Speculative Work Research Articles

Branch Classification: A New Mechanism for Improving Branch Predictor Performance

There is wide agreement that one of the most significant impediments to the performance of current and future pipelined superscalar processors is the presence of conditional branches in the instruction stream. Speculative execution is one solution to the branch problem, but speculative work is discarded if a branch is mispredicted. For it to be effective, speculative execution requires a very accurate branch predictor; 95% accuracy is not good enough. This paper proposes branch classification, a methodology for building more accurate branch predictors. Branch classification allows an individual branch instruction to be associated with the branch predictor best suited to predict its direction. Using this approach, a hybrid branch predictor can be constructed such that each component branch predictor predicts those branches for which it is best suited. To demonstrate the usefulness of branch classification, an example classification scheme is given and a new hybrid predictor is built based on this scheme which achieves a higher prediction accuracy than any branch predictor previously reported in the literature.

Book review: Challenges in Natural Language Processing Madeleine Bates & Ralph M. Weischedel (Eds.) (Cambridge University Press 1993)

A recurrent event in almost every branch of science is the attempt of renowned experts from the field to look into its future. For the area of computational linguistics (CL) David Waltz, in 1982, has made the last assessment of the current state and future perspectives of natural language processing (NLP) research that I am aware of [1]. The book under review shares that predictive concern, ten years after. The intention behind- Challenges in Natural Language Processing 1 is to explore the future shape of CL and to outline the most significant problems and challenges this field will face in the current decade. The papers it contains reflect the discussions from a symposium on Future Directions in Natural Language Processing which was held at Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc. (BBN), in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from November 29, 1989 to December 1, 1989 2 . Access to this symposium was restricted to invited participants (people from government, industry, and academia, altogether thirty-six symposium attendees). Speakers were encouraged to present both recently completed and speculative work, and to focus on topics that they considered to have the most impact on the field in the coming (now, the current) decade. Their perception of unsolved problems of long standing and presentation of new possibilities was intended as a contribution to long-range planning by funding agencies, research groups, academic institutions, and others interested in CL. Except for the two contributions by the editors, which directly meet the intentions laid out above, the book contains an almost arbitrary collection of papers which could have been written on any other occasion, too. They cover highly specialized research topics but are uncommitted to in-depth deliberations concerning the future of CL. Therefore, I doubt that the targeted audience - even the domain specialists - will be focused on the field's perspectives after having read the published symposium contributions. In the strict sense, this book fails to accomplish its advisory goals. As a thematically entirely open collection of CL papers, it has its merits, nevertheless.

“The Clangor of That Blacksmith’s Fray”: Technology, War, and Experience Aboard the USS Monitor

