Today's Personal Computers Research Articles

Research on logistics service recommendation model and application under mobile cloud environment

Today's personal computer applications are mainly cloud computing services, but it is usually inevitable to apply cloud computing to mobile cloud environments. Computing in the mobile cloud environment has the following advantages: more resources, free access to the "cloud" through any device anytime and anywhere, and provides powerful functions for computer storage and computing, while meeting the needs of more convenient software services. It has become the focus of attention in the last two years. Logistics service quality is an important indicator to measure service quality and reflects customer satisfaction with service. This is very important for service users and logistics providers. However, at present, there is a lack of unified judgment standards for the measurement of logistics service quality, and different scoring systems have different points of emphasis, so users can't get effective recommendation when choosing products. Therefore, this paper applies the principle of mobile cloud environment, combines the evaluation of logistics service quality with the big data system, selects the appropriate logistics service according to the needs of users, and recommends it to users, so as to provide more powerful assistance for users to choose products and improve the efficiency of product selection.This article introduces the recommendation model design, analyzes the complete update problem of the traditional recommendation model, proposes the incremental update recommendation model design, and implements it in a distributed manner on the basis of the Hadoop cloud computing platform.

Predictive control of a solar thermal system via on-line communication with a meteorological database server

In this paper, the mathematical models of a solar thermal system which governs the solar thermal collector, the heat storage system, and the pump are presented. It has been shown that it is possible to connect a Simulink-based model to a meteorological database server using standard communication protocols by a C language-based component in order to import real-life weather information into the simulation. The setup of the model predictive control of this solar thermal system and the results of the simulation are also presented. This computationally heavy control method is possible to use on today's personal computers, and it can be expanded.

COMPARISON OF PARALLEL PARTICLE SWARM OPTIMIZERS FOR GRAPHICAL PROCESSING UNITS AND MULTICORE PROCESSORS

In this paper, we present a parallel implementation of the particle swarm optimization (PSO) on graphical processing units (GPU) using CUDA. By fully utilizing the processing power of graphic processors, our implementation (CUDA-PSO) provides a speedup of 167× compared to a sequential implementation on CPU. This speedup is significantly superior to what has been reported in recent papers and is achieved by four optimizations we made to better adapt the parallel algorithm to the specific architecture of the NVIDIA GPU. However, because today's personal computers are usually equipped with a multicore CPU, it may be unfair to compare our CUDA implementation to a sequential one. For this reason, we implemented a parallel PSO for multicore CPUs using MPI (MPI-PSO) and compared its performance against our CUDA-PSO. The execution time of our CUDA-PSO remains 15.8× faster than our MPI-PSO which ran on a high-end 12-core workstation. Moreover, we show with statistical significance that the results obtained using our CUDA-PSO are of equal quality as the results obtained by the sequential PSO or the MPI-PSO. Finally, we use our parallel PSO for real-time harmonic minimization of multilevel power inverters with 20 DC sources while considering the first 100 harmonics and show that our CUDA-PSO is 294× faster than the sequential PSO and 32.5× faster than our parallel MPI-PSO.

Compareads: comparing huge metagenomic experiments

BackgroundNowadays, metagenomic sample analyses are mainly achieved by comparing them with a priori knowledge stored in data banks. While powerful, such approaches do not allow to exploit unknown and/or "unculturable" species, for instance estimated at 99% for Bacteria.MethodsThis work introduces Compareads, a de novo comparative metagenomic approach that returns the reads that are similar between two possibly metagenomic datasets generated by High Throughput Sequencers. One originality of this work consists in its ability to deal with huge datasets. The second main contribution presented in this paper is the design of a probabilistic data structure based on Bloom filters enabling to index millions of reads with a limited memory footprint and a controlled error rate.ResultsWe show that Compareads enables to retrieve biological information while being able to scale to huge datasets. Its time and memory features make Compareads usable on read sets each composed of more than 100 million Illumina reads in a few hours and consuming 4 GB of memory, and thus usable on today's personal computers.ConclusionUsing a new data structure, Compareads is a practical solution for comparing de novo huge metagenomic samples. Compareads is released under the CeCILL license and can be freely downloaded from http://alcovna.genouest.org/compareads/.

A Low-Cost MIMO Channel Sounder Architecture Without Phase Synchronization

A MIMO channel sounder that does not require phase measurements is proposed. The system is based on parasitic antennas, with a single active element connected to a low expensive amplitude only receiver and a proper phase retrieval algorithm whose computation burden is compatible with today personal computers. Numerical simulations confirm the effectiveness of the approach.

