Global convergence of quorum-sensing networks

In many natural synchronization phenomena, communication between individual elements occurs not directly, but rather through the environment. One of these instances is bacterial quorum sensing, where bacteria release signaling molecules in the environment which in turn are sensed and used for population coordination. Extending this motivation to a general non- linear dynamical system context, this paper analyzes synchronization phenomena in networks where communication and coupling between nodes are mediated by shared dynamical quan- tities, typically provided by the nodes' environment. Our model includes the case when the dynamics of the shared variables themselves cannot be neglected or indeed play a central part. Applications to examples from systems biology illustrate the approach.Comment: Version 2: minor editions, added section on noise. Number of pages: 36

Asynchronous techniques for system-on-chip design

SoC design will require asynchronous techniques as the large parameter variations across the chip will make it impossible to control delays in clock networks and other global signals efficiently. Initially, SoCs will be globally asynchronous and locally synchronous (GALS). But the complexity of the numerous asynchronous/synchronous interfaces required in a GALS will eventually lead to entirely asynchronous solutions. This paper introduces the main design principles, methods, and building blocks for asynchronous VLSI systems, with an emphasis on communication and synchronization. Asynchronous circuits with the only delay assumption of isochronic forks are called quasi-delay-insensitive (QDI). QDI is used in the paper as the basis for asynchronous logic. The paper discusses asynchronous handshake protocols for communication and the notion of validity/neutrality tests, and completion tree. Basic building blocks for sequencing, storage, function evaluation, and buses are described, and two alternative methods for the implementation of an arbitrary computation are explained. Issues of arbitration, and synchronization play an important role in complex distributed systems and especially in GALS. The two main asynchronous/synchronous interfaces needed in GALS-one based on synchronizer, the other on stoppable clock-are described and analyzed

TRACTABLE DATA-FLOW ANALYSIS FOR DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS

Automated behavior analysis is a valuable technique in the development and maintainence of distributed systems. In this paper, we present a tractable dataflow analysis technique for the detection of unreachable states and actions in distributed systems. The technique follows an approximate approach described by Reif and Smolka, but delivers a more accurate result in assessing unreachable states and actions. The higher accuracy is achieved by the use of two concepts: action dependency and history sets. Although the technique, does not exhaustively detect all possible errors, it detects nontrivial errors with a worst-case complexity quadratic to the system size. It can be automated and applied to systems with arbitrary loops and nondeterministic structures. The technique thus provides practical and tractable behavior analysis for preliminary designs of distributed systems. This makes it an ideal candidate for an interactive checker in software development tools. The technique is illustrated with case studies of a pump control system and an erroneous distributed program. Results from a prototype implementation are presented

Concurrent enhancement of percolation and synchronization in adaptive networks

Co-evolutionary adaptive mechanisms are not only ubiquitous in nature, but also beneficial for the functioning of a variety of systems. We here consider an adaptive network of oscillators with a stochastic, fitness-based, rule of connectivity, and show that it self-organizes from fragmented and incoherent states to connected and synchronized ones. The synchronization and percolation are associated to abrupt transitions, and they are concurrently (and significantly) enhanced as compared to the non-adaptive case. Finally we provide evidence that only partial adaptation is sufficient to determine these enhancements. Our study, therefore, indicates that inclusion of simple adaptive mechanisms can efficiently describe some emergent features of networked systems' collective behaviors, and suggests also self-organized ways to control synchronization and percolation in natural and social systems.Comment: Published in Scientific Report

Collective stability of networks of winner-take-all circuits

The neocortex has a remarkably uniform neuronal organization, suggesting that common principles of processing are employed throughout its extent. In particular, the patterns of connectivity observed in the superficial layers of the visual cortex are consistent with the recurrent excitation and inhibitory feedback required for cooperative-competitive circuits such as the soft winner-take-all (WTA). WTA circuits offer interesting computational properties such as selective amplification, signal restoration, and decision making. But, these properties depend on the signal gain derived from positive feedback, and so there is a critical trade-off between providing feedback strong enough to support the sophisticated computations, while maintaining overall circuit stability. We consider the question of how to reason about stability in very large distributed networks of such circuits. We approach this problem by approximating the regular cortical architecture as many interconnected cooperative-competitive modules. We demonstrate that by properly understanding the behavior of this small computational module, one can reason over the stability and convergence of very large networks composed of these modules. We obtain parameter ranges in which the WTA circuit operates in a high-gain regime, is stable, and can be aggregated arbitrarily to form large stable networks. We use nonlinear Contraction Theory to establish conditions for stability in the fully nonlinear case, and verify these solutions using numerical simulations. The derived bounds allow modes of operation in which the WTA network is multi-stable and exhibits state-dependent persistent activities. Our approach is sufficiently general to reason systematically about the stability of any network, biological or technological, composed of networks of small modules that express competition through shared inhibition.Comment: 7 Figure

Adaptive Transactional Memories: Performance and Energy Consumption Tradeoffs

Energy efficiency is becoming a pressing issue, especially in large data centers where it entails, at the same time, a non-negligible management cost, an enhancement of hardware fault probability, and a significant environmental footprint. In this paper, we study how Software Transactional Memories (STM) can provide benefits on both power saving and the overall applications’ execution performance. This is related to the fact that encapsulating shared-data accesses within transactions gives the freedom to the STM middleware to both ensure consistency and reduce the actual data contention, the latter having been shown to affect the overall power needed to complete the application’s execution. We have selected a set of self-adaptive extensions to existing STM middlewares (namely, TinySTM and R-STM) to prove how self-adapting computation can capture the actual degree of parallelism and/or logical contention on shared data in a better way, enhancing even more the intrinsic benefits provided by STM. Of course, this benefit comes at a cost, which is the actual execution time required by the proposed approaches to precisely tune the execution parameters for reducing power consumption and enhancing execution performance. Nevertheless, the results hereby provided show that adaptivity is a strictly necessary requirement to reduce energy consumption in STM systems: Without it, it is not possible to reach any acceptable level of energy efficiency at all