Computer Systems and Software Engineering: State-of-the-art

425 Pages·1992·28.575 MB·English

by  Walter E. Proebster (auth.), Patrick Dewilde, Joos Vandewalle (eds.)

Computer Systems and Software Engineering
Computer Systems
and
Software Engineering
State-of-the-art
Edited by
Patrick Dewilde
Technische Universiteit Delft
and
Joos Vandewalle
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
ISBN 978-1-4613-6555-6 ISBN 978-1-4615-3506-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4615-3506-5
Printed оп acid-free paper
АН Rights Reserved
© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published Ьу К1uwer Academic Publishers in 1992
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1992
No part of the materia1 protected Ьу this copyright notice mау ье reproduced or
uti1ized in any form or Ьу any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or Ьу any information storage and
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
EDITORIAL vii
The Evolution of Data Memory and Storage: An Overview
Walter E. Proebster
Optimizing Logic for Speed, Size, and Testability
Robert K. Brayton and Alexander Saldanha 25
VLSI Architectures for Digital Video Signal Processing
P. Pirsch 65
Compiler Techniques for Massive Parallel Architectures
Lothar Thiele 101
Programmable Cellular Neural Networks. A State-of-the-art
Tamas Roska 151
Developments in Parallel Programming Languages
R. H. Perrott 169
Load Balancing Grid-Oriented Applications on Distributed Memory Parallel
Computers
D. Roose, J. de Keyser and R. van Driessche 191
Strategic Decision Analysis and Group Decision Support
Simon French 217
Ten Years of Advances in Machine Learning
Y. KodratoJf 231
Designing Logic Programming Languages
J. W. Lloyd 263
Efficient Bottom-up Evaluation of Logic Programs
Raghu Ramakrishnan, Divesh Srivastava and S. Sudarshan 287
Proving Correctness of Executable Programs
Kit Lester 325
vi
Direct Manipulation as a Basis for Constructing Graphical User Interfaces Coupled
to Application Functions
Jan van den Bos 355
Visualization of Volumetric Medical Image Data
KJ. Zuiderveld and M.A. Viergever 363
Scientific Visualization
JJ. van Wijk 387
Picture Archiving and Communication Systems: A Service
R. Mattheus 397
February 17, 1992
Editorial: the State of the Art in Computer Science and Software
Engineering
At the occasion of the CompEuro'92 Conference in The Hague this spring, we have
asked an editorial board consisting of some twelve reputed researchers in computer
system design and software engineering in the Benelux to assemble a program of
State of the Art lectures covering their entire domain, and in which up to date
information would be presented to practicing engineers and researchers who are
active in the field and have a need to know. We are proud to present the results
of our combined efforts in this book. We truly believe that we have succeeded in
our goal and that the present book offers the broad overview we aimed at with
contributions that treat all the main topics with elegance and clarity. In addition
to State of the Art lectures, also some tutorial as well as keynote lectures have
been added, all with the purpose of providing the global coverage desired.
The order in which the topics are presented goes roughly from bottom to top,
from low level hardw'are issues to high level intelligence, from computing to appli
cations. Although many topics are incommensurate, we have opted for the more
specific first, the more general later, without any presumption. The first lecture
is just as valuable as the last: the topics rise in a kind of spiral. There is an un
deniable randomness in the choice, the reader will find important and interesting
topics from the first to the last contribution.
We start out with some survey material. W. Proebster gives a knowledgeable
survey of the history of memory management and technology. As a long standing
IBM scientist (who is now with the University of Munich), he has had an insider's
view on the many developments of memory technology. His conclusion is that the
sky is the limit and much more will be forthcoming. The second contribution is also
from an outstanding IBM design scientist who is now a Professor at the University
of California at Berkeley, Bob Brayton. His topic is, of course, logic design, but
with a new view on optimization. Since this is one of the main themes in sound
design technology, a. fresh view on it is particularly welcome. The contribution of
Peter Pirsch remains in the realm of hardware design, in particular the design of
video signal processing algorithms and architectures. Peter's group in Hannover
was one of the very first to study and implement sophisticated high speed' ded
icated computing systems. He instructs us on how to a.chieve optimization in a
global design space in which software, algorithms and architectures interplay. The
last contribution on hardware design is due to Lothar Thiele of the University of
Saarland in Saarbruecken. Lothar is also very much concerned about the connec
tion of algorithms and architectures, especially in the area of massive but nearly
regular or piecewise regular computations. He presents a systematic methodology
for the design trajectory that carries the designer from concept to architectural
description, all within one framework.
