5,080 research outputs found
A PMT-Block test bench
The front-end electronics of the ATLAS hadronic calorimeter (Tile Cal) is
housed in a unit, called {\it PMT-Block}. The PMT-Block is a compact instrument
comprising a light mixer, a PMT together with its divider and a {\it 3-in-1}
card, which provides shaping, amplification and integration for the signals.
This instrument needs to be qualified before being assembled on the detector. A
PMT-Block test bench has been developed for this purpose. This test bench is a
system which allows fast, albeit accurate enough, measurements of the main
properties of a complete PMT-Block. The system, both hardware and software, and
the protocol used for the PMT-Blocks characterisation are described in detail
in this report. The results obtained in the test of about 10000 PMT-Blocks
needed for the instrumentation of the ATLAS (LHC-CERN) hadronic Tile
Calorimeter are also reported.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure
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GraphTool : a tool for interactive design and manipulation of graphs and graph algorithms
GraphTool is an interactive tool for editing graphs and visualizing the execution and results of graph algorithms. It runs under both the SunView and X Windows environments and has a full window/mouse interface which is as similar as possible for the two windowing systems. In addition, there is a standalone program called the Wrapper which simulates the Graph-Tool interface without graphics for batch processing of graph algorithms. While the primary purpose of GraphTool is to provide a means for experimentally investigating the performance of graph algorithms, it has other useful features as well. It provides features for printing graphs in a visually appealing format, which makes it easier to prepare papers for publication. It also provides a facility for "animating" algorithms, which means that it can be used in computer assisted instruction (CAI) and for preparing video presentations of algorithms
Robot graphic simulation testbed
The objective of this research was twofold. First, the basic capabilities of ROBOSIM (graphical simulation system) were improved and extended by taking advantage of advanced graphic workstation technology and artificial intelligence programming techniques. Second, the scope of the graphic simulation testbed was extended to include general problems of Space Station automation. Hardware support for 3-D graphics and high processing performance make high resolution solid modeling, collision detection, and simulation of structural dynamics computationally feasible. The Space Station is a complex system with many interacting subsystems. Design and testing of automation concepts demand modeling of the affected processes, their interactions, and that of the proposed control systems. The automation testbed was designed to facilitate studies in Space Station automation concepts
The development of a natural language interface to a geographical information system
This paper will discuss a two and a half year long project undertaken to develop an English-language interface for the geographical information system GRASS. The work was carried out for NASA by a small business, Netrologic, based in San Diego, California, under Phase 1 and 2 Small Business Innovative Research contracts. We consider here the potential value of this system whose current functionality addresses numerical, categorical and boolean raster layers and includes the display of point sets defined by constraints on one or more layers, answers yes/no and numerical questions, and creates statistical reports. It also handles complex queries and lexical ambiguities, and allows temporarily switching to UNIX or GRASS
Computer Programs, User Interfaces, and Section 102(b) of the Copyright Act of 1976: A Critique of Lotus v. Paperback
The Supreme Court\u27s landmark ruling Lotus Development Corp vs Paperback Software International is critiqued. The ruling did not resolve the issue of whether copyright law protects user interfaces
`Electronic Publishing' -- Practice and Experience
Electronic Publishing -- Origination, Dissemination and Design (EP-odd) is an academic journal which publishes refereed papers in the subject area of electronic publishing. The authors of the present paper are, respectively, editor-in-chief, system software consultant and senior
production manager for the journal. EP-odd's policy is that editors, authors, referees and production staff will work closely together using electronic mail. Authors are also encouraged to originate their
papers using one of the approved text-processing packages together with the appropriate set of macros which enforce the layout style for the journal. This same software will then be used by the
publisher in the production phase. Our experiences with these strategies are presented, and two recently developed suites of software are described: one of these makes the macro sets available over
electronic mail and the other automates the flow of papers through the refereeing process. The decision to produce EP-odd in this way means that the publisher has to adopt production procedures
which differ markedly from those employed for a conventional journal
ImageJ2: ImageJ for the next generation of scientific image data
ImageJ is an image analysis program extensively used in the biological
sciences and beyond. Due to its ease of use, recordable macro language, and
extensible plug-in architecture, ImageJ enjoys contributions from
non-programmers, amateur programmers, and professional developers alike.
Enabling such a diversity of contributors has resulted in a large community
that spans the biological and physical sciences. However, a rapidly growing
user base, diverging plugin suites, and technical limitations have revealed a
clear need for a concerted software engineering effort to support emerging
imaging paradigms, to ensure the software's ability to handle the requirements
of modern science. Due to these new and emerging challenges in scientific
imaging, ImageJ is at a critical development crossroads.
We present ImageJ2, a total redesign of ImageJ offering a host of new
functionality. It separates concerns, fully decoupling the data model from the
user interface. It emphasizes integration with external applications to
maximize interoperability. Its robust new plugin framework allows everything
from image formats, to scripting languages, to visualization to be extended by
the community. The redesigned data model supports arbitrarily large,
N-dimensional datasets, which are increasingly common in modern image
acquisition. Despite the scope of these changes, backwards compatibility is
maintained such that this new functionality can be seamlessly integrated with
the classic ImageJ interface, allowing users and developers to migrate to these
new methods at their own pace. ImageJ2 provides a framework engineered for
flexibility, intended to support these requirements as well as accommodate
future needs
Performance Debugging and Tuning using an Instruction-Set Simulator
Instruction-set simulators allow programmers a detailed level of insight into,
and control over, the execution of a program, including parallel programs and
operating systems. In principle, instruction set simulation can model any
target computer and gather any statistic. Furthermore, such simulators are
usually portable, independent of compiler tools, and deterministic-allowing
bugs to be recreated or measurements repeated. Though often viewed as being
too slow for use as a general programming tool, in the last several years
their performance has improved considerably.
We describe SIMICS, an instruction set simulator of SPARC-based
multiprocessors developed at SICS, in its rĂ´le as a general programming tool.
We discuss some of the benefits of using a tool such as SIMICS to support
various tasks in software engineering, including debugging, testing, analysis,
and performance tuning. We present in some detail two test cases, where we've
used SimICS to support analysis and performance tuning of two applications,
Penny and EQNTOTT. This work resulted in improved parallelism in, and
understanding of, Penny, as well as a performance improvement for EQNTOTT of
over a magnitude. We also present some early work on analyzing SPARC/Linux,
demonstrating the ability of tools like SimICS to analyze operating systems
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