7,693 research outputs found
RELEASE: A High-level Paradigm for Reliable Large-scale Server Software
Erlang is a functional language with a much-emulated model for building reliable distributed systems. This paper outlines the RELEASE project, and describes the progress in the first six months. The project aim is to scale the Erlang’s radical concurrency-oriented programming paradigm to build reliable general-purpose software, such as server-based systems, on massively parallel machines. Currently Erlang has inherently scalable computation and reliability models, but in practice scalability is constrained by aspects of the language and virtual machine. We are working at three levels to address these challenges: evolving the Erlang virtual machine so that it can work effectively on large scale multicore systems; evolving the language to Scalable Distributed (SD) Erlang; developing a scalable Erlang infrastructure to integrate multiple, heterogeneous clusters. We are also developing state of the art tools that allow programmers to understand the behaviour of massively parallel SD Erlang programs. We will demonstrate the effectiveness of the RELEASE approach using demonstrators and two large case studies on a Blue Gene
RELEASE: A High-level Paradigm for Reliable Large-scale Server Software
Erlang is a functional language with a much-emulated model for building reliable distributed systems. This paper outlines the RELEASE project, and describes the progress in the rst six months. The project aim is to scale the Erlang's radical concurrency-oriented programming paradigm to build reliable general-purpose software, such as server-based systems, on massively parallel machines. Currently Erlang has inherently scalable computation and reliability models, but in practice scalability is constrained by aspects of the language and virtual machine. We are working at three levels to address these challenges: evolving the Erlang virtual machine so that it can work effectively on large scale multicore systems; evolving the language to Scalable Distributed (SD) Erlang; developing a scalable Erlang infrastructure to integrate multiple, heterogeneous clusters. We are also developing state of the art tools that allow programmers to understand the behaviour of massively parallel SD Erlang programs. We will demonstrate the e ectiveness of the RELEASE approach using demonstrators and two large case studies on a Blue Gene
Tools of the Trade: A Survey of Various Agent Based Modeling Platforms
Agent Based Modeling (ABM) toolkits are as diverse as the community of people who use them. With so many toolkits available, the choice of which one is best suited for a project is left to word of mouth, past experiences in using particular toolkits and toolkit publicity. This is especially troublesome for projects that require specialization. Rather than using toolkits that are the most publicized but are designed for general projects, using this paper, one will be able to choose a toolkit that already exists and that may be built especially for one's particular domain and specialized needs. In this paper, we examine the entire continuum of agent based toolkits. We characterize each based on 5 important characteristics users consider when choosing a toolkit, and then we categorize the characteristics into user-friendly taxonomies that aid in rapid indexing and easy reference.Agent Based Modeling, Individual Based Model, Multi Agent Systems
A Global Optimisation Toolbox for Massively Parallel Engineering Optimisation
A software platform for global optimisation, called PaGMO, has been developed
within the Advanced Concepts Team (ACT) at the European Space Agency, and was
recently released as an open-source project. PaGMO is built to tackle
high-dimensional global optimisation problems, and it has been successfully
used to find solutions to real-life engineering problems among which the
preliminary design of interplanetary spacecraft trajectories - both chemical
(including multiple flybys and deep-space maneuvers) and low-thrust (limited,
at the moment, to single phase trajectories), the inverse design of
nano-structured radiators and the design of non-reactive controllers for
planetary rovers. Featuring an arsenal of global and local optimisation
algorithms (including genetic algorithms, differential evolution, simulated
annealing, particle swarm optimisation, compass search, improved harmony
search, and various interfaces to libraries for local optimisation such as
SNOPT, IPOPT, GSL and NLopt), PaGMO is at its core a C++ library which employs
an object-oriented architecture providing a clean and easily-extensible
optimisation framework. Adoption of multi-threaded programming ensures the
efficient exploitation of modern multi-core architectures and allows for a
straightforward implementation of the island model paradigm, in which multiple
populations of candidate solutions asynchronously exchange information in order
to speed-up and improve the optimisation process. In addition to the C++
interface, PaGMO's capabilities are exposed to the high-level language Python,
so that it is possible to easily use PaGMO in an interactive session and take
advantage of the numerous scientific Python libraries available.Comment: To be presented at 'ICATT 2010: International Conference on
Astrodynamics Tools and Techniques
Modelling and analyzing adaptive self-assembling strategies with Maude
Building adaptive systems with predictable emergent behavior is a challenging task and it is becoming a critical need. The research community has accepted the challenge by introducing approaches of various nature: from software architectures, to programming paradigms, to analysis techniques. We recently proposed a conceptual framework for adaptation centered around the role of control data. In this paper we show that it can be naturally realized in a reflective logical language like Maude by using the Reflective Russian Dolls model. Moreover, we exploit this model to specify, validate and analyse a prominent example of adaptive system: robot swarms equipped with self-assembly strategies. The analysis exploits the statistical model checker PVeStA
On Designing Multicore-aware Simulators for Biological Systems
The stochastic simulation of biological systems is an increasingly popular
technique in bioinformatics. It often is an enlightening technique, which may
however result in being computational expensive. We discuss the main
opportunities to speed it up on multi-core platforms, which pose new challenges
for parallelisation techniques. These opportunities are developed in two
general families of solutions involving both the single simulation and a bulk
of independent simulations (either replicas of derived from parameter sweep).
Proposed solutions are tested on the parallelisation of the CWC simulator
(Calculus of Wrapped Compartments) that is carried out according to proposed
solutions by way of the FastFlow programming framework making possible fast
development and efficient execution on multi-cores.Comment: 19 pages + cover pag
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