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Computing Platforms (computing + platform)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Information Science and Computing	50%

Selected Abstracts

Augmented reality agents for user interface adaptation

COMPUTER ANIMATION AND VIRTUAL WORLDS (PREV: JNL OF VISUALISATION & COMPUTER ANIMATION), Issue 1 2008
István Barakonyi
Abstract Most augmented reality (AR) applications are primarily concerned with letting a user browse a 3D virtual world registered with the real world. More advanced AR interfaces let the user interact with the mixed environment, but the virtual part is typically rather finite and deterministic. In contrast, autonomous behavior is often desirable in ubiquitous computing (Ubicomp), which requires the computers embedded into the environment to adapt to context and situation without explicit user intervention. We present an AR framework that is enhanced by typical Ubicomp features by dynamically and proactively exploiting previously unknown applications and hardware devices, and adapting the appearance of the user interface to persistently stored and accumulated user preferences. Our framework explores proactive computing, multi-user interface adaptation, and user interface migration. We employ mobile and autonomous agents embodied by real and virtual objects as an interface and interaction metaphor, where agent bodies are able to opportunistically migrate between multiple AR applications and computing platforms to best match the needs of the current application context. We present two pilot applications to illustrate design concepts. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Fast Volume Rendering and Data Classification Using Multiresolution in Min-Max Octrees

COMPUTER GRAPHICS FORUM, Issue 3 2000
Feng Dong
Large-sized volume datasets have recently become commonplace and users are now demanding that volume-rendering techniques to visualise such data provide acceptable results on relatively modest computing platforms. The widespread use of the Internet for the transmission and/or rendering of volume data is also exerting increasing demands on software providers. Multiresolution can address these issues in an elegant way. One of the fastest volume-rendering alrogithms is that proposed by Lacroute & Levoy 1 , which is based on shear-warp factorisation and min-max octrees (MMOs). Unfortunately, since an MMO captures only a single resolution of a volume dataset, this method is unsuitable for rendering datasets in a multiresolution form. This paper adapts the above algorithm to multiresolution volume rendering to enable near-real-time interaction to take place on a standard PC. It also permits the user to modify classification functions and/or resolution during rendering with no significant loss of rendering speed. A newly-developed data structure based on the MMO is employed, the multiresolution min-max octree, M 3 O, which captures the spatial coherence for datasets at all resolutions. Speed is enhanced by the use of multiresolution opacity transfer functions for rapidly determining and discarding transparent dataset regions. Some experimental results on sample volume datasets are presented. [source]

Compiling data-parallel programs for clusters of SMPs

CONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION: PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, Issue 2-3 2004
Siegfried Benkner
Abstract Clusters of shared-memory multiprocessors (SMPs) have become the most promising parallel computing platforms for scientific computing. However, SMP clusters significantly increase the complexity of user application development when using the low-level application programming interfaces MPI and OpenMP, forcing users to deal with both distributed-memory and shared-memory parallelization details. In this paper we present extensions of High Performance Fortran (HPF) for SMP clusters which enable the compiler to adopt a hybrid parallelization strategy, efficiently combining distributed-memory with shared-memory parallelism. By means of a small set of new language features, the hierarchical structure of SMP clusters may be specified. This information is utilized by the compiler to derive inter-node data mappings for controlling distributed-memory parallelization across the nodes of a cluster and intra-node data mappings for extracting shared-memory parallelism within nodes. Additional mechanisms are proposed for specifying inter- and intra-node data mappings explicitly, for controlling specific shared-memory parallelization issues and for integrating OpenMP routines in HPF applications. The proposed features have been realized within the ADAPTOR and VFC compilers. The parallelization strategy for clusters of SMPs adopted by these compilers is discussed as well as a hybrid-parallel execution model based on a combination of MPI and OpenMP. Experimental results indicate the effectiveness of the proposed features. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Explicit coupled thermo-mechanical finite element model of steel solidification