Computer Interaction Analysis: Toward an Empirical Approach to Understanding User Practice and Eye Gaze in GUI-Based Interaction

Today's personal computers enable complex forms of user interaction. Unlike older mainframe computers that required batch processing, personal computers enable real-time user control on a one-to-one basis. Such user interaction involves mixed initiative, logic, language and pointing gestures, features reminiscent of interaction with another human. Yet there are also major differences between computer interaction and human interaction, such as computers' inability to stray from scripts or to adapt to the idiosyncrasies of particular recipients or situations. Given these similarities and differences, can we study computer interaction using methods similar to those for studying human interaction? If so, are the findings from the analysis of human interaction also useful in understanding computer interaction? In this paper, we explore these questions and outline a novel methodological approach for examining human-computer interaction, which we call "computer interaction analysis." We build on earlier approaches to human interaction with a computer and adapt them to the latest technologies for computer screen capture and eye tracking. In doing so, we propose a new transcription notation scheme that is designed to represent the interweaving streams of input actions, display events and eye movements. Finally we demonstrate the approach with concrete examples involving the phenomena of placeholding, repair and referential practices.

A graphical simulation software for instruction in cardiovascular mechanics physiology

BackgroundComputer supported, interactive e-learning systems are widely used in the teaching of physiology. However, the currently available complimentary software tools in the field of the physiology of cardiovascular mechanics have not yet been adapted to the latest systems software. Therefore, a simple-to-use replacement for undergraduate and graduate students' education was needed, including an up-to-date graphical software that is validated and field-tested.MethodsSoftware compatible to Windows, based on modified versions of existing mathematical algorithms, has been newly developed. Testing was performed during a full term of physiological lecturing to medical and biology students.ResultsThe newly developed CLabUZH software models a reduced human cardiovascular loop containing all basic compartments: an isolated heart including an artificial electrical stimulator, main vessels and the peripheral resistive components. Students can alter several physiological parameters interactively. The resulting output variables are printed in x-y diagrams and in addition shown in an animated, graphical model. CLabUZH offers insight into the relations of volume, pressure and time dependency in the circulation and their correlation to the electrocardiogram (ECG). Established mechanisms such as the Frank-Starling Law or the Windkessel Effect are considered in this model. The CLabUZH software is self-contained with no extra installation required and runs on most of today's personal computer systems.ConclusionsCLabUZH is a user-friendly interactive computer programme that has proved to be useful in teaching the basic physiological principles of heart mechanics.

A Review of SIMD Multimedia Extensions and their Usage in Scientific and Engineering Applications

The volume and complexity of data processed by today's personal computers are increasing exponentially, placing incredible demands on the microprocessors. In the meantime, computing performance that can be achieved by increasing the clock speed of a microprocessor is reaching to physical limits thus making the architectural solutions more prominent. Due to this an important architectural feature is added to recent microprocessors, single instruction multiple data (SIMD), which is a set of instructions that can speed up an application performance by allowing basic operation to be performed on multiple data elements in parallel with fewer instructions. The SIMD computational technique was introduced in the IA-32 Intel® architecture with MMX technology and then further enhanced with Intel's introduction of streaming SIMD extensions (SSE), SSE 2 (SSE2) and SSE 3 (SSE3). Although programming using these SIMD extensions enables software to achieve higher performance, several exiting scientific applications are not affected. This paper gives an overview of SIMD multimedia extensions. The features of these extensions are introduced. Available methods for programming with multimedia instruction sets are discussed. It also reviews recent trends to use multimedia extensions to accelerate many applications such as multimedia, scientific and engineering applications, and argues for further use in other significant computationally intensive applications.

Process Simulation - From Large Computers and Small Solutions to Small Computers and Large Solutions

This paper reviews the evolution of process simulation in conjunction with the evolution of computer hardware and software technologies from a chemical engineering perspective. A brief history of this hardware evolution is presented and points to exponential growth of computing power. The current personal computers or full function workstations have at least 1GB of memory, 100GB hard drive and run at 4 GHz. We as chemical engineers can only benefit from this continued hardware evolution, as the personal computer has become our full function slide rule.Concurrent with this hardware evolution there has been a proliferation of operating systems and applications software. Some of the applications software has migrated from mainframes and minicomputers and some has been specifically written to take advantage of the user-friendly features available on today's personal computers. A review of this software is presented with particular emphasis on process simulation software. The currently available fifth generation, non-sequential interactive process simulator does make process modeling and design a truly rewarding experience. This software has been designed to allow the personal computer and the engineer to do what each does best, namely the personal computer performing the systematic number crunching and the engineer the intuitive aspect of process simulation and design. The paper will conclude with a look into the future development of process simulation and its interaction with chemical engineering practice.