“The Clangor of That Blacksmith’s Fray”: Technology, War, and Experience Aboard the USS Monitor DAVID A. MINDELL Needless to dwell; the story’s known. The ringing of those plates on plates Still ringeth round the world— The clangor of that blacksmith’s fray. The anvil-din Resounds this message from the fates: War shall yet be, and to the end; But war-paint shows the streaks of weather; War yet shall be, but warriors Are now but operatives; War’s made Less grand than Peace, And a singe runs through lace and feather. [Herman Melville, “A Utilitarian View of the Monitor’s Fight” (1862)] On March 9, 1862, at Hampton Roads, Virginia, two novel and strange warships, the Monitor and the Virginia, squared off in the “first fight between ironclads.” Contemporary observers hailed the event as a revolution in technology, marking the end of wooden na­ vies and the rise of superior steam-powered, armored fleets. For Americans, this technological change had a political dimension as well, for the older era of wooden warships meant European (i.e., British) dominance of sea power. The new age of naval weapons would belong to the United States, with its technical innovation and industrial strength, and so too would the international power and prestige that accompanies naval mastery. The two ships that fought at Hampton Roads, however, had little Mr. Mindell is a doctoral candidate in history of technology in the Science, Technol­ ogy, and Society Program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He gratefully acknowledges the help of Professors Merritt Roe Smith, Deborah Fitzgerald, Leo Marx, and Sherry Turkle in writing this article.© 1995 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/95/3602-0004$01.00 242 Technology, War, and Experience Aboard the USS Monitor 243 in common besides steam and iron plate. The Southern Virginia was a steam frigate whose standard wooden structure was literally clad with iron. The Northern Monitor, in contrast, represented a more radical innovation; though called an “ironclad,” it was designed from the first as an iron ship and incorporated numerous new mechanisms. More than its opponent, the Monitor thus elicited broad and complex reactions to the changes it seemed to foreshadow, both for the future of technological warfare and for the human encounter with technol­ ogy. Unfortunately, celebration of the glorious new technology has obscured much of the subtlety and insight of these reactions. Seeking to incorporate diverse perspectives into a wider understanding of the Monitor’s significance, this article reexamines the ironclad’s history along a new axis, that of technology and culture. It examines the public accounts of popular culture, the symbolic and speculative work of literary writers, as well as the personal experiences of those living, working, and fighting with the new technology. These sources con­ nect at every point to technical, political, and strategic views of the Monitor, but they also convey compelling and ambivalent personal reactions to the strange new ship. A history of the Monitor and its epic battle emerges that accounts for changing relationships between people and machinery, especially in warfare. Hampton Roads drew such an energetic and lasting public re­ sponse that the battle became a familiar icon of popular culture. The Monitor symbolized American technology, and success in military technology meant strength in commercial technology as well. A typi­ cal promotion proclaimed: “The fight settled the fate of the ‘Wooden Walls’ of the World and taught all nations that the War Ship of the future must be—like the McCormick Harvester—a Machine of Steel” (fig. 1). Official sources, expressed in congressional commendations, newspaper reports, and traditional histories, reflected a similar view.1 All touted the revolution in naval warfare, the new American stand­ ing on the international stage, and the maturity of industrial technol­ ogy. Even today, the battle between the Monitor and the Virginia forms the most mythic and the most technological image of the Civil War. But, for Herman Melville, Hampton Roads conveyed another mes­ sage. Both broader in its implications and more personal in its effects, 'Gideon Welles, letter to John Worden, March 15, 1862, in Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War...

Detection of cosmic high energy neutrinos

High energy neutrino astronomy at last seems to be nearing reality, after nearly three decades of speculation and initial experimental work. This review summarizes the experimental goals, energy regime for first attempts, scale size needed, and detection techniques. A short review of past and present underground detectors is followed by a summary of 12 relevant current proposals and projects for > 10000 m 2 muon collecting area instruments. By the end of the decade there are likely to be several such new generation instruments in operation. The business of high energy neutrino astrophysics will, hopefully, be underway by the turn of the century.

Urban design research

Urban design, once at the core of urban planning, has been delegated to a peripheral position in the profession and education. This may result, in part, from the flawed architectural determinism of much of the work of earlier urban designers. While planners and others were rejecting the doctrines of urban design, one group of urban designers (e.g. Lynch, 1960; Appleyard et al., 1964; Rapoport, 1969; Newman, 1972) began to apply scientific methods to design questions. Although the approach they initiated has continued and expanded, the literature on urban design is still dominated by speculative work describing what design should look like. The practice of urban design requires more. This special issue of Landscape and Urban Planning, gleaned from papers presented at the 34th Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Conference, brings together a broad array of new work of relevance to urban design. The issue includes papers on history, theory, process, computer applications, and human behavior. Although papers approach urban design from diverse perspectives, several converge on similar conclusions. For example, Nadenicek’s historical piece on Horace Cleveland and the Kaplan and Peterson review of empirical research converge on the idea of nature as restorative. R. Kaplan also presents data on the importance of a view towards nature. The papers by Gurstein, Sancar, and Gosling comment on and suggest ways to involve individuals in decisions which may affect them. The papers by Owens, Gaber, Zacharias, and Nasar, Fisher, and Grannis highlight the need to understand environmental influences on pedestrian behavior and describe methods and findings in relation to this urban design concern. Gordon’s description of Battery Park and Nadenicek’s description of Horace Cleveland’s work converge on the important role of politics in implementation or urban design projects. The issue opens with Nadenicek’s description of the development of Horace Cleveland’s work and aesthetic. Like other, subsequent urban designers, this early landscape architect saw the city as a work of art. Believing in the restorative power of nature, Cleveland developed a scheme for Minneapolis that used natural elements as a structure for growth. The plan also stands out for the way and speed with which it was implemented. Political support played an important role. The paper by S. Kaplan, which follows, focuses on health outcomes as a guide for urban design. In particular, he discusses the relevance of the psychological constructs of conceptual clarity, human effectiveness, and willingness to take action. One aspect of human effectiveness involves accessibility. The paper by Mullick centers on accessibility and the need to make our national parks accessible.

