An Efficient Synchronization Mechanism for Mirrored Game Architectures

Existing online multiplayer games typically use a client-server model, which introduces added latency as well as a single bottleneck and single point of failure to the game. Distributed multiplayer games minimize latency and remove the bottleneck, but require special synchronization mechanisms to provide a consistent game for all players. Current synchronization methods have been borrowed from distributed military simulations and are not optimized for the requirements of fast-paced multiplayer games. In this paper we present a new synchronization mechanism, trailing state synchronization (TSS), which is designed around the requirements of distributed first-person shooter games.We look at TSS in the environment of a mirrored game architecture, which is a hybrid between traditional centralized architectures and the more scalable peer-to-peer architectures. Mirrored architectures allow for improved performance compared to client-server architectures while at the same time allowing for a greater degree of centralized administration than peer-to-peer architectures.We evaluate the performance of TSS and other synchronization methods through simulation and examine heuristics for selecting the synchronization delays needed for TSS.     

浅析制造企业的信息化管理

利用信息化的发展带动企业的工业化，可以实现对制造业的升级改造。本文对制造企业信息化现状进行分析，对信息化管理在制造企业中的作用进行分析，阐述了制造业信息化管理的意义，进而寻找相关策略。     

Logically Clustered Architectures for Networked Databases

By effectively harnessing networked computing resources, the two-tier client-server model has been used to support shared data access. In systems based on this approach, the database servers often become performance bottlenecks when the number of concurrent users is large. Client data caching techniques have been proposed in order to ease resource contention at the servers. The key theme of these techniques is the exploitation of user data access locality. In this paper, we propose a three-tiered model that takes advantage of such data access locality to furnish a much more scalable system. Groups of clients that demonstrate similarities in their data access behavior are logically clustered together. Each such group of clients is handled by an Intermediate Cluster Manager (ICM) that acts as a cluster-wide directory service and cache manager. Clients within the same cluster are now capable of sharing data among themselves without interacting with the server(s). This results in reduced server load and allows the support of a much larger number of clients. Through prototyping and experimentation, we show that the logical clustering of clients, and the introduction of the ICM layer, significantly improve system scalability as well as transaction response times. Logical clusters, consisting of clients with similar data access patterns, are identified with the help of both a greedy algorithm and a genetic algorithm. For the latter, we have developed an encoding scheme and its corresponding operators.     

Dynamic Code Partitioning for Clustered Architectures

Recent works¹ show that delays introduced in the issue and bypass logic will become critical for wide issue superscalar processors. One of the proposed solutions is clustering the processor core. Clustered architectures benefit from a less complex partitioned processor core and thus, incur in less critical delays. In this paper, we propose a dynamic instruction steering logic for these clustered architectures that decides at decode time the cluster where each instruction is executed. The performance of clustered architectures depends on the inter-cluster communication overhead and the workload balance. We present a scheme that uses runtime information to optimize the trade-off between these figures. The evaluation shows that this scheme can achieve an average speed-up of 35% over a conventional 8-way issue (4 int + 4 fp) machine and that it outperforms other previous proposals, either static or dynamic.     

片上网络体系结构的研究与进展

片上网络(NoC)是基于多处理器技术的一种新型的计算集成形式，涉及硬件通信结构、中间件、操作系统通信服务、设计方法及工具等。NoC体系结构的设计重点是实现低功耗和高效通信/计算能力。该文介绍了4种新的NoC体系结构，并在同等约束下进行了功耗比较，2D网格结构的功耗最大、性能最差，聚合环面网络结构则最优。     

Cross-Layer Architectures for Autonomic Communications

Layered architectures are not flexible enough to cope with the dynamics of wireless dominated next generation communications. Cross-layer architectures may provide a more flexible solution: breaks the traditional structure by allowing interactions between two or more non-adjacent layers. This paper review the cross–layer approach to network architecture and compare the different cross-layering architectures, observing that most current approaches depend purely on local information and provide only poor and inaccurate information gathering at the global scale. This paper also explores the possible use of cross-layering architectures in autonomic communications and the potential importance of new cross-layer architectures with a hybrid local and global view for autonomic communications.     

