IBM's Linux watch, the challenge of miniaturization

Nearly four years in development, the IBM Linux watch contains a complete computer system that runs Linux, displays X11 graphics, and has wireless connectivity. The system fits in a case that could pass as a slightly unusual analog timepiece with a somewhat odd shape and an extraordinarily brilliant face. The developers have created two versions of the watch, one with an organic light-emitting diode display and the other with a liquid crystal display. Still considered a research prototype, the watch already runs some personal information management applications, and it can communicate with PCs, PDAs, and other wireless-enabled devices, viewing condensed e-mail and directly receiving pager-like messages. Eventually, users will be able to access various Internet-based services, such as up-to-the-minute information about weather, traffic conditions, the stock market, and sports     

The use of Schottky barrier diodes for the detection of surface contamination and damage in the fabrication of GaAs MESFETS

The gates of GaAs MESFETS rely on the formation of a Schottky diode between the semiconductor surface and a deposited metal and so are extremely sensitive to the nature of this interface. For this reason an investigation of surface damage and contamination by the various processing stages involved in IC fabrication has been undertaken. This paper outlines the results obtained from processes involved in activation of ion implantation through annealing with a dielectric encapsulant, wet chemical etching, and metallization. Methods for removing or minimizing the effects of processing damage or contamination are also investigated.     

p,V, T and derived thermodynamic data for toluene,trichloromethane, dichloromethane,acetonitrile, aniline,and n-dodecane

Experimentally determined p,V,T data are reported for toluene, trichloromethane, dichloromethane, acetonitrile, aniline, and n-dodecane at 278, 288, 298, 313, and 323 K, except for dichloromethane, for which the highest temperature was 298 K. At each temperature, measurements were done at pressures up to about 280 MPa or (for aniline and n-dodecane) at a lower pressure slightly below the freezing pressure at the temperature of measurement. Values of the isobaric expansivity isothermal compressibility and (for toluene, trichloromethane, dichloromethane, and acetonitrile) internal pressure, derived from the p,V,T data, are presented.     

Adaptive smoothing: a general tool for early vision

A method to smooth a signal while preserving discontinuities is presented. This is achieved by repeatedly convolving the signal with a very small averaging mask weighted by a measure of the signal continuity at each point. Edge detection can be performed after a few iterations, and features extracted from the smoothed signal are correctly localized (hence, no tracking is needed). This last property allows the derivation of a scale-space representation of a signal using the adaptive smoothing parameter k as the scale dimension. The relation of this process to anisotropic diffusion is shown. A scheme to preserve higher-order discontinuities and results on range images is proposed. Different implementations of adaptive smoothing are presented, first on a serial machine, for which a multigrid algorithm is proposed to speed up the smoothing effect, then on a single instruction multiple data (SIMD) parallel machine such as the Connection Machine. Various applications of adaptive smoothing such as edge detection, range image feature extraction, corner detection, and stereo matching are discussed     

Ultimate strength analysis of structural components using the continuum damage mechanics approach

In this study, an analytical model is developed to include the effect of material fracture on the overall behavior of a structure. The continuum damage mechanics approach is used to describe the continuous deterioration of the material stiffness that leads to total failure. The damage evolution is assumed to be anisotropic and the effect of the triaxiality of stress on the fracture criterion is included in the analysis. The above modifications were applied to an existing finite element program which is capable of including both geometric and material nonlinearities in the analysis. The program was used to analyze a welded tubular connection (T-joint). This joint was chosen because fracture was shown experimentally to control its ultimate behavior. Solid finite elements were used to model the chord and the branch in the intersection region, wedge elements were used for the weld profile, and the rest of the geometry was modeled using shell elements. The joint was subjected to an increasing amount of displacement at the far end of the branch. The loading was continued until total failure. During this process, the evolution of the damage and its propagation were monitored. Divergence of the solution was obtained at a failure load of 42.4 kips compared to 44.0 kips obtained experimentally. In addition, the failure mode of the joint predicted by the analysis was identical to that observed experimentally.     

Towards the automatic generation of software diagrams

The authors formulate the criteria for drawing dataflow diagrams and describe the placement and routing algorithms used in a system called MONDRIAN. A generalized approach to the question of software diagrams is proposed based on the authors' experience with MONDRIAN and a metasystem approach to the creation of CASE (computer-aided software engineering) environments. A formal approach to the definition of software objects and their graphical representation is given. The use of location constraints as a basis for generalized layout algorithms is discussed     

Integrating heterogeneous distributed COTS discrete-event simulation packages: an emerging standards-based approach

This paper reports on the progress made toward the emergence of standards to support the integration of heterogeneous discrete-event simulations (DESs) created in specialist support tools called commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) discrete-event simulation packages (CSPs). The general standard for heterogeneous integration in this area has been developed from research in distributed simulation and is the IEEE 1516 standard The High Level Architecture (HLA). However, the specific needs of heterogeneous CSP integration require that the HLA is augmented by additional complementary standards. These are the suite of CSP interoperability (CSPI) standards being developed under the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO-http://www.sisostds.org) by the CSPI Product Development Group (CSPI-PDG). The suite consists of several interoperability reference models (IRMs) that outline different integration needs of CSPI, interoperability frameworks (IFs) that define the HLA-based solution to each IRM, appropriate data exchange representations to specify the data exchanged in an IF, and benchmarks termed CSP emulators (CSPEs). This paper contributes to the development of the Type I IF that is intended to represent the HLA-based solution to the problem outlined by the Type I IRM (asynchronous entity passing) by developing the entity transfer specification (ETS) data exchange representation. The use of the ETS in an illustrative case study implemented using a prototype CSPE is shown. This case study also allows us to highlight the importance of event granularity and lookahead in the performance and development of the Type I IF, and to discuss possible methods to automate the capture of appropriate values of lookahead.