Hardware gimmick or cultural innovation? Technological, cultural, and social foundations of the Japanese video game industry

This paper examines the role of creative resources in the emergence of the Japanese video game industry. We argue that creative resources nurtured by popular cartoons and animation sector, combined with technological knowledge accumulated in the consumer electronics industry, facilitated the emergence of successful video game industry in Japan. First we trace the development of the industry from its origin to the rise of platform developers and software publishers. Then, knowledge and creative foundations that influenced the developmental trajectory of this industry are analyzed, with links to consumer electronics and in regards to cartoons and animation industry.

Software and hardware aspects of a microprocessor controlled lathe

A small lathe has been modified to work under microprocessor control to enhance the facilities which the lathe offers and provide a wider operating range with relevant economic gains. The result of these modifications give better operating system characteristics. A system of electronic circuits have been developed, utilising the latest technology, to replace the pegboard with the associated obsolete electrical components. Software for the system includes control programmes for the implementation of the original pegboard operation and several sample machine code programmes are included, covering a wide spectrum of applications, including diagnostic testing of the control system. It is concluded that it is possible to carry out a low cost retrofit on existing machine tools to enhance their range of capabilities.

High performance numerical modeling of ultra-short laser pulse propagation based on multithreaded parallel hardware

The focus of this study is development of parallelised version of severely sequential and iterative numerical algorithms based on multi-threaded parallel platform such as a graphics processing unit. This requires design and development of a platform-specific numerical solution that can benefit from the parallel capabilities of the chosen platform. Graphics processing unit was chosen as a parallel platform for design and development of a numerical solution for a specific physical model in non-linear optics. This problem appears in describing ultra-short pulse propagation in bulk transparent media that has recently been subject to several theoretical and numerical studies. The mathematical model describing this phenomenon is a challenging and complex problem and its numerical modeling limited on current modern workstations. Numerical modeling of this problem requires a parallelisation of an essentially serial algorithms and elimination of numerical bottlenecks. The main challenge to overcome is parallelisation of the globally non-local mathematical model. This thesis presents a numerical solution for elimination of numerical bottleneck associated with the non-local nature of the mathematical model. The accuracy and performance of the parallel code is identified by back-to-back testing with a similar serial version.