High-level Programming Tools Research Articles

Scalable serial hardware architecture of multilayer perceptron neural network for automatic wheezing detection

This paper proposes a serial hardware architecture of a multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network for real-time wheezing detection in respiratory sounds. As an established classification tool, the MLP has proven its ability to identify complex patterns within respiratory sounds. The proposed fully serial architecture uses a single calculation unit, independently of the number of neurons in the MLP network. It is also a fully scalable architecture that permits to implement MLP networks, of any size, easily and efficiently without modifying the design or wiring. The proposed serial architecture has been implemented on a low-cost and power-efficient field programmable gate array (FPGA) chip using a high-level programming tool. The respiratory sounds classification rates are evaluated in terms of sensitivity, specificity, performance, and accuracy. The proposed serial architecture reaches the same classification performances as the parallel one, but it presents the main advantage of using much fewer hardware resources.

Транслятор мови візуального програмування Петрі-об’єктних моделей

High-level programming tools are aimed at increasing the development speed of complex programs due to automation within the routine actions of the programmer, reducing the number of coding errors and reducing the code in general. Visual programming involves coding based on a visual representation of a task for the computational process instead of a textual one. The translator of the visual programming language of Petri-object models is designed and built according to the defi ned formal grammar of the language and Petri-object model formalism. It performs the transformation of the visual representation of the model into the calculation of the simulation algorithm. The advantages of the developed language are a small alphabet of symbols, the opportunity for replication of objects and connections between them, and the versatile application for the discrete-event systems models development.

Performance Evaluation of Massively Parallel Systems Using SPEC OMP Suite

Performance analysis plays an essential role in achieving a scalable performance of applications on massively parallel supercomputers equipped with thousands of processors. This paper is an empirical investigation to study, in depth, the performance of two of the most common High-Performance Computing architectures in the world. IBM has developed three generations of Blue Gene supercomputers—Blue Gene/L, P, and Q—that use, at a large scale, low-power processors to achieve high performance. Better CPU core efficiency has been empowered by a higher level of integration to gain more parallelism per processing element. On the other hand, the Intel Xeon Phi coprocessor armed with 61 on-chip x86 cores, provides high theoretical peak performance, as well as software development flexibility with existing high-level programming tools. We present an extensive evaluation study of the performance peaks and scalability of these two modern architectures using SPEC OMP benchmarks.

Efficient FPGA-Based Architecture of the Overlap-Add Method for Short-Time Fourier Analysis/Synthesis

This paper proposes a simple and efficient FPGA-based architecture of the overlapping/windowing and overlap-add methods for real-time FFT/IFFT-based signal processing algorithms. The analyzed signal is divided into short-time overlapping frames that are windowed before applying Fourier analysis/synthesis. Then, the original signal is reconstructed from the windowed (modified) frames using the overlap-add (OLA) technique. The proposed architecture was implemented on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) using a high-level programming tool in MATLAB/SIMULINK environment. Its performance was evaluated on artificial and actual signals using objective metrics.

A Proposed Mobile Based Payment System (Quickpay) for Nigerian Universities

Objectives: In this research work, we proposed and designed a QR code, 2FA authentication based mobile payment system (Quickpay) for Nigerian universities with focus on Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki. Quickpay mobile payment system will aide student in the payment of all the necessary fees required by the university. Methods and Analysis: We deployed object oriented analysis and methodology where we utilized Unified Modelling Language (UML) in analyzing and modelling the new system. Then, the methodology facilitated the use of competent high level programming tool (PHP programming language) for the development of the software (Quickpay mobile app) after detailed system analysis and design. Findings: When using the system proposed in this study, the different security model used in design of mobile payment solution which was seamlessly integrated into the system that will ensure authorized access. This model deploys 2FA authentication system at the initial stage of verification and an SMS token (request for SMS code and User ID) at the second stage of verification to guarantee user access to the system. On successful authentication, the user uses phone to scan the QR code and send an SMS using USSD code and payment code user will click on generate invoice in the form QR code, the user will use a mobile generated form of the invoice to complete the payment transaction. Application Improvements: Despite the QR code system as deployed in most mobile payment system, Quickpay is designed to seamlessly interface with the university portal while utilizing several layers of possession factor authentication methods. This includes an SMS module to generate a security token for authentication and the 2FA authentication system. Keywords: Mobile Payment, Mobile Technology, QR code, 2FA Authentication, USSD Code

Pipelined Architecture of Multi-Band Spectral Subtraction Algorithm for Speech Enhancement

In this paper, a new pipelined architecture of the multi-band spectral subtraction algorithm has been proposed for real-time speech enhancement. The proposed hardware has been implemented on field programmable gate array (FPGA) device using Xilinx system generator (XSG), high-level programming tool, and Nexys-4 development board. The multi-band algorithm has been developed to reduce the additive colored noise that does not uniformly affect the entire frequency band of useful signal. All the algorithm steps have been successfully implemented on hardware. Pipelining has been employed on this hardware architecture to increase the data throughput. Speech enhancement performances obtained by the hardware architecture are compared to those obtained by MATLAB simulation using simulated and actual noises. The resource utilization, the maximum operating frequency, and power consumption are reported for a low-cost Artix-7 FPGA device.

