Projeto e implementação de uma plataforma MP-SoC usando SystemC

This work presents the concept, design and implementation of a MP-SoC platform, named STORM (MP-SoC DirecTory-Based PlatfORM). Currently the platform is composed of the following modules: SPARC V8 processor, GPOP processor, Cache module, Memory module, Directory module and two different modles of Network-on-Chip, NoCX4 and Obese Tree. All modules were implemented using SystemC, simulated and validated, individually or in group. The modules description is presented in details. For programming the platform in C it was implemented a SPARC assembler, fully compatible with gcc s generated assembly code. For the parallel programming it was implemented a library for mutex managing, using the due assembler s support. A total of 10 simulations of increasing complexity are presented for the validation of the presented concepts. The simulations include real parallel applications, such as matrix multiplication, Mergesort, KMP, Motion Estimation and DCT 2D

Um framework de agentes de recomendação para sistemas Web

The World Wide Web has been consolidated over the last years as a standard platform to provide software systems in the Internet. Nowadays, a great variety of user applications are available on the Web, varying from corporate applications to the banking domain, or from electronic commerce to the governmental domain. Given the quantity of information available and the quantity of users dealing with their services, many Web systems have sought to present recommendations of use as part of their functionalities, in order to let the users to have a better usage of the services available, based on their profile, history navigation and system use. In this context, this dissertation proposes the development of an agent-based framework that offers recommendations for users of Web systems. It involves the conception, design and implementation of an object-oriented framework. The framework agents can be plugged or unplugged in a non-invasive way in existing Web applications using aspect-oriented techniques. The framework is evaluated through its instantiation to three different Web systems

Paralelização em GPU da segmentação vascular com extração de Centerlines por Height Ridges

The vascular segmentation is important in diagnosing vascular diseases like stroke and is hampered by noise in the image and very thin vessels that can pass unnoticed. One way to accomplish the segmentation is extracting the centerline of the vessel with height ridges, which uses the intensity as features for segmentation. This process can take from seconds to minutes, depending on the current technology employed. In order to accelerate the segmentation method proposed by Aylward [Aylward & Bullitt 2002] we have adapted it to run in parallel using CUDA architecture. The performance of the segmentation method running on GPU is compared to both the same method running on CPU and the original Aylward s method running also in CPU. The improvemente of the new method over the original one is twofold: the starting point for the segmentation process is not a single point in the blood vessel but a volume, thereby making it easier for the user to segment a region of interest, and; the overall gain method was 873 times faster running on GPU and 150 times more fast running on the CPU than the original CPU in Aylward

Avaliação de arquitetura de agentes emocionais : uma abordagem baseada em métrica de qualidade e na influência das emoções sobre usuários

There is a need for multi-agent system designers in determining the quality of systems in the earliest phases of the development process. The architectures of the agents are also part of the design of these systems, and therefore also need to have their quality evaluated. Motivated by the important role that emotions play in our daily lives, embodied agents researchers have aimed to create agents capable of producing affective and natural interaction with users that produces a beneficial or desirable result. For this, several studies proposing architectures of agents with emotions arose without the accompaniment of appropriate methods for the assessment of these architectures. The objective of this study is to propose a methodology for evaluating architectures emotional agents, which evaluates the quality attributes of the design of architectures, in addition to evaluation of human-computer interaction, the effects on the subjective experience of users of applications that implement it. The methodology is based on a model of well-defined metrics. In assessing the quality of architectural design, the attributes assessed are: extensibility, modularity and complexity. In assessing the effects on users' subjective experience, which involves the implementation of the architecture in an application and we suggest to be the domain of computer games, the metrics are: enjoyment, felt support, warm, caring, trust, cooperation, intelligence, interestingness, naturalness of emotional reactions, believabiliy, reducing of frustration and likeability, and the average time and average attempts. We experimented with this approach and evaluate five architectures emotional agents: BDIE, DETT, Camurra-Coglio, EBDI, Emotional-BDI. Two of the architectures, BDIE and EBDI, were implemented in a version of the game Minesweeper and evaluated for human-computer interaction. In the results, DETT stood out with the best architectural design. Users who have played the version of the game with emotional agents performed better than those who played without agents. In assessing the subjective experience of users, the differences between the architectures were insignificant

