Software for managing multicrate FASTBUS Systems

The FASTBUS System Manager software that was designed and implemented on an LSI-11 system using PASCAL is described. Particular attention is given to the file structures, file access mechanisms, and basic routing algorithms. Portability to other machines and languages is described

A hardware/software framework for real-time spiking systems

Abstract. One focus of recent research in the field of biologically plausible neural networks is the investigation of higher-level functions such as learning, development and modulatory functions in spiking neural networks. It is desirable to explore these functions in physical neural network systems operating in real-time. We present a framework which supports such research by combining hardware spiking neurons implemented in analog VLSI (aVLSI) together with software agents. These agents are embedded in the spiking communication of the network and can change the parameters and connectivity of the network. This new approach incorporating feedback from active software agents to aVLSI hardware allows the exploration of a large variety of dynamic real-time spiking network models by adding the flexibility of software to the realtime performance of hardware.