Analysis by STAAD-PRO and Design of Structural Elements by MATLAB

The analysis and design of multi storey building is carried out usually in the software packages which are very strong in analysis. The different software like STAAD-PRO, Etabs, etc is used for such purposes. The programming tools like C+, JAVA, etc are also used in many structural elements for different methods of calculations. The high level programming tools like MATLAB is used for many complicated problems in various fields. In the present paper the STAAD-PRO is used for the purpose of analysis and design of a building. The building was analyzed for the seismic behavior. Shear force, bending moment, deflections are calculated using the software, the reinforcement details are also available through the design. The coding of STAAD editor is also included in this paper. The design of slab, beam, column and footing are carried out by the programming of MATLAB. The objective of this study was to check the programming language for these structural elements.

FPGA Implementation of Blue Whale Calls Classifier Using High-Level Programming Tool

In this paper, we propose a hardware-based architecture for automatic blue whale calls classification based on short-time Fourier transform and multilayer perceptron neural network. The proposed architecture is implemented on field programmable gate array (FPGA) using Xilinx System Generator (XSG) and the Nexys-4 Artix-7 FPGA board. This high-level programming tool allows us to design, simulate and execute the compiled design in Matlab/Simulink environment quickly and easily. Intermediate signals obtained at various steps of the proposed system are presented for typical blue whale calls. Classification performances based on the fixed-point XSG/FPGA implementation are compared to those obtained by the floating-point Matlab simulation, using a representative database of the blue whale calls.

A new Model for a Remote Connection with Hardware Devices using Javascript

Nowadays online resources play an important role in teaching and learning thanks to new advances in technology. This importance is enhanced in scientific areas and even more for distance education universities, where the classic hands-on laboratories are not always possible. For that reason, these face-to-face laboratory practices have been replaced or even complemented with online virtual and remote laboratories (VRL). Normally, these applications are developed with high level programming tools, and these, to greater or lesser extent, use Java. Unfortunately, the newly discovered Java security issues and the impossibility to run Java in smart devices are restrictions to the dissemination of this kind of applications. This work is the first step towards get a new structure to Easy Java/Javascript Simulations (EjsS) that allows a remote connection with hardware devices using javascript. In this regard, the first objective is to solve the problems with Java applications when using EjsS. The proposed solution provides the user a structure to reuse their VRLs using a Java model that runs in a server and a Javascript graphical user interface in the client device.

Parallel computing on graphics processing units and heterogeneous platforms

Parallel computing on graphics processing units and heterogeneous platforms

The scene and the unseen: Manipulating photographs for experiments on change blindness and scene memory

The change blindness paradigm, in which participants often fail to notice substantial changes in a scene, is a popular tool for studying scene perception, visual memory, and the link between awareness and attention. Some of the most striking and popular examples of change blindness have been demonstrated with digital photographs of natural scenes; in most studies, however, much simpler displays, such as abstract stimuli or "free-floating" objects, are typically used. Although simple displays have undeniable advantages, natural scenes remain a very useful and attractive stimulus for change blindness research. To assist researchers interested in using natural-scene stimuli in change blindness experiments, we provide here a step-by-step tutorial on how to produce changes in natural-scene images with a freely available image-processing tool (GIMP). We explain how changes in a scene can be made by deleting objects or relocating them within the scene or by changing the color of an object, in just a few simple steps. We also explain how the physical properties of such changes can be analyzed using GIMP and MATLAB (a high-level scientific programming tool). Finally, we present an experiment confirming that scenes manipulated according to our guidelines are effective in inducing change blindness and demonstrating the relationship between change blindness and the physical properties of the change and inter-individual differences in performance measures. We expect that this tutorial will be useful for researchers interested in studying the mechanisms of change blindness, attention, or visual memory using natural scenes.