The Methodology of Application Development for Hybrid Architectures

This paper provides an overview of the main recommendations and approaches of the methodology on parallel computation application development for hybrid structures. This methodology was developed within the master＇s thesis project ＂Optimization of complex tasks＇ computation on hybrid distributed computational structures＂ accomplished by Orekhov during which the main research objective was the determination of＂ patterns of the behavior of scaling efficiency and other parameters which define performance of different algorithms＇ implementations executed on hybrid distributed computational structures. Major outcomes and dependencies obtained within the master＇s thesis project were formed into a methodology which covers the problems of applications based on parallel computations and describes the process of its development in details, offering easy ways of avoiding potentially crucial problems. The paper is backed by the real-life examples such as clustering algorithms instead of artificial benchmarks.     

Web Services在电力企业信息集成中的应用

分析了电力企业信息化过程中存在的平台系统异构和信息共享困难的问题,介绍了Web Services的核心技术,并结合电力企业生产特殊性和信息管理系统多样性及分散性的特点,提出了一种基于Web Services的电力企业信息集成方案,给出了信息集成构架和三层的信息集成平台结构.该集成方案克服了传统企业应用集成方法的不足,提高了系统的可扩展性和使用性.     

Performance Analytic Models and Analyses for Workflow Architectures

The design and implementation of a workflow management system is typically a large and complex task. Decisions need to be made about the hardware and software platforms, the data structures, the algorithms, and network interconnection of various modules utilized by various users and administrators. These decisions are further complicated by requirements such as flexibility, robustness, modifiability, availability, performance, and usability. As the size of workflow systems increases, organizations are finding that the standard server/client architectures, and off-the-shelf solutions are not adequate. We can further see that in the future, very large-scale workflow systems (VLSW) will become more complex, and more prevalent. Thus, one further requirement is an emphasis of this document: scalability. For the purposes of our scalable workflow investigations, we describe a framework, a taxonomy, a model, and a methodology to investigate the performance of various workflow architectures as the size of the system (number of workcases) grows very large.First, this paper presents a novel workflow architectural framework and taxonomy. We survey some example current workflow products and research prototype systems, illustrating some of the taxonomical categories. In fact, most current workflow architectures fall into only one of the many categories of this taxonomy: the centralized server/client category. The paper next explains a performance analysis methodology useful for exploring this taxonomy. The methodology deploys a layered queuing model, and performs mathematical analysis on this model using a modified MOL (method of layers) combined with a linearization algorithm. Finally, the paper utilizes this methodology to compare and contrast the various architectural categories, providing interesting results about performance as the number of workcases increases. Our analytic results suggest that (a) for VLSW performance determination, software architecture is as important as hardware architecture, and (b) alternatives to the client server architecture provide significantly better scalability.     

Control States and Complete Agent Architectures

This paper presents a developing concept of mind defined in terms of external and internal niches. This perspective on mind is described primarily in terms of the niche space of control states and the design space of processes that may support such phenomena. A developing agent architecture, that can support motivation and other control states associated with mind, is presented. Different aspects of agent research are discussed in terms of three categories of agents. Each agent category is characterized primarily in terms of their task-related competencies and internal behaviors and discussed in terms of our taxonomy of control states. The concept of complete agents is then introduced. Goals are described in terms of their generation across a number of computational layers. Experimental analysis is provided on how these differing forms of behaviors can be cleanly integrated. This leads into a discussion on the nature of motivational states and the mechanisms used for making decisions and managing the sometimes-competitive nature of processes internal to a complex agent. The difficulty of evaluating complete agents is discussed from a number of perspectives. The paper concludes by considering future directions related to the computational modeling of emotions and the concept of synthetic mind.     

An evaluation framework for deploying Web Services in the next generation manufacturing enterprise

In today's competitive manufacturing environment, the ability to effectively and efficiently manage the flow of information is a vital competency. Manufacturing enterprises must be able to integrate their internal business processes horizontally and vertically, and they are increasingly required to support federated business processes with other members of their respective virtual value chains. Web Services, an emerging form of service-oriented architecture for distributed computing, have the potential to serve as a key enabling technology to support these requirements. Leveraging the inherent interoperability of Internet and Worldwide Web technologies, they enable cooperative processing across heterogeneous computing environments. This paper presents a framework for evaluating the viability of Web Services technologies to be incorporated into enterprise information architectures to support the business needs and requirements of next generation manufacturing enterprises. It examines economic, technical, and organizational contexts that will influence the ability of manufacturing-related enterprises to deploy advanced information architectures based on Web Services to support the complex business processes needed to collaborate with suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders in virtual enterprise environments.     