Einstein at the Patent Office: Exile, Salvation, or Tactical Retreat?

The ArgumentSoon after finishing his studies in 1900, Einstein makes a tactical retreat to the Patent Office in Bern where he develops a plan for returning to the academic fold. He is assisted in this by a central figure in the Zurich establishment, Alfred Kleiner, who grooms him for the return. More generally, I argue that Einstein's role in the emergence of theoretical physics as a discipline results from the interaction of two developments, one external and institutional, the other internal and personal. Certain institutional constraints influence Einstein's early academic career by providing a professional opportunity to which he can adjust his career plans. The existence of this professional context for Einstein's early work in physics plays a role in encouraging him to pursue the speculative work in physics that became his distinctive hallmark. The other side of the coin is that Einstein's personal legitimation as professor of theoretical physics in 1909 also confers legitimacy on his speculative research, which in turn infuses the term “theoretical physics” with new meaning. The key factor uniting Einstein's personal development with institutional opportunities is the special relationship that he enjoys with Kleiner, who serves as the focus of interactions between the external and internal developments described in the paper.

Scheduling speculative work in MUSE and performance results

Work which may later be pruned is called speculative work. In this paper we present and evaluate a simple and efficient strategy, used in the Muse OR-parallel Prolog system, for better scheduling of speculative work. The strategy concentrates workers on the leftmost available work in the Prolog tree as long as there exists enough parallelism, thus emulating the sequential Prolog execution as much as possible. This strategy therefore makes it less probable that unnecessary work is executed. A new cut scheme that reduces the amount of speculative work is also presented. The performance results of our strategy are compared with the performance results of similar strategies implemented in the Aurora OR-parallel Prolog system. The comparison shows that our strategy performs quite well.

Sensory robotic assembly of apparel at Hull University

Research on sensory robotic assembly has been carried out at Hull University for over 12 years. Applied research is carried out in collaboration with industry and with additional support from govement research agencies. This is enhanced by longer-term, more speculative work providing the foundations for future applied research. This approach is exemplified in this paper by consideration of the automation of apparel manufacture. Some solutions to the limp material handling problem are outlined with emphasis on the ways in which sensors are sued to cope with uncertainties in the materials and handling processes.

Scheduling in or-parallel Prolog systems: Survey and open problems

Implementation of or-parallel Prolog systems offers a number of interesting scheduling problems. The main issues are the interaction between memory models and scheduling, ordering of multiple solutions, and scheduling of speculative work. The problems occur partly because of the design choices (e.g. the choice of a memory model), and partly because of the desire to maintain observational equivalence between parallel and sequential implementations of Prolog, while achieving high efficiency. In the first part of this paper a common framework for discussing scheduling in or-parallel systems is introduced, and also a collection of issues that must be addressed in such systems is presented. In the second part of the paper we survey a number of solutions to these problems comparing their efficiency whenever possible. We close the survey with a short discussion of open problems.

Human Behavioral Ecology

Human behavioral ecology may be defined as the study of the evolutionary ecology of human behavior. Its central problem is to discover the ways in which the behavior of modern humans reflects our species' history of natural selection. During the last two decades this approach has grown rapidly, involving researchers from all the major branches of anthropology, as well as from other behavioral and social sciences and from the humanities. This article focuses on the growing body of empirical behavioral ecological re­ search on behavior in non-Western, primarily nonindustrial societies. Studies that have brought new insights to areas of traditional concern among an­ thropologists, such as population regulation, foraging, reciprocity, redistribu­ tion, kinship, marriage, descent, child care, and sociocultural change are emphasized . The evolutionary biological study of human behavior has been given many other names besides human behavioral ecology, including evolutionary ecolo­ gy, biosociology, biocultural science, biosocial science, human ethology, sociobiology, socioecology, evolutionary biological anthropology, and evolu­ tion and human behavior studies. Many researchers now avoid the con­ troversial term sociobiology because it is often wrongly equated with kin selection theory (93), which is actually just one aspect of the approach, and because they wish to distance themselves from popular and speculative works that use the label.