DynaTest and beyond: From dynamic testing to automated error-prevention and error-detection

DynaTest, which stands for Dynamic Tester, is a macro-language software-testing and validation system that verifies programs, subroutines, and interrupt-handler routines written in assembly language. A scriptwriter writes a DynaTest test driver in a test-script language that specifically supports the development of test scripts. DynaTest uses comparative analysis of a combination of automatically generated pseudo-random test cases and handpicked test cases against a known, working solution. The current version of DynaTest executes on specific hardware platforms. The documented results speak for themselves. Using DynaTest has improved error detection tremendously while dramatically decreasing test-preparation time. Unfortunately, no matter how impressive DynaTest is, it always faces the limited-resource constraints of small microprocessors in embedded systems. With the ever-increasing performance of today's personal computers, a simulated embedded-processor environment opens the way for numerous possible error-prevention and error-detection tools. By wrapping these tools around a simulated embedded-processor environment, we can completely control and analyze the execution phase of a software system. Many tools for high-level languages work by incorporating themselves into the target program, affecting the memory layout and timing of the code. With our tools, we do not modify the target program, and the simulated environment keeps the timing and the memory map unchanged.

What the health care administrator needs to consider when purchasing personal computers.

With personal computer (PC) sales expected to grow by 10.3% in the upcoming year, health care administrators, concerned with keeping their facilities equipped with the latest technology while maintaining the bottom line, will need to be aware of the components that are designed for today's personal computer. This knowledge will enable them to match the functionality needed by end-users with the technology afforded by available PCs, thereby ensuring that costly computers that exceed the users' needs and expectations are not purchased. This article provides health care administrators the requisite specifications and guidelines to make informed choices.

A Taxonomy of Internet Appliances

The world is evolving from one in which almost all access to the Internet comes from personal computers (PCs) to one in which so-called Internet appliances (IAs) will make up a greater share of end-user equipment. Today's PC is a general-purpose, highly configurable and extensible device - an intelligent end-node of the sort the Internet's designers had in mind. As such, it allows users much freedom of choice (such as which service provider to use, which Web sites to visit, and which new software to download) in exchange for dealing with associated complexity. An IA is a device connected to the Internet, but beyond that there is little consensus on functionality and target markets. There is, however, general agreement that it reduces the level of complexity seen by the user. A variety of approaches to reducing complexity are being pursued. These fall on a spectrum from totally fixing the function of devices, to automating the configuration of more general purpose systems. In the middle are devices whose functions appear more or less fixed to the user, but which retain some limited capability for upgrade through their Internet connection. We argue that truly fixed-function Internet-connected appliances make no sense unless they are extremely cheap, throwaway devices. We speculate that general-purpose end-user equipment will endure but evolve into a more modular form, driven by user frustration with a proliferation of devices with overlapping functionality and the desire for consistency across multiple environments (such as home, car and office). Finally, we observe that most appliances being developed today fall into the middle category. These vary in the degree to which they bind users to particular service providers, both technically and through their business model. Our analysis suggests that appliances in and of themselves do not introduce new opportunities for walling the Internet garden, but that industry players seeking to consolidate control over potential Internet choke points, such as broadband access networks or WAP gateways, may attempt to leverage appliances toward this goal. To the extent that appliances provide services already available over the PC-based Internet, we speculate that such efforts will fail.

Treating computer science as science as

When I teach sorting algorithms in our introductory computer science class, I always wonder how I can convince the students of the efficiency of Ο (n log n) sorts, and their complex code, vs. the ease of writing Ο (n 2 ) sorts. With today's personal computers, even bubble sorting an array of a few thousand items appears to occur instantaneously. In addition, most textbooks provide the program code for implementing most of the standard sorting algorithms, such as bubble sort, selection sort, and quick sort. Since our introductory course has a closed lab period each week, I looked for something to do with my students when it came to sorting. Making them type in the code that was in the book seemed a waste of time.

AMD 3DNow! technology: architecture and implementations

The AMD-K6-2 microprocessor is the first implementation of AMD 3DNow!, a technology innovation for the x86 architecture that drives today's personal computers. 3DNow! technology is a set of 21 new instructions designed to open the traditional processing bottlenecks for floating-point-intensive and multimedia applications. Using these instructions, applications can implement more powerful solutions to create a more entertaining and productive PC platform. Examples of the type of improvements that 3DNow! technology enables are faster frame rates on high-resolution scenes, better physical modeling of real-world environments, sharper and more detailed 3D imaging, smoother video playback, and near theater-quality audio. Future AMD processors such as the AMD-K7, designed to operate at frequencies greater than 500 MHz, should provide even higher performance implementations of 3DNow! technology.

Establishing a standard: Competitive strategy and technological standards in winner-take-all industries

Executive Overview The ability of a firm to establish its technology as an industry standard is a critical determinant of its long-term competitive position and success. Witness, for example, the successes of Microsoft and Intel, whose technologies define standards in today's personal computer industry. The strategic options that a firm might adopt in order to establish its technology as a standard include licensing, entering into strategic alliances, adopting an appropriate positioning strategy, and diversifying into the production of complementary products. There are benefits, costs, and risks associated with each of these options. The key factors that have an impact on the scale of these outcomes include the height of barriers to imitation, the capabilities of the firm's competitors, the firm's own resources and skills, and the availability of complementary products. These factors influence the particular competitive strategy that a firm adopts.