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING, Issue 1 2009
Seid Koric
Abstract The explicit finite element method is applied in this work to simulate the coupled and highly non-linear thermo-mechanical phenomena that occur during steel solidification in continuous casting processes. Variable mass scaling is used to efficiently model these processes in their natural time scale using a Lagrangian formulation. An efficient and robust local,global viscoplastic integration scheme (Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2006; 66:1955,1989) to solve the highly temperature- and rate-dependent elastic,viscoplastic constitutive equations of solidifying steel has been implemented into the commercial software ABAQUS/Explicit (ABAQUS User Manuals v6.7. Simulia Inc., 2007) using a VUMAT subroutine. The model is first verified with a known semi-analytical solution from Weiner and Boley (J. Mech. Phys. Solids 1963; 11:145,154). It is then applied to simulate temperature and stress development in solidifying shell sections in continuous casting molds using realistic temperature-dependent properties and including the effects of ferrostatic pressure, narrow face taper, and mechanical contact. Example simulations include a fully coupled thermo-mechanical analysis of a billet-casting and thin-slab casting in a funnel mold. Explicit temperature and stress results are compared with the results of an implicit formulation and computing times are benchmarked for different problem sizes and different numbers of processor cores. The explicit formulation exhibits significant advantages for this class of contact-solidification problems, especially with large domains on the latest parallel computing platforms. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Parallel Algorithms for Dynamic Shortest Path Problems

INTERNATIONAL TRANSACTIONS IN OPERATIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2002
Ismail Chabini
The development of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and the resulting need for the solution of a variety of dynamic traffic network models and management problems require faster-than-real-time computation of shortest path problems in dynamic networks. Recently, a sequential algorithm was developed to compute shortest paths in discrete time dynamic networks from all nodes and all departure times to one destination node. The algorithm is known as algorithm DOT and has an optimal worst-case running-time complexity. This implies that no algorithm with a better worst-case computational complexity can be discovered. Consequently, in order to derive algorithms to solve all-to-one shortest path problems in dynamic networks, one would need to explore avenues other than the design of sequential solution algorithms only. The use of commercially-available high-performance computing platforms to develop parallel implementations of sequential algorithms is an example of such avenue. This paper reports on the design, implementation, and computational testing of parallel dynamic shortest path algorithms. We develop two shared-memory and two message-passing dynamic shortest path algorithm implementations, which are derived from algorithm DOT using the following parallelization strategies: decomposition by destination and decomposition by transportation network topology. The algorithms are coded using two types of parallel computing environments: a message-passing environment based on the parallel virtual machine (PVM) library and a multi-threading environment based on the SUN Microsystems Multi-Threads (MT) library. We also develop a time-based parallel version of algorithm DOT for the case of minimum time paths in FIFO networks, and a theoretical parallelization of algorithm DOT on an ,ideal' theoretical parallel machine. Performances of the implementations are analyzed and evaluated using large transportation networks, and two types of parallel computing platforms: a distributed network of Unix workstations and a SUN shared-memory machine containing eight processors. Satisfactory speed-ups in the running time of sequential algorithms are achieved, in particular for shared-memory machines. Numerical results indicate that shared-memory computers constitute the most appropriate type of parallel computing platforms for the computation of dynamic shortest paths for real-time ITS applications. [source]

Large-scale molecular dynamics simulations of HLA-A*0201 complexed with a tumor-specific antigenic peptide: Can the ,3 and ,2m domains be neglected?

JOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL CHEMISTRY, Issue 15 2004
Shunzhou Wan
Abstract Large-scale massively parallel molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of the human class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC) protein HLA-A*0201 bound to a decameric tumor-specific antigenic peptide GVYDGREHTV were performed using a scalable MD code on high-performance computing platforms. Such computational capabilities put us in reach of simulations of various scales and complexities. The supercomputing resources available for this study allow us to compare directly differences in the behavior of very large molecular models; in this case, the entire extracellular portion of the peptide,MHC complex vs. the isolated peptide binding domain. Comparison of the results from the partial and the whole system simulations indicates that the peptide is less tightly bound in the partial system than in the whole system. From a detailed study of conformations, solvent-accessible surface area, the nature of the water network structure, and the binding energies, we conclude that, when considering the conformation of the ,1,,2 domain, the ,3 and ,2m domains cannot be neglected. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem 25: 1803,1813, 2004 [source]