"No Record of Reply": In Memoriam and Victorian Language Theory

A number of recent articles have focused on application of Victorian language theory to Tennyson's In Memoriam and other classics of Victorian literature.' None, however, has addressed a certain theoretical distinction that was axiomatic to contemporary discussions of origin and nature of language, was perceived by many to have far-reaching philosophical implications, and that speaker of In Memoriam expounds in such a way as to pose grave problems for his own survival as speaker: namely, distinction between speech and writing. Like many of its eighteenth-century antecedents, Victorian language theory set up a hierarchical opposition between speech and writing in which former was regarded as essence of language per se, latter as its record or expression. By allowing language to be identified as essentially a system of sounds, theoretical opposition between speech and writing helped lay ground for a scientific approach to study of language, an area where conflict between Christian humanist and scientific-positivist values-that hallmark of the Victorian-was acutely felt. In Memoriam is, of course, a locus classicus of this conflict and its attendant anxieties. But school of language theory with which Tennyson seems to have been most sympathetic was one that tried hard to reconcile scientific and religious-humanist accounts of language. Indeed, at intellectual center of this effort were liberal Anglicans of Trinity College, among them Tennyson's tutor, William Whewell, and his friend and fellow Apostle, John Donaldson. While for some apparent derogation of written word dealt a devastating blow to prestige of humanistic learning, liberal Anglicans such as Donaldson viewed primacy of speech as a principle that was not only compatible with but actually essential to revelation of language as logos, God's avatar in man. Donaldson developed this view in a classic work of Anglican speculation, The New Cratylus (1839). Tennyson's responsiveness to arguments such as Donaldson's is apparent in pronounced ten-

Knowledge-based control in manufacturing automation

Abstract This paper is an introduction to some current research work into knowledge-based control techniques in manufacturing, highlighting developments which are likely to be applicable in the near future. Examples of such work dealing with the integration of manufacturing facilities and diagnosis and error recovery are described. It also addresses more speculative work requiring more complex knowledge representation methods. The applicability of this work to task level programming of robot manipulators and more general planning tasks in manufacturing automation is discussed.

アーホンド・ザーデ Akhond-zade (1812-78) に見る「イラン・ナショナリズム」の諸相

This paper intends to analyze the philosophical speculation of Akhond-zade (1812-78) known not only as one of the earliest play wrights in Azerbaidzhan but also as a vigorous advocator of a reform of the Arabic alphabet. Although he was a government emploee of the Tzarist Russia, he keenly sympathized with Persian nationalists and their movement. In his highly controversial speculative work, the Maktubat-e Kamal al-Dowle, he severely criticized Islamic fanaticism (Ta'assob-e Eslami) as a main obstacle to the diffusion of Western Civilization, which he understood in an unrealistic manner. He also, in his work, shows a nationalistic heart harbouring anti-'Arab sentiments.He was admittedly a materialist: yet he took advantage of Persian mysticism, especially, its pantheistic monist concept of unity of existence to systematize his own claims. The world, according to him, is a total and complete Being, that is “Complete Force”, which manifests itself in diverse forms regulated by the law of Nature. Moreover, this complete force, he asserts, could be considered as an existence realized when a “whole” and a “part” are integrated, both of which have neither beginning nor end. There is no difference between them, for which he declares that they exist as one like a human body.Thus, nominally advocating the breakout of the “prison” of metaphysics, he developed this unique materialist “ontology”. It paved the way for denouncing the justice of the Quranic God and the Creator for the 'Arab as well.

Speculative computation, parallelism, and functional programming

Many problems can be solved more quickly on parallel machines if some work can be started before it is known to be necessary. If work which is known to be necessary (mandatory work) is given priority over other work (speculative work), then performing speculative work can only speed computation. A simple functional language feature to control speculative work is proposed.