An integrated computer system for Fudan nuclear microprobe

With the help of modern personal computer (PC) and object oriented programming (OOP) technology, we have recently developed a compact, integrated, user-friendly computer system for Fudan nuclear microprobe, which was originally modeled after the SUNY/Albany system. The system software has been thoroughly rewritten so as to take advantage of today's high-performance PC and facilitate easy upgrading and expansion in the case of future development of both hardware and software. Most functions of this system such as sample searching, scanning control, data acquisition, image processing and displaying, are based on a single 80386 IBM style PC with a 1-MB DRAM TVGA high-resolution monitor. Data from up to 4 ADCs, 4 sensors and a CCD camera can be acquired simultaneously. Two stepper motors are employed to move the target; a CCD camera system is also included to locate the area of interest on the sample; the secondary electron image could act as a reference to fine adjustment. Rectangular raster scanning or irregular scanning is facilitated with beam motion triggered either by a timer or by pulses from a current integrator. A variety of built-in image displaying, processing and printing methods have also been implemented in order to make the maps easier to interpret for the eyes. All of these functions are administrated by an integrated, completely menu-driven software package-MBSYS.

EMI Avoidance

ABSTRACTThe electromagnetic environment of today's surface combatant is both extremely complex and dynamic in nature. The quantity, sophistication, and sensitivity of the installed communication systems have grown in concert with the technological advances of the electronics industry. The evolution of new electronic systems has yielded not only new sources of electromagnetic interference (EMI) but also an increased susceptibility to existing EMI. However, the traditional EMI abatement efforts, though productive, have failed to keep pace with emerging EMI‐induced problems.Those facts suggest the need for a new approach to EMI. This paper describes a new concept that enables us to intelligently predict EMI impact and achieve a system configuration that maximizes circuit effectiveness while minimizing the degrading consequences of EMI. We discuss use of the enhanced data processing capabilities of today's personal computers and the new generation of automated test equipment to develop software and data collection methods to obtain, quantify and reduce the diverse radio frequency spectrum variables. Once the data are accumulated in a common database, they can be tailored to a specific end user's operational requirements. The resultant frequency information can be displayed in a simplified and informative manner suitable for use at all levels of expertise from fleet operator to radio communications system (RCS) system design engineer.

BATCES solution #2

An approach to derive an Object-Oriented Design (OOD) from a simplified Structure Analysis (SA) is presented. The approach is demonstrated with the BATCES problem statement defined by the Object Oriented Work Group (OOWG) [CRA92]. Unlike other methodologies, the simplified SA/OOD is targeted specifically for Ada. Assuming that Ada is self-documenting, the approach defines the diagrams and tables that complement the code, and not just repeat the information already there. As demanded by typical Ada customers, special emphasis is placed on requirements tracing.The lack of CASE tools has been the primary argument against an Ada specific methodology. Hence, the approach only uses general productivity tools that can run on today's personal computers. Such an approach is practical because the required diagrams and tables have been greatly simplified.

Computerized optical fringe pattern analysis in photomechanics: a review

Computerized analysis of optical fringe patterns has become an accepted method of reducing the time and tedium associated with extracting quantitative data from phase encoded intensity distributions. The computing power of today's personal computers makes digital image processing of moire, holographic, photoelastic, and speckle interferometric fringe patterns both economical and efficient. We review several automatic and semiautomatic image processing algorithms that enable the reduction of both speckle and full-field fringe patterns to quantitative data. The speckle patterns are analyzed using morphological properties, while the full-field fringe patterns are analyzed using standard thinning and fringe order seeding, sinusoidal fitting, Fourier transform, and phasestepping techniques. The mapping that each fringe pattern experiences when being digitized is also discussed so that proper system calibration can be developed. Analysis of geometric moire, moire interferometric, photoelastic, and speckle interferometric fringe patterns are presented as examples of digital image processing based data reduction.

Counteracting Viruses in an MS-DOS Environment

Today's personal computers still bear striking similarities to the first units created during the 1970s. All of the trapdoors and loopholes developed by systems experts to permit BIOS-level programming in the early stages are still present today, providing easy access for viruses, worms, logic bombs, and Trojan horses. It is alarming that such low-level programs are no longer being documented fully by manufacturers; they are currently treating as proprietary the techniques that were widely disseminated just a few years ago. Administrators and systems managers who are responsible for the millions of dollars of corporate investment in trusted computing systems typically lack an in-depth understanding of these systems. Unfortunately, penetration techniques, though not readily available, are known to an underground of hackers. Although numerous antivirus products have become available, these products are as available to hackers as to legitimate users.