An agent-based approach for the design and analysis of content delivery networks

Content delivery networks (CDNs) are currently the most exploited worldwide solution for reliable, scalable and cost-effective delivery of content over the Internet. The development and deployment of new services and components in CDNs should be carried out carefully as they involve huge investments from the CDN providers’ perspective. It is therefore necessary to prototype, monitor, and predict the behavior of new CDN services/components in a controlled simulated environment, before and after their final release. As agent-oriented methods, particularly agent-based modeling and simulation (ABMS), have demonstrated high effectiveness for the analysis and design of modern complex distributed systems in a wide range of different application domains, this paper proposes an effective approach based on the agent-oriented ELDAMeth methodology for the design and analysis of CDNs. Specifically, an agent-based extensible CDN framework provides high-level programming abstractions and tools that fully support the simulation of different CDN architectures and mechanisms and allow for automatic evaluation of three main CDN performance indices: average user perceived latency, cache hit ratio and utility. The framework currently makes it available agent models for conventional, cooperative and clustered CDN architectures that have been simulated according to a reference simulation scenario. Results clearly show that clustered architectures have the potential to outperform conventional and cooperative architectures on which real CDNs are currently based and that the proposed agent-based framework is effective in modeling and analyzing CDNs.

OpenFPGA CoreLib core library interoperability effort

This paper begins by summarizing the goals of the OpenFPGA CoreLib Working Group to facilitate the interoperability of FPGA circuit cores within a variety of FPGA design tools, including high-level programming tools targeting FPGA architectures. This effort is contrasted with other IP reuse efforts. The paper reviews the current approach used by several high-level language compilers to integrate IP within their tool. The CoreLib approach for standardizing this IP integration is proposed followed by an example that demonstrates its utility. Finally, the current state of the effort and future plans are presented.

PREFACE: Special Issue on High-Level Parallel Programming and Applications

Many applications of computing require performance levels attainable only on parallel architectures. Such systems are now readily available as their price/performance ratio continues to improve. Despite this, corresponding software has not developed to the same levels of capability, price, and flexibility as those of sequential software. There are deep technical reasons for this, which research has been addressing for two decades. Sequential programming has long benefited from high-level programming techniques and tools that have made today's immense range of software economically viable. Research into high-level parallel programming is producing methods and tools that improve the price/performance ratio of parallel software, and broaden the range of target applications. This special issue of Parallel Processing Letters presents recent work of researchers in this field. One promising approach to developing portable parallel programs lies in the use of algorithmic skeletons templates for common patterns of parallel computation. Jocelyn SEROT demonstrates the use of dataflow techniques for efficient implementation of nested dynamic skeletons. Andrea ZAVANELLA applies the BSP cost model to data-parallel skeletons, allowing architecture-independent optimizations. The BSP computation model is also the subject of contributions by Alexandre TISKIN, who shows how threads may be used to allow divide-and-conquer algorithms to be expressed in BSP. Frederic LOULERGUE, who presents a functional calculus of BSP programs ; and Yifeng CHEN & J. W. SANDERS who define a refinement calculus for deriving BSP programs from specifications. Paul H. J. KELLY, Olav BECKMANN, Tony FIELD & Scott B. BADEN present the THEMIS model for dynamic optimizations of run-time parallel program behavior. Hans-Wolfgang LOIDL, Philip W. TRINDER & Carsten BUTZ introduce a way of improving task granularity and data locality in parallel Haskell programs based on systematic transformations of a data class. Zineb H ABB AS, Michael KRAJECKI & Daniel SINGER show a simple decomposition strategy for distributing a constraint satisfaction problem among machines. These papers were first presented at the International Workshop on High-Level Parallel Programming and Applications in Orleans in March 2001. This special

Field-Programmable Gate-Array-Based Graph Coloring Accelerator

A hardware methodology is described for implementing a graph coloring for the Latin squares problem that is compatible with more course grain approaches routinely implemented in software. The approach described maximizes the use of local communication and fine-grained parallelism while still ensuring a complete search of the solution domain. An implementation of a graph coloring architecture using field-programmable gate arrays and high-level programming tools is presented. An exploration of the tradeoff among nodes per processor, fill depth, and latency is presented. The use of this hardware-based graph coloring accelerator architecture to the more efficient implementation of routing for wave division multiplexing fiber optic communications systems and multihop radio communications is also discussed.

An FPGA Based Configurable I/O System for Real-Time AC Drive Controllers

This paper discusses the design and implementation of a flexible real-time system architecture for dealing with the I/O bottleneck in high-performance real-time systems. The system uses FPGAs together with high level programming tools to maximise ease of use.