Um modelo conceitual baseado em MDD e padrões para evolução de sistemas OA

Aspect-Oriented Software Development (AOSD) is a technique that complements the Object- Oriented Software Development (OOSD) modularizing several concepts that OOSD approaches do not modularize appropriately. However, the current state-of-the art on AOSD suffers with software evolution, mainly because aspect definition can stop to work correctly when base elements evolve. A promising approach to deal with that problem is the definition of model-based pointcuts, where pointcuts are defined based on a conceptual model. That strategy makes pointcut less prone to software evolution than model-base elements. Based on that strategy, this work defines a conceptual model at high abstraction level where we can specify software patterns and architectures that through Model Driven Development techniques they can be instantiated and composed in architecture description language that allows aspect modeling at architecture level. Our MDD approach allows propagate concepts in architecture level to another abstraction levels (design level, for example) through MDA transformation rules. Also, this work shows a plug-in implemented to Eclipse platform called AOADLwithCM. That plug-in was created to support our development process. The AOADLwithCM plug-in was used to describe a case study based on MobileMedia System. MobileMedia case study shows step-by-step how the Conceptual Model approach could minimize Pointcut Fragile Problems, due to software evolution. MobileMedia case study was used as input to analyses evolutions on software according to software metrics proposed by KHATCHADOURIAN, GREENWOOD and RASHID. Also, we analyze how evolution in base model could affect maintenance on aspectual model with and without Conceptual Model approaches

Dos requisitos à arquitetura em linhas de produtos de software: uma estratégia de transformações entre modelos

The tracking between models of the requirements and architecture activities is a strategy that aims to prevent loss of information, reducing the gap between these two initial activities of the software life cycle. In the context of Software Product Lines (SPL), it is important to have this support, which allows the correspondence between this two activities, with management of variability. In order to address this issue, this paper presents a process of bidirectional mapping, defining transformation rules between elements of a goaloriented requirements model (described in PL-AOVgraph) and elements of an architectural description (defined in PL-AspectualACME). These mapping rules are evaluated using a case study: the GingaForAll LPS. To automate this transformation, we developed the MaRiPLA tool (Mapping Requirements to Product Line Architecture), through MDD techniques (Modeldriven Development), including Atlas Transformation Language (ATL) with specification of Ecore metamodels jointly with Xtext , a DSL definition framework, and Acceleo, a code generation tool, in Eclipse environment. Finally, the generated models are evaluated based on quality attributes such as variability, derivability, reusability, correctness, traceability, completeness, evolvability and maintainability, extracted from the CAFÉ Quality Model

Um estudo algorítmico da programação da intervenção de sondas de produção

This work approaches the Scheduling Workover Rigs Problem (SWRP) to maintain the wells of an oil field, although difficult to resolve, is extremely important economical, technical and environmental. A mathematical formulation of this problem is presented, where an algorithmic approach was developed. The problem can be considered to find the best scheduling service to the wells by the workover rigs, taking into account the minimization of the composition related to the costs of the workover rigs and the total loss of oil suffered by the wells. This problem is similar to the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP), which is classified as belonging to the NP-hard class. The goal of this research is to develop an algorithmic approach to solve the SWRP, using the fundamentals of metaheuristics like Memetic Algorithm and GRASP. Instances are generated for the tests to analyze the computational performance of the approaches mentioned above, using data that are close to reality. Thereafter, is performed a comparison of performance and quality of the results obtained by each one of techniques used