An Interview with Robert Pinsky

Robert Pinsky's poetry can be placed in context of work of a number of contemporary poets who are denying hegemony of such dominant twentieth-century conventions as subjective modernist lyric. The extension of range of poetic possibility beyond once very fruitful gestures of romantic sensibility, whether projected with lapidary imagistic precision or fragmented in kaleidoscopic experimentalism, whether ecstatic or ironic, openly confessional or private and mythic, has tended to take two main directions: in some poets, that of narrative, and in others, Pinsky prominently among them, that of abstract discourse. Though Pinsky remains in part writer of brief, moving, intense, and often thoughtful short lyric poems, his three volumes of poetry all contain longer, speculative works which probe capacity of modern English poetry to encompass language of abstract statement, longer line and more complex syntax of discursive, explanatory voice, rational mind. In Sadness And Happiness (1975), title poem is an extended meditation, in part on way the terms . . . / organize life and self, and Essay on Psychiatrists, with its own evocative title, playfully invokes neoclassical traditions of verse commentary. An Explanation of America (1979) consists almost entirely of ambitious title poem which includes not only cultural and political interpretation but also such other modes of explanation as literary criticism, translation, cultural comparison, direct consideration of public concerns, metaphor-making in illustration of idea, and philosophical rumination. Pinsky's new book, History of My Heart (1984), has as its center two-hundred-and-ten line reflective title

A Psychometric Study of Literary-Critical Judgment

There ought be no one more interested in the philosophy and psychology of judgment than the literary critic, and no one more interested in the than the philosopher or psychologist of judgment. Making judgments is the critic's principal activity; even the name critic is derived from a Greek word meaning to judge. But even if one is not at all interested in reflecting upon the process which has given the profession its name, the is an especially fascinating-and especially challengingobject of study for those who are engaged in such reflections. Although we usually think of judging as chiefly an evaluative activity (that is, we tend equate judgment with value-judgment), clearly that which we call literary analysis is also a judgmental process. To say, for example, that Richard III is a lyrical tragedy with a strong central character is make certain judgments about the play, though no evaluative content at all resides in the statement. All critical activity can be perceived as the making, and perhaps combining, of analytical and evaluative judgments. It would be useful, therefore, for the literary critic, as well as for the psychologist and the philosopher, gain as much understanding as possible about the process of judgment, particularly (to whatever extent possible) the special process of literary-critical judgment. It is the aim of this study provide some new information regarding that special process. The philosophy of critical judgment has been carefully discussed in the existing literature, most notably perhaps by Wayne Shumaker (1952). Shumaker treats fully the problems of both analytical and evaluative judgments, and the relations between the two, from the theoretical point of view. He explores the various logical alternatives, the several procedures available the in his work of analysis and evaluation, and he suggests which of these procedures are likely prove fruitful. He is not interested in the mental processes of critics; his inquiry is philosophical and concerns the logical implications that can be drawn from making various assumptions. Shumaker does not make statements of the form, This is how critics make judgments; he says rather, If a makes judgments in this way, the logical consequences will be these. Although speculative works such as Shumaker's do not solve all or even most of the problems of critical theory, they do provide an excellent survey of the field.

Empirical Studies in Health Economics

This collection of papers is limited to empirical investigations covering five major topics: population, health and program planning; demand analysis structure of industry; productivity and cost; and factors of production. The reports include observations that the health status of relatively young poor persons is similar to that of well-to-do persons (Newhouse), that lowerincome families spend less per unit of illness (Andersen-Benham), that physicians organized into larger groups produce more ancillary services per physician but not more physician visits (Bailey), and that the markets for physician services and hospital care are interdependent (Stevens). The statistical techniques furthering these largely academic inquiries are complex. Moreover, this assemblage deliberately excludes purely speculative work and fails to include many relevant topics, eg, concerning drugs, environmental pollution, and health insurance. However, laymen will find the volume a comprehensible and useful perspective on health economics. The difficulties of linking empirical research with potential formulations of policy

Franklin and Newton, an Inquiry into Speculative Newtonian Science and Franklin's Work in Electricity as an Example Thereof

Franklin and Newton, an Inquiry into Speculative Newtonian Science and Franklin's Work in Electricity as an Example Thereof

Electricity's research effort —the British picture

Research into electricity supply has to strike a balance between problems affecting the availability of generating and transmission plant, assisting the designers of the supply system of the immediate future, and basic and speculative work.

Some Early Kinetic Theories of Gases: Herapath and his Predecessors

SynopsisThis paper summarizes ideas about the nature of gases proposed during the period following the discovery of Boyle's law. Particular stress is laid on the hypotheses of the Bernoullis, and later, on the equally speculative work of Herapath. Reasons for the success of Herapath's theory, and the neglect of Daniel Bernoulli's are discussed, but it has not been thought necessary to take the story beyond the initial acceptance of Herapath's theory by J. P. Joule, because the paper is concerned only with the antecedents of the modern kinetic theory.