vii
P. Dewilde and J. Vandewalle (eds.). Computer Systems and Software engineering. vii-ix.
© 1992 Kluwer Academic Publishers.
viii EDITORIAL
Moving one level upwards, or if you wish, one spiral turn further, we reach three
papers that carry the central term 'parallelism'. The first in the series is devoted
to a type of neural networks called cellular neural nets, which may be viewed
as a locally distributed neural computer. It yields the promise of a much larger
array than possible with the classical multilayer type. The two following papers
cover two most important issues in parallel processing: that of programming and
that of load-balancing. R. H. Perrott reviews in his paper the various possibili
ties in parallel programming languages and how they have developed. In contrast
to sequential computing where a single underlying architectural model, the von
Neumann machine, is often tacitly assumed, there are many possible architectural
models available for parallel computing. Is unity in variety possible? That is the
question addressed by Perrot. The paper of Dirk Roose and coauthors brings us
back to the theme 'operations research', in their paper dedicated to parallel com
puting on distributed memory parallel computers. There could possibly not be
a more central paper in this conference since it merges two of the three central
themes. Therefore, it a.ppears in the center of the book as well ...
The following paper has also a central quality but of a different nature. It
brings us another turn further on our high winding spiral. Operations research
has very much to do with strategic decision analysis. Decisions are not taken in a
vacuum, they originate from group dynamics in a management team. Simon French
approaches these issues from an information systems background. It is refreshing
to see how on a macroscopic field problems arise that are similar to those on the
much more restricted field of software engineering, and how these problems may
be approached in an analogous ~ay.
This brings us to one of the central themes in software engineering: reasoning
and logic programming. Three lectures are devoted to that topic. The first, by Y.
Kodratoff gives a survey of ten years of advances in machine learning. Methods for
machine learning are built on three kinds of possible inferences: deductive, induc
tive and analogical. Kodratoff describes different methods that have been created
during the last decade to improve the way machines can learn, using these infer
ence techniques. In the second paper, J.W. Lloyd of the University of Bristol dives
directly into issues of the design of logic programming languages, their declarative
semantics and the software engineering support needed for them. Raghu Ramakr
ishnan and coauthors treat in their contribution the evaluation problem of logic
programs. Here also, optimization is a key issue, efficiency of computations, mem
ory utilization, improvement of query handling.
Engineering nowadays requires more than hard nosed i'rule of the thumbi'-ing.
Already we have seen that mathematical principles underlie modern principles of
declarative parallel programming. Modern signal processing is based on sophis
ticated functional analysis. The construction of a high speed, high density VLSI
computing system is not possible without the use of highly optimized circuit con
struction software which again is based on deep insights in combinational math
ematics. So what about software engineering? Kit Lester states our methods of
EDITORIAL ix
software construction are mainly intuitive and generally have an air of "string
and chewing gum" construction. If we are truly to Engineer programs, we instead
need mathematically-based methods either of constructing the programs, or of ver
ifying intuitively-constructed programs. In his paper he treats not only correctness
of program source code or program specification, but goes further and takes the
discussion all the way to the executable program.
The next-to-last three papers in this volume are devoted to a topic for which
a complete State of the Art book could be produced: visualization. At the sys
tem's level there is the question of how an application designer could construct
a man-machine interface. Jan van den Bos of the Erasmus University in Rotter
dam presents a system that allows designers to construct the essential parts of a
graphical men-computer interface, the presentation, the dynamic aspects and the
coupling to application functions. A beautiful application of visualization princi
ples is offered by volumetric medical image data representation. The state of the
art in that field is presented by Zuiderveld and Viergever, who pay special atten
tion to strategies that improve image generation speed. Techniques to improve the
quality of the image are also covered in that paper. J.J. van Wijk of ECN closes the
sequence of papers on visualization and gives an overview of methods by which the
results oflarge scale simulations and measurements can be presented. The division
of the visualization process in different steps, the interaction with the user, the use
of hardware and the different software possibilities are all considered.
The closing paper is in another direction of application and treats an important
problem in medical informatics: that of picture archiving and its connection to
communication. The sheer mass of information, the need to store it in an accessible
way, and the necessity to communicate that information induce a discipline in
its own right which is surveyed by Rudy Mattheus of the Hospital of the Free
University of Brussels.