Automatic Processes in Database Building and Subsequent Automatic Abstractions

One of the difficulties in building an effective system for spatial and attribute generalization is the predominance of the conventionally based generalization paradigm. This is exemplified by numerous attempts at reproducing rules derived from manual environments and re-building them in a GIS or CIS. What is often lacking is an understanding of what generalization achieves in its various forms. There is no doubt that the representation issue in generalization is of critical importance, since it is through the representation that we communicate visually. However, with access to databases and high-level programming tools, the quality, consistency, and reliability of the information warrants far greater emphasis than has been given in the past. Re-addressing generalization from a database perspective shifts the focus in model development from cartographic representation issues to geographic information. However, doing so places demands on operational mapping organizations for database building, data classification, and subsequent feature coding.

Automatic Processes in Database Building and Subsequent Automatic Abstractions

One of the difficulties in building an effective system for spatial and attribute generalization is the predominance of the conventionally based generalization paradigm. This is exemplified by numerous attempts at reproducing rules derived from manual environments and re-building them in a GIS or CIS. What is often lacking is an understanding of what generalization achieves in its various forms. There is no doubt that the representation issue in generalization is of critical importance, since it is through the representation that we communicate visually. However, with access to databases and high-level programming tools, the quality, consistency, and reliability of the information warrants far greater emphasis than has been given in the past. Re-addressing generalization from a database perspective shifts the focus in model development from cartographic representation issues to geographic information. However, doing so places demands on operational mapping organizations for database building, data classification, and subsequent feature coding. Recently, techniques have been developed to automatically classify, code, and build databases. Since the impediment to generalization has rested partially in establishing a logical database, the approach discussed in this chapter is to identify techniques that allow users to create the database automatically, without having to code the features interactively. Three different data sets being used for experimentation include hydrography, transportation networks, and land-cover. The models differ somewhat, given the nature of the object categories. Hydrographic and transportation-network features can be classified and coded using a rule base and graph theory, while land cover can be handled using classification and aggregation hierarchies. The objective of this research is to load unclassified categories of features, derive a series of classifications automatically, build a database automatically, and subsequently generalize the data using the derived database to any smaller scale of representation. The objective of this chapter is to present the methodologies required to achieve the research goals and to illustrate the results.

Automatic Processes in Database Building and Subsequent Automatic Abstractions

One of the difficulties in building an effective system for spatial and attribute generalization is the predominance of the conventionally based generalization paradigm. This is exemplified by numerous attempts at reproducing rules derived from manual environments and re-building them in a GIS or CIS. What is often lacking is an understanding of what generalization achieves in its various forms. There is no doubt that the representation issue in generalization is of critical importance, since it is through the representation that we communicate visually. However, with access to databases and high-level programming tools, the quality, consistency, and reliability of the information warrants far greater emphasis than has been given in the past. Re-addressing generalization from a database perspective shifts the focus in model development from cartographic representation issues to geographic information. However, doing so places demands on operational mapping organizations for database building, data classification, and subsequent feature coding.

Adapting EcoCyc for use on the World Wide Web

The World Wide Web (WWW) offers the potential to deliver specialized information to an audience of unprecedented size. Along with this exciting new opportunity comes a challenge for software developers: instead of rewriting our software applications to operate over the WWW, how can we maximize software reuse by retrofitting existing applications? We have developed a Web server tool. written in Common Lisp, that allows existing graphical user interface applications written using the Common Lisp Interface Manager (CLIM) to hook easily into the WWW. This tool — CWEST (CLIM-WEb Server Tool, pronounced “quest”) — was developed to operate with EcoCyc, an electronic encylopedia of the genes and metabolism of the bacterium E. coli. EcoCyc consists of a database of objects relevant to E. coli biochemistry and a user interface, implemented in CLIM, that runs on the X-window system and generates graphical displays appropriate to biological objects. Each query to the EcoCyc WWW server is treated as a command to the EcoCyc program, which dynamically generates an appropriate CLIM drawing. CWEST translates that drawing, which can be a mixture of text and graphics, into the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and/or the Graphics Interchange Format (GIF), which are returned to the client. Sensitive regions embedded in the CLIM drawing are converted to hyperlinks with Universal Resource Locators (URLs) that generate further EcoCyc queries. This tight coupling of CLIM output with Web output makes CLIM a powerful high-level programming tool for Web applications. The flexibility of Common Lisp and CLIM made implementation of the server tool surprisingly easy, requiring few changes to the existing EcoCyc program. The results can be seen at URL http://www.ai.sri.com/ecocyc/browser.html. We have made CWEST available to the CLIM community at large, with the hope that it will spur other software developers to make their CLIM applications available over the WWW.