Research in Parallel Program Design and Architecture Synthesis

该奖项为四个主要领域的研究开发计算基础设施提供支持：并行程序设计工具、CAD设计系统的开发、分布式数据库设计和视觉纹理感知。新的基础设施包括开发更强大的Unix环境、提升并行处理能力、购置若干工作站以及提供硬件和软件技术人员。并行程序设计工具研究的重点是设计各种辅助并行程序开发的工具。一方面是分布式实时程序的内核级机制的设计。另一个是操作系统机制的设计，以支持不同类型的并行编程范例。第三个方面是并行程序静态分析技术的发展，包括死锁检测。CAD设计系统的研究重点是开发一个约束驱动的、多层次的CAD设计系统。该系统包括支持高级架构设计、行为综合、逻辑综合和版图生成的CAD工具。对性能的综合是一个重点。分布式数据库设计研究涉及分布式数据库设计中的两个问题。首先是高可用性数据库的设计和分析。正在探索容忍站点和通信故障的复制方法。还在研究使用健壮的数据结构来容忍包括软件故障和部分介质故障在内的中等故障的数据库设计。第二个问题是使用对象模式的分布式数据库系统的开发。视觉纹理感知研究关注人和机器对视觉纹理的感知。在机器视觉系统中，使用不同类型的滤镜作为纹理识别模块的前端的权衡正在被探索。还在研究适合于机器视觉中各种问题的VLSI体系结构。其中一些架构将使用上面开发的CAD工具进行原型设计。

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.