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At least 163 records · Page 9

Scientific Programming Using Java: A Remote Sensing Example

This paper presents results of a project to port remote sensing code from the C programming language to Java. The advantages and disadvantages of using Java versus C as a scientific programming language in remote sensing applications are discussed. Remote sensing applications deal with voluminous data that require effective memory management, such as buffering operations, when processed. Some of these applications also implement complex computational algorithms, such as Fast Fourier Transformation analysis, that are very performance intensive. Factors considered include performance, precision, complexity, rapidity of development, ease of code reuse, ease of maintenance, memory management, and platform independence. Performance of radiometric calibration code written in Java for the graphical user interface and of using C for the domain model are also presented.

Prados, Don↗

GaussFit - A system for least squares and robust estimation

GaussFit is a new computer program for solving least-squares and robust estimation problems. It has a number of unique features, including a complete programming language designed especially to formulate estimation problems, a built-in compiler and interpreter to support the programming language, and a built-in algebraic manipulator for calculating the required partial derivatives analytically. These features make GaussFit very easy to use, so that even complex problems can be set up and solved with minimal effort. GaussFit can correctly handle many cases of practical interest: nonlinear models, exact constraints, correlated observations, and models where the equations of condition contain more than one observed quantity. An experimental robust estimation capability is built into GaussFit so that data sets contaminated by outliers can be handled simply and efficiently.

Jefferys, W. H.↗

Formal methods in the design of Ada 1995

Formal, mathematical methods are most useful when applied early in the design and implementation of a software system--that, at least, is the familiar refrain. I will report on a modest effort to apply formal methods at the earliest possible stage, namely, in the design of the Ada 95 programming language itself. This talk is an 'experience report' that provides brief case studies illustrating the kinds of problems we worked on, how we approached them, and the extent (if any) to which the results proved useful. It also derives some lessons and suggestions for those undertaking future projects of this kind. Ada 95 is the first revision of the standard for the Ada programming language. The revision began in 1988, when the Ada Joint Programming Office first asked the Ada Board to recommend a plan for revising the Ada standard. The first step in the revision was to solicit criticisms of Ada 83. A set of requirements for the new language standard, based on those criticisms, was published in 1990. A small design team, the Mapping Revision Team (MRT), became exclusively responsible for revising the language standard to satisfy those requirements. The MRT, from Intermetrics, is led by S. Tucker Taft. The work of the MRT was regularly subject to independent review and criticism by a committee of distinguished Reviewers and by several advisory teams--for example, the two User/Implementor teams, each consisting of an industrial user (attempting to make significant use of the new language on a realistic application) and a compiler vendor (undertaking, experimentally, to modify its current implementation in order to provide the necessary new features). One novel decision established the Language Precision Team (LPT), which investigated language proposals from a mathematical point of view. The LPT applied formal mathematical analysis to help improve the design of Ada 95 (e.g., by clarifying the language proposals) and to help promote its acceptance (e.g., by identifying a verifiable subset that would meet the needs of safety-critical applications). The first LPT project, which ran from the fall of 1990 unti the end of 1992, produced studies of several language issues: optimization, sharing and storage, tasking and protected records, overload resolution, the floating point model, distribution, program erros, and object-oriented programming. The second LPT project, in 1994, formally modeled the dynamic semantics of a large part of the (almost) final language definition, looking especially for interactions between language features.

Guaspari, David↗

A real time microcomputer implementation of sensor failure detection for turbofan engines

An algorithm was developed which detects, isolates, and accommodates sensor failures using analytical redundancy. The performance of this algorithm was demonstrated on a full-scale F100 turbofan engine. The algorithm was implemented in real-time on a microprocessor-based controls computer which includes parallel processing and high order language programming. Parallel processing was used to achieve the required computational power for the real-time implementation. High order language programming was used in order to reduce the programming and maintenance costs of the algorithm implementation software. The sensor failure algorithm was combined with an existing multivariable control algorithm to give a complete control implementation with sensor analytical redundancy. The real-time microprocessor implementation of the algorithm which resulted in the successful completion of the algorithm engine demonstration, is described.

