Interfaces in Computing最新文献

We present our experience in interfacing to the Ethernet local area network using VLSI protocol chips. Controller boards have been constructed for the IBM Personal Computer using chip sets from three different manufacturers. We report on the capabilities of these chip sets and find they can be operated together in a reliable and compatible fashion.

Man-machine communication in computer science is based essentially on the Latin alphabet and particularly on English, with a one-to-one correspondence between keyboard element, internal code and displayed character. However, most of the living languages do not exhibit this simple correspondence; therefore it is necessary to select a minimum set of representative elements that can fit in existing keyboards and internal code tables and generate, by means of a context analyser, the correct graphic output for each element input to the computer.

This paper summarizes our initial thinking on the integration of artificial intelligence techniques into distributed systems. We investigate the use of expert systems as potential contributors to improved system performance. We present a brief overview of a resource manager and show how it differs from an expert system. We also give an example of an expert system to illustrate an important feature of a new class of large software systems called knowledge-driven systems, which are characterized by a higher degree of modifiability. Finally, the expert systems approach is considered as a design philosophy for large software systems, particularly distributed systems.

The management of user-computer dialogues involves the examination of policies, procedures and methodologies that enable users and designers to control, monitor and facilitate effective user-computer communication. Dialogue management can be facilitated by the application of software tools in the dialogue design phases. The tools and methods serve to exploit pertinent environmental attributes and result in the determination of alternative dialogue components and relations. This paper defines an architecture for dialogue management that supports conceptualization, transformation, generation and realization in dialogue design. The architecture promotes functional layering, modularization and invocability of dialogue functions by application systems.

The MULTIBUS II architecture is an open system bus architecture for general purpose 8-, 16- or 32-bit microcomputer systems design. The architecture incorporates multiple buses, allowing the designer to configure a system using the various buses to satisfy the cost and performance needs of his particular application. The parallel system bus iPSB contains a variety of advanced bus concepts that aim to enhance performance, reliability and ease of use. This article focuses on the advanced concepts of the iPSB bus.

A CAMAC crate controller that can be attached to a FASTBUS cable segment has been designed to incorporate CAMAC systems into a FASTBUS environment. The controller meets the multiple controller specification of CAMAC. The block transfer modes are enhanced with functional shares with a FASTBUS master activity. The controllers are installed in the TOPAZ data acquisition system for the TRISTAN high energy electron-positron collider at KEK, Japan.

This paper discusses the problems involved in designing interfaces (for network protocol support) between a machine-independent kernel and machine-specific subroutines providing access to operating system facilities. It describes the interfaces developed for a package which has been or is being mounted by over a dozen different groups of workers on an equal number of machine-ranges. The package covers the range of so-called “U.K. Coloured Books”.

This paper discusses the implementation of an emulation of an enhanced interactive terminal, a variant of an IBM 3270, based upon the Acorn BBC microcomputer. It also describes the environment within which this development took place. The emulation uses a standard asynchronous connection to a packet assembler-disassembler. The 3270 data stream is carried via X.29 and X.25 protocols to IBM MVS and VM systems. The paper concludes with a discussion of the advisability of implementation of a manufacturer's protocol at the present stage of development of national and international standards.

A FASTBUS-based data acquisition system is being developed at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory for use with its collider detector. Due to the complexity of this system, some form of diagnostic tool had to be devised to help locate hardware and software problems on any particular segment of the system. The Snoop module developed at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center provides monitoring and test capabilities for FASTBUS. In the present work two Snoop modules have been connected to a host and software has been written to control their monitoring capabilities. The resulting diagnostic system can follow FASTBUS messages through the data acquisition system in real time. Details of both the hardware interconnections and the controlling software are presented.