May 24, 2002 -- Volume 1, Number 8
Table of Contents | Printable version
Research

Spring 2002 InfiniBand Solutions Conference [.pdf]
http://www.infinibandta.org/events/past/spring2002/
InfiniBand is high-end architecture for computer input/ output systems. It is a very new technology and is scheduled to be available on the market late this quarter. With high profile companies like Intel, Microsoft, and Dell supporting the InfiniBand Trade Association, the technology is generating considerable interest within the industry. In the Spring 2002 InfiniBand Solutions Conference (held last month), speakers addressed the technology, its architecture and protocols, and the direction that it might take as it emerges. These presentations are given on the conference's Web site, and they provide a good insight into InfiniBand's beginnings. This site is also reviewed in the May 24, 2002 Scout Report. [CL]
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FAST 2002: Conference on File and Storage Technologies [.pdf, .ps, .mpg, .rm]
http://www.usenix.org/events/fast02/
Hosted by the Advanced Computing Systems Association at the end of January, 2002, FAST 2002 was the first Conference on File and Storage Technologies. It featured many representatives from industry and academia who discussed key areas of research. The event's Web site has a number of presentations and papers that were given during the conference. Although many are for members only, several can be freely downloaded. These include both presentations from the two keynote speakers, three presentations about "the future of storage technology," the best student paper, and the best overall paper. Video recordings of the five aforementioned presentations can also be downloaded; however, they are very large and require a fast Internet connection. [CL]
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Operations Research: Java Objects
http://opsresearch.com/OR-Objects/
OR-Objects 1.2.4 is the latest version of a very useful, free package "of 500 Java classes for developing Operations Research, Scientific and Engineering applications." Each class contains algorithms and data structures that are frequently needed by Java programmers, and they can be reused whenever a particular function is required. Instead of spending extra time implementing these, the programmer can simply include the necessary class. This can significantly speed the development process. The classes are grouped into several categories, which include graphing, geometry, probability, statistics, and matrices. Documentation about OR-Objects is available, but must be downloaded separately. [CL]
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ASCI at Livermore
http://www.llnl.gov/asci/asci_home.html
The main goal of the Advanced Simulation and Computing Program (ASCI) is "to ensure the safety and reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile." The program is a collaboration between three national laboratories, and it operates some of the world's most powerful supercomputers. One of the most notable projects detailed on the ASCI Web site is the Terascale Simulation Facility (TSF). This massive undertaking, when completed, will accommodate computers several times faster than anything available today. Even more information is given about ASCI Purple, the first computer that will be installed in the TSF in 2004. There is a lot of current research as well as historical data included on the site, and newsletters and other resources are updated frequently. [CL]
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JMLR Special Issue on Shallow Parsing
http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/jmlr/papers/shallowparsing.html
The Journal of Machine Learning Research (JMLR) is a publication that addresses new methods, techniques, and developments in this area of study. The topic of this special issue of the JMLR is shallow parsing. There are six papers that consider how natural language sentences can be analyzed and understood by intelligent systems. The process of shallow parsing accomplishes this by sampling a small portion of the text and inferring its meaning. The authors of each paper examine different approaches to the problem and discuss the results of their research. Shallow parsing is an important application of machine learning with many uses, such as "information extraction, summary generation, and question answering." [CL]
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SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics [.pdf, .dvi, .ps, .ps.gz, .ps.Z]
http://epubs.siam.org/sam-bin/dbq/toclist/SIDMA
The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics publishes this quarterly Journal on Discrete Mathematics, which covers the latest research on a variety of subjects within the field. Mainly of interest to mathematicians and other highly experienced individuals, the journal offers articles that discuss topics such as "combinatorics and graph theory, discrete optimization and operations research, theoretical computer science, and coding and communication theory." The latest issue includes five articles that describe new algorithms and proofs, and elaborate on findings of previous research work. There is also an archive of past issues that dates back to 1994. [CL]
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The Journal of Functional and Logic Programming [.pdf, .ps, .ps.gz]
http://danae.uni-muenster.de/lehre/kuchen/JFLP/
This electronic journal, published by the European Association for Programming Languages and Systems, features "articles ranging from the theoretical foundations of functional and logic programming up to the application of such languages 'in the real world.'" While it is technically a yearly journal, articles are added online as they are accepted. There are volumes from the past eight years available on the Web site, with the 2002 edition currently having four articles. Each submission to the journal provides an in-depth topic analysis from experienced researchers in the field. [CL]
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Data Entity Dictionary Specification Language: XML/DTD Syntax [.pdf]
http://www.ccsds.org/documents/pdf/CCSDS-647.3-B-1.pdf
This report, published by the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS), is a recommendation for a common Data Entity Dictionary Specification Language (DEDSL) implementation to establish interoperability of data dictionaries. Specifically, it deals with XML Document Type Declaration and requires some technical experience using the languages. Organizations, users, and producers of space data products are the target audience of the report. The purpose of the CCSDS is to develop "standard data handling techniques to support space research," and its members include NASA, the European and Russian Space Agencies, and several others. While this report is the most recent finalized document, there are many other recommendations offered on the CCSDS Web site. [CL]
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