Low Power Memory/Memristor Devices and Systems

This reprint focusses on achieving low-power computation using memristive devices. The topic was designed as a convenient reference point: it contains a mix of techniques starting from the fundamental manufacturing of memristive devices all the way to applications such as physically unclonable functions, and also covers perspectives on, e.g., in-memory computing, which is inextricably linked with emerging memory devices such as memristors. Finally, the reprint contains a few articles representing how other communities (from typical CMOS design to photonics) are fighting on their own fronts in the quest towards low-power computation, as a comparison with the memristor literature. We hope that readers will enjoy discovering the articles within

Austrian Research and Technology Report 2022

Der Forschungs-und Technologiebericht 2022 gibt einen Überblick über die aus Bundesmitteln geförderte Forschung, Technologie und Innovation (FTI) in Österreich. Neben der Darstellung aktueller forschungspolitischer Entwicklungen, die den Stand der Umsetzung der mit Ende 2020 verabschiedeten FTI-Strategie 2030, forschungsrelevante Teilstrategien und neueste Entwicklungen im Hochschulbereich behandelt, werden auf Grundlage rezenter Daten aus diversen internationalen Rankings, aus der F&E (Forschung & Entwicklung)-Erhebung 2019 und der Globalschätzung 2022 Analysen zur nationalen und internationalen FTI-Performance Österreichs erstellt

Representing complexity: the material construction of world politics

This thesis weaves together the themes of complexity, technology, and power. It does so by examining how actors in world politics gain leverage over complex systems through the use of specialised ‘representational technologies’ that make these systems intelligible and amenable to manipulation. In response to the increasing complexity of regional and global systems, political actors are expanding their use of these representational technologies in order to augment limited individual and institutional means for cognition. A first conclusion from this research is that through these technologies, power is being expanded in novel and unique ways. Building upon an insight from actor-network theory (ANT), power is examined here as something that must be constructed via material technologies. Yet unlike previous research which has focused primarily on infrastructural technology, this thesis examines the unique role of representational technologies in constructing power. Following constructivism, this thesis accords a significant role to knowledge, discourse, and representations in how world politics are presented and acted upon. However, a second conclusion of this thesis is that the standard idealist accounts in constructivism must be expanded by examining the increasingly material means through which such ideational representations are constructed. Thirdly, this thesis aims to illuminate a neglected type of technology within International Relations (IR) scholarship - by moving away from the standard analyses of military and communication technology, and instead showing how representational technology contributes to the practices of world politics. Lastly, in emphasising the materiality of power and knowledge, this thesis also aims to revive a moderate version of technological determinism by arguing that technology is a platform which shapes both possible political behaviours and pathways for technological development

Using MapReduce Streaming for Distributed Life Simulation on the Cloud

Distributed software simulations are indispensable in the study of large-scale life models but often require the use of technically complex lower-level distributed computing frameworks, such as MPI. We propose to overcome the complexity challenge by applying the emerging MapReduce (MR) model to distributed life simulations and by running such simulations on the cloud. Technically, we design optimized MR streaming algorithms for discrete and continuous versions of Conway’s life according to a general MR streaming pattern. We chose life because it is simple enough as a testbed for MR’s applicability to a-life simulations and general enough to make our results applicable to various lattice-based a-life models. We implement and empirically evaluate our algorithms’ performance on Amazon’s Elastic MR cloud. Our experiments demonstrate that a single MR optimization technique called strip partitioning can reduce the execution time of continuous life simulations by 64%. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to propose and evaluate MR streaming algorithms for lattice-based simulations. Our algorithms can serve as prototypes in the development of novel MR simulation algorithms for large-scale lattice-based a-life models.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/scs_books/1014/thumbnail.jp