Geração procedural de cenários orientada a objetivos

The game industry has been experiencing a consistent increase in production costs of games lately. Part of this increase refers to the current trend of having bigger, more interactive and replayable environments. This trend translates to an increase in both team size and development time, which makes game development a even more risky investment and may reduce innovation in the area. As a possible solution to this problem, the scientific community is focusing on the generation of procedural content and, more specifically, on procedurally generated levels. Given the great diversity and complexity of games, most works choose to deal with a specific genre, platform games being one of the most studied. This work aims at proposing a procedural level generation method for platform/adventure games, a fairly more complex genre than most classic platformers which so far has not been the subject of study from other works. The level generation process was divided in two steps, planning and viusal generation, respectively responsible for generating a compact representation of the level and determining its view. The planning stage was divided in game design and level design, and uses a goaloriented process to output a set of rooms. The visual generation step receives a set of rooms and fills its interior with the appropriate parts of previously authored geometry

Abordagem de construção de arquitetura homogênea para comitês via meta-aprendizagem

In the world we are constantly performing everyday actions. Two of these actions are frequent and of great importance: classify (sort by classes) and take decision. When we encounter problems with a relatively high degree of complexity, we tend to seek other opinions, usually from people who have some knowledge or even to the extent possible, are experts in the problem domain in question in order to help us in the decision-making process. Both the classification process as the process of decision making, we are guided by consideration of the characteristics involved in the specific problem. The characterization of a set of objects is part of the decision making process in general. In Machine Learning this classification happens through a learning algorithm and the characterization is applied to databases. The classification algorithms can be employed individually or by machine committees. The choice of the best methods to be used in the construction of a committee is a very arduous task. In this work, it will be investigated meta-learning techniques in selecting the best configuration parameters of homogeneous committees for applications in various classification problems. These parameters are: the base classifier, the architecture and the size of this architecture. We investigated nine types of inductors candidates for based classifier, two methods of generation of architecture and nine medium-sized groups for architecture. Dimensionality reduction techniques have been applied to metabases looking for improvement. Five classifiers methods are investigated as meta-learners in the process of choosing the best parameters of a homogeneous committee.

Uma análise experimental de algoritmos exatos aplicados ao problema da árvore geradora multiobjetivo

The Multiobjective Spanning Tree Problem is NP-hard and models applications in several areas. This research presents an experimental analysis of different strategies used in the literature to develop exact algorithms to solve the problem. Initially, the algorithms are classified according to the approaches used to solve the problem. Features of two or more approaches can be found in some of those algorithms. The approaches investigated here are: the two-stage method, branch-and-bound, k-best and the preference-based approach. The main contribution of this research lies in the fact that no research was presented to date reporting a systematic experimental analysis of exact algorithms for the Multiobjective Spanning Tree Problem. Therefore, this work can be a basis for other research that deal with the same problem. The computational experiments compare the performance of algorithms regarding processing time, efficiency based on the number of objectives and number of solutions found in a controlled time interval. The analysis of the algorithms was performed for known instances of the problem, as well as instances obtained from a generator commonly used in the literature

Aplicação do algoritmo de otimização por colônia de formigas sobre o problema do passeio do robô seletivo

This work seeks to propose and evaluate a change to the Ant Colony Optimization based on the results of experiments performed on the problem of Selective Ride Robot (PRS, a new problem, also proposed in this paper. Four metaheuristics are implemented, GRASP, VNS and two versions of Ant Colony Optimization, and their results are analyzed by running the algorithms over 32 instances created during this work. The metaheuristics also have their results compared to an exact approach. The results show that the algorithm implemented using the GRASP metaheuristic show good results. The version of the multicolony ant colony algorithm, proposed and evaluated in this work, shows the best results

Apoiando a Construcao de Testes de Aceitacao Automatizados a partir da Especificacao de Requisitos

A automação consiste em uma importante atividade do processo de teste e é capaz de reduzir significativamente o tempo e custo do desenvolvimento. Algumas ferramentas tem sido propostas para automatizar a realização de testes de aceitação em aplicações Web. Contudo, grande parte delas apresenta limitações importantes tais como necessidade de valoração manual dos casos de testes, refatoração do código gerado e forte dependência com a estrutura das páginas HTML. Neste trabalho, apresentamos uma linguagem de especificação de teste e uma ferramenta concebidas para minimizar os impactos propiciados por essas limitações. A linguagem proposta dá suporte aos critérios de classes de equivalência e a ferramenta, desenvolvida sob a forma de um plug-in para a plataforma Eclipse, permite a geração de casos de teste através de diferentes estratégias de combinação. Para realizar a avaliação da abordagem, utilizamos um dos módulos do Sistema Unificado de Administração Publica (SUAP) do Instituto Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (IFRN). Participaram da avaliação analistas de sistemas e um técnico de informática que atuam como desenvolvedores do sistema utilizado.

