P#: a concurrent Prolog for the .NET framework

We discuss P#, our implementation of a tool that allows interoperation between a concurrent superset of the Prolog programming language and C#. This enables Prolog to be used as a native implementation language for Microsoft's .NET platform. P# compiles a linear logic extension of Prolog to C# source code. We can thus create C# objects from Prolog and use C#'s graphical, networking and other libraries. We add language constructs on the Prolog side that allow concurrent Prolog code to be written. A primitive predicate is provided that evaluates a Prolog structure on a newly forked thread. Communication between threads is based on the unification of variables contained in such a structure. It is also possible for threads to communicate through a globally accessible table. All of the new features are available to the programmer through new built-in Prolog predicates. We discuss two software engineering tools implemented using P#. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tree-Based Concurrency Control in Distributed Groupware

We present a novel algorithm, called dARB, forsolving the concurrency control problem indistributed collaborative applications. Themain issue of concurrency control is resolvingthe conflicts resulting from simultaneousactions of multiple users. The algorithmreduces the need for manual conflict resolutionby using a distributed arbitration scheme. Themain advantages of our approach are thesimplicity of use and good responsiveness, asthere are no lock mechanisms. Our algorithmrequires the applications to use a tree as theinternal data structure. This makes itapplication independent and suitable forgeneral collaborative applications. The treerequirement is reasonable since many newapplications use XML (extensible MarkupLanguage) for data representation and exchange,and parsing XML documents results in treestructures. Example applications of thealgorithm, a group text editor and acollaborative 3D virtual environment calledcWorld, are implemented and evaluated in theDISCIPLE collaboration framework. We alsointroduce awareness widgets that users avoidgenerating the conflicting events and help inmanual conflict resolution.     

Intelligent SQL

Intelligent SQL is an intelligent database engine interface language which incorporates object-oriented, inferencing, and multi-media constructs. It is intended to be a powerful extension of existing SQL dialects. It also provides querying capabilities for object-oriented databases. Intelligent SQL was prototyped at Ashton-Tate. This paper discusses the main features of Intelligent SQL.     

Prescheduling policy for real-time concurrency control: A performance evaluation

A new priority management policy, aprescheduling policy, is proposed. This policy can be applied on any conventional concurrency control protocol to schedule a real-time transaction. Costly preemption is avoided by the prescheduling policy, and parsing dataset of a transaction is not needed. Three widely used conventional concurrency control protocols (dynamic two-phase locking, basic timestamp ordering, and optimistic) are incorporated with the prescheduling policy to form three real-time concurrency control protocols. Performance of the three protocols is evaluated from three different viewpoints: database management systems, protocols, and transaction. From a database management system viewpoint, we show the prescheduling policy can improve the performance of protocols by raising thevalid ratio and reducingrestart counts. In general, two-phase locking with the prescheduling policy performs the best in most cases and yields the best choice for concurrency control in a real-time application. Deciding factors that affect performance of each protocol are identified from protocol viewpoint. Some suggestions are given for writing a timely transaction from the aspect of transaction viewpoint.     

The optimisation of higher order resampling methods in a multiprocessor environment

The processing of images obtained from satellites often involves highly repetitive calculations on very large amounts of data. This processing is extremely time consuming when these calculations are performed on sequential machines. Parallel computers are well suited to handling computationally expensive operations such as higher order interpolations on large data sets. This paper decribes work undertaken to develop parallel implementations of a set of resampling procedures on an Alliant VFX/4. Each resampling procedure implemented has been optimised in three stages. First, the algorithm has been restructured, where two-dimensional resampling is performed by two one-dimensional resampling operations. Second, each procedure has been reprogrammed in such a way that the autoparallelisation provided by the FX/Fortran compiler has been exploited. Thirdly, data dependent analysis of each procedure has been performed in order to achieve full optimization of each procedure; each procedure has been restructured where appropriate to circumvent vectorisation and concurrency inhibiting data dependencies. The nature and extent of the code optimization achieved for each procedure is presented in this paper. The original code for the most computationally expensive procedure, as targeted at a sequential machine, was found to have an execution time of 4900 seconds on the Alliant VFX/4 when compiled with regular compiler optimization options. Following algorithmic redesigning and reprogramming of the code, as indicated in stage 1 and stage 2, the execution time was reduced to 248 seconds. Restructuring of the code following data dependency analysis indicated in stage 3 in order to avoid data dependencies and allow concurrency and vectorisation, further reduced execution time to 162 seconds. The consequence of this work is that higher-order resampling methods which had not previous been practical are now routinely performed on the Alliant VFX/4 at the University of Dundee.     

一种异地库房管理中远程数据维护方法的研究与应用

介绍了在异地库房管理中，采用C／S结构和远程数据库访问技术等实现的对远程数据维护的一种方法。通过该方法开发的远程数据传输系统，实现了远程客户端对服务器的通信，完成了远程数据在后台服务器的集中管理和服务器对远程数据的格式、类型等的控制，同时保证了远程客户端对服务器操作的并发性，客户端数据和服务器数据的完整性、安全性以及远程客户端数据与后台服务器数据的一致性，有效地维护了远程数据。该系统已成功运用于库房管理之中。     

知识库系统中的一种并发控制方法

本文给出了一个基于ＤＡＴＡＬＯＧ环境的知识库并发控制算法，算法的基础是两段锁（ＴＷＯＰＨＡＳＥＬＯＣＫＩＮＧ），它使用了相关和覆盖的概念，减少了被锁对象的数目，从而提高了系统的效率．最后给出了算法的正确性证明．     

面向对象工程数据库管理系统O2S并发事务模型

Ｏ２Ｓ是我们在ＳＵＮ工作站上开发的一面向对象工程数据库管理。本文针对工程应用域事务的嵌套性，长时性，数据库逻辑分区性和涉及数据量大的四个显著特点，阐述了Ｓ２Ｓ的事务管理模型。对工程域事务的管理，数据库的恢复和封锁技术进行了讨论。     

NCS中实时数据库的多版本并发控制研究

实时数据库是网络控制系统(NCS)的重要组成部分,是整个控制系统中数据交换的平台。本文在原有的两段锁机制的基础上,提出一种适用于多版本的两段锁并发控制方法。简述数据多版本给现场控制带来的不利影响。分析在数据多版本的情况下,现场事务的可串行性,用多版本并发控制协议MV2PL解决多版本并发控制问题。用简化的多版本并发协议2V2PL说明它的正确性,并通过实例表明该协议是可行的。     

采集系统中存储技术的研究

随着光纤技术在嵌入式领域中的应用,通信数据量不断增加,高速采集网络上的数据并正确地存储到磁盘上已成为整个系统的瓶颈。本文从系统基本功能模块出发结合生产者/消费者(Producer-Consumer)模型,对多线程并发、直接读写扇区、异步I/O等技术在系统中的应用进行分析;对系统模型进行抽象,用数学方法对系统进行可行性分析。实验表明,数据采集系统中采用多线程多缓冲的方式在性能上有一定的提高。