BW
PS: If you would like to answer a question that is not
on this list, say because you think you might fall in
love with one of these acronym things not covered by
the current questions, email the question to walton@deas
for approval and addition to the official list.
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Assignment due 2/22 1pm e-mail, 2/23 in class hardcopy:
Do a `The Grid' assignment choosing any two
questions from among:
7.1, 7.2, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3,
9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5, 10.1, 10.2
One of the answers you give MUST involve doing some
research using the web.
Also, it is preferred, but not absolutely required,
that your two questions be from DIFFERENT chapters.
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Chapter 7: Application Specific Tools
7.1 Look up NETSOLVE on the web and find out what
kinds of actual things can be done with
NETSOLVE as it now stands. E.g., can it
multiply matrices, and so forth. What kinds
of scientific calculations can NETSOLVE now
do well, and what kind does it not seem to
do well at this time?
7.2 Look up the SCIRun system and study its data
types and how they can be visualized. Is
there a natural visual input/output mechanism
for each data type? Give examples.
Chapter 8: Compilers, Languages, and Libraries
8.1 How successful do you think parallel languages
have been to date? What percentage of
parallelizable problems do they handle? How
do special parallel languages compare with
ordinary languages augmented by communications
libraries?
8.2 List as many different kinds of communication
system as you can think of, giving a brief
description of each. Find out what a `black-
board' communication system is and what it
does, and include it in your list.
8.3 Design your own communication system that is
optimized to do simulations. Is it similar
to any existing communication system? How
do you handle virtual time in your system?
How do you handle virtual space?
Chapter 9: Object-Based Approaches
9.1 Look up CORBA and/or ActiveX on the web and
make a list of the kinds of objects that
are now available to perform computations.
What can you say about the nature of these.
9.2 Compare and contrast any two of these:
CORBA, ActiveX, JavaBeans.
9.3 Look up the Illinois Concert runtime system
and explain how it is supposed to improve
the performance of networked OO.
9.4 Compare and contrast the OO approach to
protocol based server approaches such as
FTP, X-windows, or whatever you like.
9.5 What is the difference between lightweight
and heavyweight objects? Can you give
examples of uses of each? Look up an OO
database system used for CAD and see what
weight objects it supports. Look up
LEGION and see what weight objects it
supports.
Chapter 10: High Performance Commodity Computing
10.1 Explain the difference between two- and
three-tier architecture. What are the
advantages of each? What are the
differences and advantages in security?
In performance?
10.2 CORBA is sometimes accused of being
inefficient. Look up TAO, a project to
make efficient CORBA ORBs, check the
the CORBA specification (including IIOP),
and explain the pros and cons of CORBA
efficiency.