The editorial board for this book consisted of the following persons: E. Aarts
and F. Lootsma (Optimization and Operations Research), P. Vitanyi (Theory of
Computing), H. Sips (Parallel Processing), L. De Raedt and Y. Willems (Machine
Learning and Knowledge Acquisition), J. ter Bekke (Databases), A. Bultheel and
B. De Moor (Numerical Mathematics), M. Bruynooghe (Computational Logic), M.
De Soete (Data Security), F.W. Jansen (Computer Graphics), J. van Katwijk and
K. De Vlaminck (Software Engineering and Compiler Construction), P. Suetens
(Medical Computing and Imaging). Our thanks go to all of them, for helping us
out in selecting lecturers, for advising us on the program and for requesting the
contributions. Our very warm thanks go to all the authors who have written such
beautiful papers and are introducing us so effectively to the State of the Art in
Computer Systems and Software Engineering.
Delft, January 1992
Patrick Dewilde and Joos Vandewalle.
The Evolution of Data Memory and Storage: An Overview
Walter E. Proebster
Technische Universitiit Munchen,
Institut fur Informatik, Orleansstr. 34, Munchen, Germany
Abstract. An overview is given on the development history of the key technologies of data
memory and storage. For each of them the essential characteristics for their application in computer
systems and also their relation to competing - preceeding or replacing - technologies is described.
Comparisons of characteristic values of speed and packaging densities along with a list of historical
milestones are added. As a conclusion this overview extending over many decades shows that the
progress of this field, which is of dominating importance for system design and application, has not
yet reached saturation of progress now and for many years to come.
1. The Role of Data Memory and Storage
From the very beginning of data processing, data memory and storage has
always played a dominant role in the architecture, the design, the implementation
and the operation of data processing systems, be it that we regard a system of the
historical past, of the early times of electronic computers, or of our times.
The economic importance of data memory and storage is substantial: Almost
one third of the world-wide yearly production value of the total systems hardware
is devoted to this sector. The demand of computer users for more data memory
and storage at improved cost/performance can still not be satisfied, even with the
enormous investments in research, development and industry in the past decades
and today.
The term "memory" is used for random access devices, such as semiconductor
memories, the term "storage" for sequential access devices, mostly electromechan
ical devices such as disc and tape storage. For reasons of simplification, the term
"memory" will be mostly used in the following for both classes.
2. Characterization, Storage and Memory hierarchy
Memory and storage units can be characterized mainly by the following three
criteria:
capacity, in bits, Bytes, kBytes(103 Bytes), MBytes (106 Bytes), GigaBytes
(109 Bytes), TeraBytes (1012 Bytes),
access and cycle time of a memory/storage cell for writing or reading its
content.
cost or price related to bits.
P. Dewilde and J. Vandewalle (eds.), Computer Systems and Software Engineering, 1-23.
© 1992 Kluwer Academic Publishers.
2 W.E. PROEBSTER
The large variety of memory technologies naturally leads to enonnous differ
ences of capacities, speeds and cost. These differences, to a large extent, influence
and determine the application of the various memory classes within a dataprocess
ing system and, most important, its proper structure:
For fast memories, the costs per bit are high; as a consequence, only small
capacities can be realized economically. In contrast, slow memories generally
offer low costs per bit and therefore allow the realization of large capacities. These
considerations lead to different memory levels embedded in a hierarchical structure:
fast memories for registers and smaller buffers (caches), slower random access
devices for main memories, fast sequential access devices for back-up storage,
slow ones for archival storage.
Based on the voluminous literature, one can state without exaggeration that
almost all fields of electrotechnology, physics, chemistry and material science have
been examined for suitable memory phenomena. Due to the great importance of
memory for data processing, physicists, engineers in research, development and
industry have been engaged for many decades now to explore, realize and improve
new ways and methods of storing data.
3. Memory Evolution and Impacts on
and from other technical Disciplines
Figure I shows an overview of the most important and interesting memory
technologies, the time of their conception, their peak of application and partly also
the time of their replacement by other, superior technologies.
There are 5 time periods to be distinguished:
1. From ancient times to the end of medieval times with mechanical devices.
2. The time of electromechanical devices up to about 1950.
3. The period of pioneer computers - Zuse, ENIAC, Princeton: lAS - where
communication technology provided valuable components for the construction
of computer memories such as relays, cross-bar switches, etc.
4. The time of maturity of data processing systems, where reciprocally strong
positive impulses were exercised from computer memory technology to com
munication technology leading e.g. to electronic telephone exchanges.
5. Our present time, where computer memories profit considerably from devel
opments of the entertainment industry such as the compact disc: CD and the
digital audio tape: DAT technology.