Delaat, John C.↗

A real time microcomputer implementation of sensor failure detection for turbofan engines

An algorithm was developed that detects, isolates, and accommodates sensor failures using analytical redundancy. The performance of this algorithm has been demonstrated on a full-scale F100 turbofan engine. The algorithm was implemented in real-time on a microprocessor-based controls computer which includes parallel processing and high order language programming. Parallel processing was used to achieve the required computational power for the real-time implementation. High order language programming was used in order to reduce the programming and maintenance costs of the algorithm implementation software. The sensor failure algorithm was combined with an existing multivariable control algorithm to give a complete control implementation with sensor analytical redundancy. The real-time microprocessor implementation of the algorithm, which resulted in the successful completion of the algorithm engine demonstration, is described.

Delaat, John C.↗

StructuredFuzzer: Fuzzing Structured Text-Based Control Logic Applications

Rigorous testing methods are essential for ensuring the security and reliability of industrial controller software. Fuzzing, a technique that automatically discovers software bugs, has also proven effective in finding software vulnerabilities. Unsurprisingly, fuzzing has been applied to a wide range of platforms, including programmable logic controllers (PLCs). However, current approaches, such as coverage-guided evolutionary fuzzing implemented in the popular fuzzer American Fuzzy Lop Plus Plus (AFL++), are often inadequate for finding logical errors and bugs in PLC control logic applications. They primarily target generic programming languages like C/C++, Java, and Python, and do not consider the unique characteristics and behaviors of PLCs, which are often programmed using specialized programming languages like Structured Text (ST). Furthermore, these fuzzers are ill suited to deal with complex input structures encapsulated in ST, as they are not specifically designed to generate appropriate input sequences. This renders the application of traditional fuzzing techniques less efficient on these platforms. To address this issue, this paper presents a fuzzing framework designed explicitly for PLC software to discover logic bugs in applications written in ST specified by the IEC 61131-3 standard. The proposed framework incorporates a custom-tailored PLC runtime and a fuzzer designed for the purpose. We demonstrate its effectiveness by fuzzing a collection of ST programs that were crafted for evaluation purposes. We compare the performance against a popular fuzzer, namely, AFL++. The proposed fuzzing framework demonstrated its capabilities in our experiments, successfully detecting logic bugs in the tested PLC control logic applications written in ST. On average, it was at least 83 times faster than AFL++, and in certain cases, for example, it was more than 23,000 times faster.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

pnnl/isomorphic

Isomorphic is a Ruby library for specifying isomorphisms between Ruby objects. The inventive features of the new Ruby library are as follows: Domain-specific language (DSL) for declaration of isomorphisms between Ruby objects. Functional references (viz., "lenses") for getter/setter operations. To our knowledge, this is the first library of its kind for the Ruby programming language. Moreover, to our knowledge, this is the first implementation of the "functional references" concept within the Ruby programming language.

Borkum, Mark↗

Techniques and implementation of the embedded rule-based expert system using Ada

Ada is becoming an increasingly popular programming language for large Government-funded software projects. Ada with its portability, transportability, and maintainability lends itself well to today's complex programming environment. In addition, expert systems have also assured a growing role in providing human-like reasoning capability and expertise for computer systems. The integration of expert system technology with Ada programming language, specifically a rule-based expert system using an ART-Ada (Automated Reasoning Tool for Ada) system shell is discussed. The NASA Lewis Research Center was chosen as a beta test site for ART-Ada. The test was conducted by implementing the existing Autonomous Power EXpert System (APEX), a Lisp-base power expert system, in ART-Ada. Three components, the rule-based expert system, a graphics user interface, and communications software make up SMART-Ada (Systems fault Management with ART-Ada). The main objective, to conduct a beta test on the ART-Ada rule-based expert system shell, was achieved. The system is operational. New Ada tools will assist in future successful projects. ART-Ada is one such tool and is a viable alternative to the straight Ada code when an application requires a rule-based or knowledge-based approach.