智能化CAPP与PLM相结合在制造型企业中的应用研究

在制造企业中,产品更新换代的速率太快,实现工艺文件的标准化,规范产品制造信息和管理信息是企业发展的难题。本文分析了PLM与CAPP工艺设计的集成模式,介绍了系统工艺设计的主要特点以及功能,阐述了在制造企业中的应用和发展前景。     

Service contracts: Coordination of user-adaptation in Open Service Architectures

An Open Service Architecture (OSA) is a framework that supports an open set of users to subscribe to, and possibly pay for an open set of services. Today, the World Wide Web (WWW) is the most successful example of an OSA. Nevertheless, the WWW provides poor support for personalised services, since services cannot collaborate unless handcrafted to do so. We present a framework that allows independent, personalised services to coordinate their adaptations to individual users. The framework is described in terms of service contracts in an agent architecture. We first describe the general notion of service contracts, and then the particulars of service contracts used for adaptation coordination. Adaptation coordination addresses a crucial issue for OSAs: that of providing users with homogeneous interaction with heterogeneous services. We suggest that this is done by introducing a separate adaptation coordination agent, which orchestrates how the individual services are personalised.     

New Processor Array Architectures for the Longest Common Subsequence Problem

A longest common subsequence (LCS) of two strings is a common subsequence of two strings of maximal length. The LCS problem is to find an LCS of two given strings and the length of the LCS (LLCS). In this paper, we present a new linear processor array for solving the LCS problem. The array is based on parallelization of a recent LCS algorithm which consists of two phases, i.e. preprocessing and computation. The computation phase is based on bit-level dynamic programming approach. Implementations of the preprocessing and computation phases are discussed on the same processor array architecture for the LCS problem. Further, we propose a block processor array architecture which reduces the overall communication and time requirements. Finally, we develop a performance model for estimating the performance of the processor array architecture on Pentium processors.     

A framework for integrating manufacturing process design and analysis

Product design and evaluation requires a broad and varied set of information and analysis tools. Yet effective design and evaluation of a product during its design phase is critical if production costs are to be minimized. A system is described that integrates product design specifications with material and process databases, and a simulation-based analysis module. The system allows product designs to be evaluated in terms of economic and technical criteria, and to identify the best production environment.     

Performance comparison and analysis of reactive and planning-based control architectures for manufacturing

Although numerous distributed architectures ranging from hierarchical to non-hierarchical (or heterarchical) have been proposed for the control of manufacturing systems, very little research has focused on quantitative comparisons of these architectures. In this paper, an objective comparison of two architectures, each required to control the same manufacturing cell, is presented. The objective of this work is to gain insight into the behaviour of alternative control architectures that will ultimately be used to determine the best control architecture for a given manufacturing system. In particular, this research focuses on the role of planning horizon in control architecture design to determine whether intelligent control agents should plan ahead or simply react to change in their environment.     

The relationship between work organization and workforce agility in small manufacturing enterprises

Organizational agility requires development of an adaptable workforce that is able to deal with unexpected and dynamic changes in the business environment. However, little research has been done on the attributes and characteristics of workforce agility. Even less is known about what organization characteristics are conducive to the agile performance of employees. The main goal of this study was to explore the effect of agile strategies on work organization and employees' performance. A total of 41 managers, 82 office workers, and 52 production workers from six small manufacturing companies participated in the study. Three questionnaires, including Agility Strategy Scale, Work Organization Scale, and Workforce Agility Scale, were used for the purpose of data collection. The results support a hypothesized relationship between management strategies focused on agility development, work characteristics, and workforce agility. The results also reveal that autonomy at work is one of the most important predictors of workforce agility. A combination of job demands and job uncertainty had a significant effect on workforce agility. The study also suggests that developing strong cooperative relationships within an organization and with customers and suppliers promotes workforce agility in small manufacturing enterprises.     

分簇VLIW结构下利用数据依赖图优化调度的研究

应用的需求促使如今的处理器必须尽可能高地利用程序中所存在的指令级并行度,然而,高指令级并行的硬件和指令调度技术会给寄存器资源带来极大的压力.要在单一寄存器堆的情况下,既维持高的指令级并行度,又保持高的运行时钟频率是一件非常困难的事情,这是因为,当指令级并行度足够高时,在单一寄存器堆情况下,寄存器堆访问端口数目的限制会使...