Research in Parallel Program Design and Architecture Synthesis

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This award provides support to develop computing infrastructure for research in four primary areas: parallel program design tools, development of a CAD design system, distributed database design, and visual texture perception. The new infrastructure includes the development of a more powerful UNIX environment, the upgrading of parallel processing capability, the acquisition of a number of workstations, and the provision of hardware and software technicians. The parallel program design tools research focuses on the design of various tools to assist in the development of parallel programs. One aspect is the design of kernel-level mechanisms for distributed real- time programs. Another is the design of operating system mechanisms to support different kinds of parallel programming paradigms. A third aspect is the development of techniques for the static analysis of parallel programs, including deadlock detection. The CAD design system research focuses on the development of a constraint driven, multi-level CAD design system. This system includes CAD tools to support high-level architectural design, behavioral synthesis, logic synthesis, and layout generation. Synthesis for performance is an emphasis. Distributed database design research is concerned with two issues in the design of distributed databases. The first is the design and analysis of highly available databases. Replication methods to tolerate site and communication failures are being explored. Database design using robust data structures to tolerate an intermediate level of faults, including software faults and partial media failures is also being investigated. The second issue is the development of a distributed database system using an object mode. Visual texture perception research is concerned with visual texture perception in humans and machines. The trade-offs of using different types of filters as the front-end for the texture discrimination module in a machine vision system are being explored. VLSI-appropriate architectures for various problems in machine vision are also being studied. Some of these architectures will be prototyped using the CAD tools developed above.