Liberman, Eugene M.↗

An Embedded Rule-Based Diagnostic Expert System in Ada

Ada is becoming an increasingly popular programming language for large Government-funded software projects. Ada with it portability, transportability, and maintainability lends itself well to today's complex programming environment. In addition, expert systems have also assumed a growing role in providing human-like reasoning capability expertise for computer systems. The integration is discussed of expert system technology with Ada programming language, especially a rule-based expert system using an ART-Ada (Automated Reasoning Tool for Ada) system shell. NASA Lewis was chosen as a beta test site for ART-Ada. The test was conducted by implementing the existing Autonomous Power EXpert System (APEX), a Lisp-based power expert system, in ART-Ada. Three components, the rule-based expert systems, a graphics user interface, and communications software make up SMART-Ada (Systems fault Management with ART-Ada). The rules were written in the ART-Ada development environment and converted to Ada source code. The graphics interface was developed with the Transportable Application Environment (TAE) Plus, which generates Ada source code to control graphics images. SMART-Ada communicates with a remote host to obtain either simulated or real data. The Ada source code generated with ART-Ada, TAE Plus, and communications code was incorporated into an Ada expert system that reads the data from a power distribution test bed, applies the rule to determine a fault, if one exists, and graphically displays it on the screen. The main objective, to conduct a beta test on the ART-Ada rule-based expert system shell, was achieved. The system is operational. New Ada tools will assist in future successful projects. ART-Ada is one such tool and is a viable alternative to the straight Ada code when an application requires a rule-based or knowledge-based approach.

Jones, Robert E.↗

Data Automata in Scala

The field of runtime verification has during the last decade seen a multitude of systems for monitoring event sequences (traces) emitted by a running system. The objective is to ensure correctness of a system by checking its execution traces against formal specifications representing requirements. A special challenge is data parameterized events, where monitors have to keep track of the combination of control states as well as data constraints, relating events and the data they carry across time points. This poses a challenge wrt. efficiency of monitors, as well as expressiveness of logics. Data automata is a form of automata where states are parameterized with data, supporting monitoring of data parameterized events. We describe the full details of a very simple API in the Scala programming language, an internal DSL (Domain-Specific Language), implementing data automata. The small implementation suggests a design pattern. Data automata allow transition conditions to refer to other states than the source state, and allow target states of transitions to be inlined, offering a temporal logic flavored notation. An embedding of a logic in a high-level language like Scala in addition allows monitors to be programmed using all of Scala's language constructs, offering the full flexibility of a programming language. The framework is demonstrated on an XML processing scenario previously addressed in related work.

runtime verification↗

Adding intelligent services to an object oriented system

As today's software becomes increasingly complex, the need grows for intelligence of one sort or another to becomes part of the application, often an intelligence that does not readily fit the paradigm of one's software development. There are many methods of developing software, but at this time, the most promising is the object oriented (OO) method. This method involves an analysis to abstract the problem into separate 'objects' that are unique in the data that describe them and the behavior that they exhibit, and eventually to convert this analysis into computer code using a programming language that was designed (or retrofitted) for OO implementation. This paper discusses the creation of three different applications that are analyzed, designed, and programmed using the Shlaer/Mellor method of OO development and C++ as the programming language. All three, however, require the use of an expert system to provide an intelligence that C++ (or any other 'traditional' language) is not directly suited to supply. The flexibility of CLIPS permitted us to make modifications to it that allow seamless integration with any of our applications that require an expert system. We illustrate this integration with the following applications: (1) an after action review (AAR) station that assists a reviewer in watching a simulated tank battle and developing an AAR to critique the performance of the participants in the battle; (2) an embedded training system and over-the-shoulder coach for howitzer crewmen; and (3) a system to identify various chemical compounds from their infrared absorption spectra.

Robideaux, Bret R.↗

Comparing the Performance of Julia on CPUs versus GPUs and Julia-MPI versus Fortran-MPI: a case study with MPAS-Ocean (Version 7.1)

Abstract. Some programming languages are easy to develop at the cost of slow execution, while others are fast at runtime but much more difficult to write. Julia is a programming language that aims to be the best of both worlds – a development and production language at the same time. To test Julia's utility in scientific high-performance computing (HPC), we built an unstructured-mesh shallow water model in Julia and compared it against an established Fortran-MPI ocean model, the Model for Prediction Across Scales–Ocean (MPAS-Ocean), as well as a Python shallow water code. Three versions of the Julia shallow water code were created: for single-core CPU, graphics processing unit (GPU), and Message Passing Interface (MPI) CPU clusters. Comparing identical simulations revealed that our first version of the Julia model was 13 times faster than Python using NumPy, where both used an unthreaded single-core CPU. Further Julia optimizations, including static typing and removing implicit memory allocations, provided an additional 10–20× speed-up of the single-core CPU Julia model. The GPU-accelerated Julia code was almost identical in terms of performance to the MPI parallelized code on 64 processes, an unexpected result for such different architectures. Parallelized Julia-MPI performance was identical to Fortran-MPI MPAS-Ocean for low processor counts and ranges from 2× faster to 2× slower for higher processor counts. Our experience is that Julia development is fast and convenient for prototyping but that Julia requires further investment and expertise to be competitive with compiled codes. We provide advice on Julia code optimization for HPC systems.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Language for Allocation and Network Scheduling

Programing Language for Allocation and Network Scheduling, Plans, handles many scheduling requirements of Space Shuttle program. Also generalized, high-level tree manipulation language.

