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The Grid is rapidly emerging as the dominant paradigm for wide area distributed application systems. As a result, there is a need for modeling and analyzing the characteristics and requirements of Grid systems and programming models. This paper adopts the well-established body of models for distributed computing systems, which are based upon carefully stated assumptions or axioms, as a basis for defining and characterizing Grids and their programming models and systems. The requirements of programming Grid applications and the resulting requirements on the underlying virtual organizations and virtual machines are investigated. The assumptions underlying some of the programming models and systems currently used for Grid applications are identified and their validation Grid environments is discussed. A more in-depth analysis of two programming systems, the Imperial College E-Science Networked Infrastructure (ICENI) and Accord using the proposed definitions' structure is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Looks at three challenges to system research and development in the Workshop on New Challenges and Directions for Systems Research sponsored by the United States National Science Foundation. Characteristics of computer system research. INSETS: Defining a research agenda;Outlook on applications: Reshaping relationships around the...;Outlook on networks: Experimentation to hardness the power of...;Outlook on systems architecture: How to use a billion...

Focuses on a study which developed and evaluated declarative primitives for rule-based computer programs that expanded opportunities for parallel execution. Definition of decomposition abstraction; How the primitives related to the data; How semantics of the primitives were presented.

This paper proposes a model or paradigm for the development of parallel algorithms, gives an example of the proposed paradigm, and displays algorithms developed by application of the technique. The algorithm for the merge of two ordered fists developed through application of this technique is thought to be original. The paradigm proposed is to create composite unit operations which combine data movement between data structures with a conventional operation such as compare or add. The composite operation constructed for this study is based upon partitioning the data elements into two linear lists. Exchange of data between adjacent elements in each list are then combined with compares and adds to complete the composite operations. This composite operation can be implemented on at least the following computational architectures. 1) SIMD with all processors sharing a common memory. 2) SIMD with local memories and a linear interconnection (circular pipeline or ring network of processors). 3) Vector processor with common memory, such as a CDC CYBER 205 or a Cray Research CRAY-1. The algorithms developed all have the property of linear speed-up with the number of processing elements. The algorithms developed include sorting, merging, selection among sets, set interconnection, set difference, subset testing, and string matching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we describe a purely declarative method for introducing modularity into forward-chaining, rule-based languages. The method is enforced by the syntax of the language and includes the ability to parameterize the rule groups. We also describe the Venus programming environment, which implements the presented ideas. Drawing from two of three Venus applications developed to date, we illustrate how this form of modularity contributes directly to the resolution of certain software engineering problems associated with rule languages. We also discuss key implementation details and present performance data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Styling of automotive upholstery is trending away from plain solid shade fabrics toward multicolor stripes and patterns. These color mixes range from tonals to bold contrasting shades. In piece dyed fabrics, tonals are readily achieved through the use of differential or step-dye acid-dyeable nylons or by combining yarns with different lusters (e.g., bright with dull) as practiced with polyester yarns. Color and white shades are obtained by combining nylon and polyester and only dyeing the nylon. Adding a color seal black yarn will extend the styling to three colors. Cross-dye shades, on the other hand, are more difficult to obtain because most cationic dyes do not meet the high dye lightfastness standards imposed by the car manufacturers. A few dyes, however, when applied to cationic-dyeable acrylic fibers meet exposure requirements. The selection, multifiber cross-dye procedures and limitations of these dyes for automotive fabric styling are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]