Geração automática de hardware apartir de especificações formais: estendendo uma abordagem de tradução

A remoção de inconsistências em um projeto é menos custosa quando realizadas nas etapas iniciais da sua concepção. A utilização de Métodos Formais melhora a compreensão dos sistemas além de possuir diversas técnicas, como a especificação e verificação formal, para identificar essas inconsistências nas etapas iniciais de um projeto. Porém, a transformação de uma especificação formal para uma linguagem de programação é uma tarefa não trivial. Quando feita manualmente, é uma tarefa passível da inserção de erros. O uso de ferramentas que auxiliem esta etapa pode proporcionar grandes benefícios ao produto final a ser desenvolvido. Este trabalho propõe a extensão de uma ferramenta cujo foco é a tradução automática de especificações em CSPm para Handel-C. CSP é uma linguagem de descrição formal adequada para trabalhar com sistemas concorrentes. Handel-C é uma linguagem de programação cujo resultado pode ser compilado diretamente para FPGA's. A extensão consiste no aumento no número de operadores CSPm aceitos pela ferramenta, permitindo ao usuário definir processos locais, renomear canais e utilizar guarda booleana em escolhas externas. Além disto, propomos também a implementação de um protocolo de comunicação que elimina algumas restrições da composição paralela de processos na tradução para Handel-C, permitindo que a comunicação entre múltiplos processos possa ser mapeada de maneira consistente e que a mesma somente ocorra quando for autorizada.

Apoiando a construção de testes de aceitação automatizados a partir da especificação de requisitos

Automation has become increasingly necessary during the software test process due to the high cost and time associated with such activity. Some tools have been proposed to automate the execution of Acceptance Tests in Web applications. However, many of them have important limitations such as the strong dependence on the structure of the HTML pages and the need of manual valuing of the test cases. In this work, we present a language for specifying acceptance test scenarios for Web applications called IFL4TCG and a tool that allows the generation of test cases from these scenarios. The proposed language supports the criterion of Equivalence Classes Partition and the tool allows the generation of test cases that meet different combination strategies (i.e., Each-Choice, Base-Choice and All Combinations). In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed solution, we used the language and the associated tool for designing and executing Acceptance Tests on a module of Sistema Unificado de Administração Pública (SUAP) of Instituto Federal Rio Grande do Norte (IFRN). Four Systems Analysts and one Computer Technician, which work as developers of the that system, participated in the evaluation. Preliminary results showed that IFL4TCG can actually help to detect defects in Web applications

Geração automática de hardware a partir de especificações formais: estendendo uma abordagem de tradução

Removing inconsistencies in a project is a less expensive activity when done in the early steps of design. The use of formal methods improves the understanding of systems. They have various techniques such as formal specification and verification to identify these problems in the initial stages of a project. However, the transformation from a formal specification into a programming language is a non-trivial task and error prone, specially when done manually. The aid of tools at this stage can bring great benefits to the final product to be developed. This paper proposes the extension of a tool whose focus is the automatic translation of specifications written in CSPM into Handel-C. CSP is a formal description language suitable for concurrent systems, and CSPM is the notation used in tools support. Handel-C is a programming language whose result can be compiled directly into FPGA s. Our extension increases the number of CSPM operators accepted by the tool, allowing the user to define local processes, to rename channels in a process and to use Boolean guards on external choices. In addition, we also propose the implementation of a communication protocol that eliminates some restrictions on parallel composition of processes in the translation into Handel-C, allowing communication in a same channel between multiple processes to be mapped in a consistent manner and that improper communication in a channel does not ocurr in the generated code, ie, communications that are not allowed in the system specification