Willoughby, J. K.↗

Continuation of research into language concepts for the mission support environment

A concept for a more intuitive and graphically based Computation (Comp) Builder was developed. The Graphical Comp Builder Prototype was developed, which is an X Window based graphical tool that allows the user to build Comps using graphical symbols. Investigation was conducted to determine the availability and suitability of the Ada programming language for the development of future control center type software. The Space Station Freedom Project identified Ada as the desirable programming language for the development of Space Station Control Center software systems.

Source record↗

IRIS-MASH: Efficient Multi-device Asynchronous Multi-Stream Heterogeneous Computing

In the rapidly evolving field of high-performance computing (HPC), effectively leveraging heterogeneous devices through asynchronous task programming is paramount. This paper presents a robust asynchronous task programming model tailored for a multi-device, multi-stream execution environment that incorporates a diverse array of heterogeneous computing units, including GPUs from various vendors and other accelerators. Current state-of-the-art task programming models provide methodologies to support asynchronous task executions, but they typically handle homogeneous devices using native programming languages, while support for heterogeneous devices is limited to frameworks like OpenCL. This gap presents significant challenges in abstracting heterogeneous devices to harness their true asynchronous capabilities effectively using their native programming languages. By implementing asynchronous task execution, our model significantly boosts the performance of tiled algorithm task graphs through overlapping data transfers with computation and enabling the simultaneous execution of multiple kernels. We integrate this approach into a heterogeneous Intelligent Runtime System (IRIS) and assess its performance using a suite of tiled algorithm benchmarks from the heterogeneous math kernels library (MatRIS) based on IRIS. Experimental results demonstrate a performance improvement ranging from 1.6 × to 2 × over IRIS without asynchronous support, and a notable 22% performance enhancement compared to established runtime systems such as StarPU and PaRSEC. This approach significantly improves computation efficiency of HPC workflows and provides a solid base for future exploration and development in the area of asynchronous task programming in heterogeneous systems.

Miniskar, Narasinga Rao [ORNL] (ORCID:000000018259↗

The Next Generation of Ground Operations Command and Control; Scripting in C no. and Visual Basic

Scripting languages have become a common method for implementing command and control solutions in space ground operations. The Systems Test and Operations Language (STOL), the Huntsville Operations Support Center (HOSC) Scripting Language Processor (SLP), and the Spacecraft Control Language (SCL) offer script-commands that wrap tedious operations tasks into single calls. Since script-commands are interpreted, they also offer a certain amount of hands-on control that is highly valued in space ground operations. Although compiled programs seem to be unsuited for interactive user control and are more complex to develop, Marshall Space flight Center (MSFC) has developed a product called the Enhanced and Redesign Scripting (ERS) that makes use of the graphical and logical richness of a programming language while offering the hands-on and ease of control of a scripting language. ERS is currently used by the International Space Station (ISS) Payload Operations Integration Center (POIC) Cadre team members. ERS integrates spacecraft command mnemonics, telemetry measurements, and command and telemetry control procedures into a standard programming language, while making use of Microsoft's Visual Studio for developing Visual Basic (VB) or C# ground operations procedures. ERS also allows for script-style user control during procedure execution using a robust graphical user input and output feature. The availability of VB and C# programmers, and the richness of the languages and their development environment, has allowed ERS to lower our "script" development time and maintenance costs at the Marshall POIC.

Ritter, George↗

Ada technology support for NASA-GSFC

Utilization of the Ada programming language and environments to perform directorate functions was reviewed. The Mission and Data Operations Directorate Network (MNET) conversion effort was chosen as the first task for evaluation and assistance. The MNET project required the rewriting of the existing Network Control Program (NCP) in the Ada programming language. The DEC Ada compiler running on the VAX under WMS was used for the initial development efforts. Stress tests on the newly delivered version of the DEC Ada compiler were performed. The new Alsys Ada compiler was purchased for the IBM PC AT. A prevalidated version of the compiler was obtained. The compiler was then validated.

Source record↗