User Support Mechanisms

Abstract: We present City Browser, a web-based platform which provides multimodal access to urban information. We concentrate on aspects of the system that make it compelling for sustained interaction, yet accessible to new users. First, we discuss the architecture’s portability, demonstrating how new databases containing Points of Interest (POIs) may easily be added. We then describe two interface techniques which mitigate the complexity of interacting with these potentially large databases: (1) contextsensitive utterance suggestions and (2) multimodal correction of speech recognition hypotheses. Finally, we evaluate the platform with data collected from users via the web.

Monitoring and Diagnosis in Industrial Systems Using Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract: Condition monitoring and diagnosis of industrial systems avoids unexpected failures and greatly improves system reliability and maintainability. Advances in wireless communication, microelectronics, digital electronics and highly integrated electronics in addition to the increasingly need for more efficient controlled electric systems, makes the development of monitoring and supervisory control tools object of study of many researchers. This paper proposes a digital system for energy usage evaluation, condition monitoring, diagnosis and supervisory control for electric systems applying wireless sensor networks (WSNs) connected to a wired infrastructure. The system is based on two hardware topologies responsible for the signal acquisition, processing and transmission: Intelligent Sensors Modules (ISMs) and Remote Data Acquisition Units (RDAUs). The gateway function of the wired network is carried out by Remote Servers (RSs) based on the AMD-Soekris NET4521 architecture, responsible for receiving the data collected and transmitting it to the Supervisory Controller (SCs) based on a PC Pentium IV architecture. The basic characteristics of the presented system are: (a) easy implementation, (b) low cost implementation, (c) easy implementation of redundant routines (security), and (d) portability/versatility.

The design and development of ZPL

Abstract: ZPL is an implicitly parallel programming language, which means all instructions to implement and manage the parallelism are inserted by the compiler. It is the first implicitly parallel language to achieve performance portability, that is, consistent high performance across all (MIMD) parallel platforms. ZPL has been designed from first principles, and is founded on the CTA abstract parallel machine. A key enabler of ZPL's performance portability is its What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) performance model. The paper describes the antecedent research on which ZPL was founded, the design principles used to build it incrementally, and the technical basis for its performance portability. Comparisons with other parallel programming approaches are included.

Distributed video surveillance using hardware-friendly sparse large margin classifiers

Abstract: In contrast to video sensors which just "watch " the world, present-day research is aimed at developing intelligent devices able to interpret it locally. A number of such devices are available on the market, very powerful on the one hand, but requiring either connection to the power grid, or massive rechargeable batteries on the other. MicrelEye, the wireless video sensor node presented in this paper, targets a different design point: portability and a scanty power budget, while still providing a prominent level of intelligence, namely objects classification. To deal with such a challenging task, we propose and implement a new SVM-like hardware-oriented algorithm called ERSVM. The case study considered in this work is people detection. The obtained results suggest that the present technology allows for the design of simple intelligent video nodes capable of performing local classification tasks.

DaNaLIX: a domain-adaptive natural language interface for querying XML

Abstract: We present DaNaLIX, a prototype domain-adaptive natural language interface for querying XML. Our system is an extension of NaLIX, a generic natural language interface for querying XML. While retaining the portability of a purely generic system like NaLIX, DaNaLIX can exploit domain knowledge, whenever available, to its advantage for query translation. More importantly, in DaNaLIX such domain knowledge does not have to be pre-defined; instead it can be automatically obtained from the interactions between a user and the system. In this demonstration, we describe the overall architecture of DaNaLIX. We also demonstrate how a generic system like DaNaLIX can take advantage of domain knowledge to improve its usability and query translation accuracy. In addition, we show DaNaLIX still possesses the portability of a generic system by using data collections from three different domains. Finally, we present how domain knowledge can be obtained through user interactions in an automatic fashion.

A Framework for Measuring and Evaluating Program Source Code Quality

Abstract: The effect of the quality of program source code on the cost of development and maintenance as well as on final system performance has resulted in a demand for technology that can measure and evaluate the quality with high precision. Many metrics have been proposed for measuring quality, but none have been able to provide a comprehensive evaluation, nor have they been used widely. We propose a practical framework which achieves effective measurement and evaluation of source code quality, solves many of the problems of earlier frameworks, and applies to programs in the C programming language. The framework consists of a comprehensive quality metrics suite, a technique for normalization of measured values, an aggregation tool which allows evaluation in arbitrary module units from the component level up to whole systems, a visualization tool for the evaluation of results, a tool for deriving rating levels, and a set of derived standard rating levels. By applying this framework to a collection of embedded programs experimentally, we verified that the framework can be used effectively to give quantitative evaluations of reliability, maintainability, reusability and portability of source code.

System and method for user identity portability in communication systems

Abstract: Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are directed to a system and method for user identity portability in communication systems. The present invention can provide user identity portability across communication networks that do not necessarily impose a phone number as the identity, addressing, or routing identifier. According to exemplary embodiments, a user identified by any suitable user identifier can switch network operators (e.g., from operator A to operator B) and retain their user identifier. For example, an identity server can support reverse lookup ENUM usage for URI and other identity correlation. Thus, all communication contacts that the user had while with operator A can seamlessly continue communications with the user even after the user switches to operator B.

Mobile Spatial coordinate Measuring System (MScMS) – Introduction to the system

Abstract: In many industrial fields (for example, automotive and aerospace) dimensional measurements of large size objects should be easily and rapidly taken. Nowadays, the problem can be handled using many metrological systems, based on different technologies (optical, mechanical, electromagnetic, etc.). Each of these systems is more or less adequate, depending on measuring conditions, a user's experience and skill, or other factors like time, cost, dimensions, accurateness, portability, etc. In general for measuring medium-large size objects, portable systems can be preferred to fixed systems. Transferring the measuring system to the measured object place is often more practical than vice-versa. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new system called Mobile Spatial coordinate Measuring System (MScMS). The system has been designed to perform dimensional measurements of medium-large size objects. MScMS is made up of three basic parts: a ‘constellation’ of wireless devices, liberally distributed around the wor...

Few useful considerations for maintaining software components and component-based systems

Abstract: Component-Based Systems (CBS) maintenance may require several activities different than normal applications, such as upgrading the functionality of black-box components (for which code may not be available), replacement of older version components with the new ones for better and improved functionality, tracing the problem of compatibility between the new components with system, and so on. The focus of this paper is on investigating several issues and concerns about maintainability of component-based systems. It also explores the acceptance of maintainability characteristics and sub-characteristics as defined in ISO9126 quality model for CBS. The paper proposes two new sub-characteristics, namely trackability and portability, to be included under the maintenance activity.