Ninth and Tenth Order Virial Coefficients for Hard Spheres in D Dimensions

We evaluate the virial coefficients B_k for k<=10 for hard spheres in dimensions D=2,...,8. Virial coefficients with k even are found to be negative when D>=5. This provides strong evidence that the leading singularity for the virial series lies away from the positive real axis when D>=5. Further analysis provides evidence that negative virial coefficients will be seen for some k>10 for D=4, and there is a distinct possibility that negative virial coefficients will also eventually occur for D=3.Comment: 33 pages, 12 figure

A Fast Interrupt Handling Scheme for VLIW Processors

Interrupt handling in out-of-order execution processors requires complex hardware schemes to maintain the sequential state. The amount of hardware will be substantial in VLIW architectures due to the nature of issuing a very large number of instructions in each cycle. It is hard to implement precise interrupts in out-of-order execution machines, especially in VLIW processors. In this paper, we will apply the reorder buffer with future file and the history buffer methods to a VLIW platform, and present a novel scheme, called the Current-State Buffer, which employs modest hardware with compiler support. Unlike the other interrupt handling schemes, the Current-State Buffer does not keep history state, result buffering or bypass mechanisms. It is a fast interrupt handling scheme with a relatively small buffer that records the execution and exception status of operations. It is suitable for embedded processors that require a fast interrupt handling mechanism with modest hardware