1,664 research outputs found
Functional requirements document for the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Scientific Computing Facilities (SCF) of the NASA/MSFC Earth Science and Applications Division, 1992
Five scientists at MSFC/ESAD have EOS SCF investigator status. Each SCF has unique tasks which require the establishment of a computing facility dedicated to accomplishing those tasks. A SCF Working Group was established at ESAD with the charter of defining the computing requirements of the individual SCFs and recommending options for meeting these requirements. The primary goal of the working group was to determine which computing needs can be satisfied using either shared resources or separate but compatible resources, and which needs require unique individual resources. The requirements investigated included CPU-intensive vector and scalar processing, visualization, data storage, connectivity, and I/O peripherals. A review of computer industry directions and a market survey of computing hardware provided information regarding important industry standards and candidate computing platforms. It was determined that the total SCF computing requirements might be most effectively met using a hierarchy consisting of shared and individual resources. This hierarchy is composed of five major system types: (1) a supercomputer class vector processor; (2) a high-end scalar multiprocessor workstation; (3) a file server; (4) a few medium- to high-end visualization workstations; and (5) several low- to medium-range personal graphics workstations. Specific recommendations for meeting the needs of each of these types are presented
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A preliminary philosophy for ARCTURUS : an advanced highly-integrated programming environment
At Irvine, we are currently in the initial stages of designing a programming environment, called Arcturus. This paper is a report of work in progress giving our preliminary philosophy and expressing preliminary thoughts on an initial Arcturus design.Arcturus is an advanced, highly-integrated programming environment intended for use in the late 1980s. We assume that programmers will each be equipped with large flat-screen displays driven by powerful desk-top computers linked into local networks by high band-width channels, and that shared central resources such as archival databases and multifont printing systems will be available.Arcturus is aimed at "programming in the large", that is, programming by many people, on large programs, with maintenance lifetimes of many years. In such a user setting, problems of management, documentation, training, testing, version control, diagnosis, and debugging must be solved effectively by people who, for the most part, are not authors or designers of the original system.Some preliminary design concepts that Arcturus supports are as follows:(1) Arcturus supports a "rapid prototyping" language -- a very high level, strongly extensible language useful for rapid construction of working prototypes of systems (emphasizing cheap, rapid construction at the expense of running efficiency and polish).(2) Arcturus supports refinement of these prototype programs, or protoprograms, for short, into programs written in program design languages (or PDLs) , which express designs. PDL programs are ultimately refined into concrete, detailed, optimized programs expressed in an implementation language.(3) Arcturus supports a computer-based form of program documentation in which program forms at various levels of abstraction can have attribute/value pairs attached to any of their granules (granules being well-formed program units of any size such as constants, variables, operators, expressions, statements, blocks, and modules) and in which the attributes may be selectively viewed and queried to suit the needs of different audiences.(4) The notion of attribute/value attachment to granules of program forms also supplies the principal mechanism for promoting a high degree of environment integration. By attaching to program granules such attributes as clocks, counters, units of programmer and system resources spent, version descriptions, access controls, descriptions of tests passed, task schedule data, computer sizing estimates, and so on, smooth integration between the activities of designers, managers, testers, maintainers, programmers, and documenters can be achieved, and environment tools can cooperate with each other conveniently.(5) Arcturus supports an advanced programmer's workstation, an interactive programmer's notebook, and extensive software management support tools.In the framework of the Arcturus effort, we have attempted to rethink afresh issues of epistemology related to the programming process that impact documentation, fault diagnosis, maintenance, training, and software upgrade, so that the design of Arcturus will reflect the relationships between the different kinds of expertise that are required in the programming process. We are also attempting to formulate theories of documentation, debugging, and maintenance to guide the development of computer-based support capabilities that assist in the performance of these activities.In this context, this paper contains preliminary, tentative expositions of background philosophy and rationale that guide our present thinking about Arcturus
The designer of the 90's: A live demonstration
A survey of design tools to be used by the aircraft designer is given. Structural reliability, maintainability, cost and predictability, and acoustics expert systems are discussed, as well as scheduling, drawing, engineering systems, sizing functions, and standard parts and materials data bases
Initial thoughts on rapid prototyping techniques
This paper sets some context, raises issues, and provides our initial thinking on the characteristics of effective rapid prototyping techniques.After discussing the role rapid prototyping techniques can play in the software lifecycle, the paper looks at possible technical approaches including: heavily parameterized models, reusable software, rapid prototyping languages, prefabrication techniques for system generation, and reconfigurable test harnesses.The paper concludes that a multi-faceted approach to rapid prototyping techniques is needed if we are to address a broad range of applications successfully -- no single technical approach suffices for all potentially desirable applications
The development and technology transfer of software engineering technology at NASA. Johnson Space Center
The United State's big space projects of the next decades, such as Space Station and the Human Exploration Initiative, will need the development of many millions of lines of mission critical software. NASA-Johnson (JSC) is identifying and developing some of the Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) technology that NASA will need to build these future software systems. The goal is to improve the quality and the productivity of large software development projects. New trends are outlined in CASE technology and how the Software Technology Branch (STB) at JSC is endeavoring to provide some of these CASE solutions for NASA is described. Key software technology components include knowledge-based systems, software reusability, user interface technology, reengineering environments, management systems for the software development process, software cost models, repository technology, and open, integrated CASE environment frameworks. The paper presents the status and long-term expectations for CASE products. The STB's Reengineering Application Project (REAP), Advanced Software Development Workstation (ASDW) project, and software development cost model (COSTMODL) project are then discussed. Some of the general difficulties of technology transfer are introduced, and a process developed by STB for CASE technology insertion is described
Towards Understanding Systems Through User Interactions
Modern computer systems are complex. Even in the best of conditions, it can be difficult to understand the behavior of the system and identify why certain actions are occurring. Existing systems attempt to provide insight by reviewing the effects of actions on the system and estimating their cause. As computer systems are strongly driven by actions of the user, we propose an approach to identify processes which have interacted with the user and provide data to which system behaviors were caused by the user. We implement three sensors within the graphical user interface capable of extracting the necessary information to identify these processes. We show our instrumentation is effective in characterizing applications with an on-screen presence, and provide data towards the determination of user intentions. We prove that our method for obtaining the information from the user interface can be done in an efficient manner with minimal overheads
Use of Trusted Software Modules for Emergency-Integrity Display
This report provides summary of the interface, mechanisms and semantics for high integrity display of information in a secure computer system, based on the use of a high assurance separation kernel and trusted software modules in both the application domain and the trusted software domain.Grant number: CNS-0430566 and CNS-0430598.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited
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