Single-threaded software applications have ceased to see signi?cant gains in p- formance on a general-purpose CPU, even with further scaling in very large scale integration (VLSI) technology. This is a signi?cant problem for electronic design automation (EDA) applications, since the design complexity of VLSI integrated circuits (ICs) is continuously growing. In this research monograph, we evaluate custom ICs, ?eld-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and graphics processors as platforms for accelerating EDA algorithms, instead of the general-purpose sing- threaded CPU. We study applications which are used in key time-consuming steps of the VLSI design ?ow. Further, these applications also have different degrees of inherent parallelism in them. We study both control-dominated EDA applications and control plus data parallel EDA applications. We accelerate these applications on these different hardware platforms. We also present an automated approach for accelerating certain uniprocessor applications on a graphics processor. This monograph compares custom ICs, FPGAs, and graphics processing units (GPUs) as potential platforms to accelerate EDA algorithms. It also provides details of the programming model used for interfacing with the GPUs.

Rapid One-of-a-kind Product Development discusses research in the development of new enabling technologies for small and medium companies. Scientific advancements presented include a novel product data modelling scheme to model product design, manufacturability and knowledge under a common data object; customised product development in a distributed environment; and new adaptive scheduling methods for the optimal production of a wide variety of customised products, taking into consideration all of the possible changes from customers and the uncertainties in manufacturing. The book also includes research towards a computer aided customer interface, which allows customer requirements and changes to be processed and integrated with technical designs in real time; adaptive and concurrent CAD methods and algorithms; and product modelling and system integration technologies. The reader will learn how to: * translate customer requirements to technical attributes; * develop new and innovative products to meet customer requirements and expectations; * evaluate and optimise a project design; * design production systems and use them efficiently; and * manage a variety of customised products. Rapid One-of-a-kind Product Development demonstrates how to develop new methods, tools and algorithms to address the problems in a mass customisation environment. It is a valuable source of information for researchers and engineers in the fields of design and manufacturing.

The global technological marketplace has brought with it the need to address international and local target audiences. To remain competitive, companies have begun to design ICTs with a focus on generic and specialized users and learners.""Instructional Design Frameworks and Intercultural Models"" meets the needs of practitioners and researchers by providing frameworks for integrating culture into design. This book offers practical applications for the construction of user interfaces, products, services, and other online environments useful in the development of culture-based designs.

The seventh book in the CHDL Series is composed of a selection of the best articles from the Forum on Specification and Design Languages (FDL'04). FDL is the European Forum to learn and exchange on new trends on the application of languages and models for the design of electronic and heterogeneous systems.

The forum was structured around four workshops that are all represented in the book by outstanding articles: Analog and Mixed-Signal Systems, UML-based System Specification and Design, C/C++-Based System Design and Languages for Formal Specification and Verification.

The Analog and Mixed-Signal Systems contributions bring some answers to the difficult problem of co-simulating discrete and continuous models of computation. The UML-based System Specification and Design chapters bring insight into how to use the Model Driven Engineering to design Systems-on-Chip. The C/C++-Based System Design articles mainly explore system level design with SystemC. The Languages for Formal
Specification and Verification is represented by an invited contribution on the use of temporal assertions for symbolic model checking and simulation. And finally chapter in this book contributed by preeminent members of the automotive design industry presents the recent industry standard AutoSAR.

Overall Advances in Design and Specification Languages for SoCs is an excellent opportunity to catch up with the latest research developments in the field of languages for electronic and heterogeneous system design.

Shape interrogation is the process of extraction of information from a geometric model. It is a fundamental component of Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) systems. The authors focus on shape interrogation of geometric models bounded by free-form surfaces. Free-form surfaces, also called sculptured surfaces, are widely used in the bodies of ships, automobiles and aircraft, which have both functionality and attractive shape requirements. Many electronic devices as well as consumer products are designed with aesthetic shapes, which involve free-form surfaces. This book provides the mathematical fundamentals as well as algorithms for various shape interrogation methods including nonlinear polynomial solvers, intersection problems, differential geometry of intersection curves, distance functions, curve and surface interrogation, umbilics and lines of curvature, geodesics, and offset curves and surfaces. This book will be of interest both to graduate students and professionals.

Microprocessors increasingly control and monitor our most critical systems, including automobiles, airliners, medical systems, transportation grids, and defense systems. The relentless march of semiconductor process technology has given engineers exponentially increasing transistor budgets at constant recurring cost. This has encouraged increased functional integration onto a single die, as well as increased architectural sophistication of the functional units themselves. Additionally, design cycle times are decreasing, thus putting increased schedule pressure on engineers. Not surprisingly, this environment has led to a number of uncaught design flaws. Traditional simulation-based design verification has not kept up with the scale or pace of modern microprocessor system design. Formal verification methods offer the promise of improved bug-finding capability, as well as the ability to establish functional correctness of a detailed design relative to a high-level specification. However, widespread use of formal methods has had to await breakthroughs in automated reasoning, integration with engineering design languages and processes, scalability, and usability.

This book presents several breakthrough design and verification techniques that allow these powerful formal methods to be employed in the real world of high-assurance microprocessor system design.

High Performance Fiber Reinforced Cement Composites (HPFRCC) re-present a class of cement composites whose stress-strain response in tension undergoes strain hardening behaviour accompanied by multiple cracking, leading to a high strain capacity prior to failure. The primary objective of this International Workshop was to provide a compendium of up-to-date information on the most recent developments and research advances in the field of High Performance Fiber Reinforced Cement Composites. Approximately 65 contributions from leading world experts are assembled in these proceedings and provide an authoritative perspective of the subject. Special topics include mechanical behavior under compressive, tensile, and shear loading, impact and fire resistance, self-compacting mixtures, fresh and hardening state properties, durability issues, hybrid composites, ultra-high performance fiber reinforced concrete, textile reinforced concrete and structural applications, including modelling, design and retrofit/repair.

Target readers: graduate students, researchers, fiber producers, design engineers, material scientists

Parallel CFD 2008, the twentieth in the high-level international series of meetings featuring different aspect of parallel computing in computational?uid dynamics and other modern scienti?c domains was held May 19?22, 2008 in Lyon, France. The themes of the 2008 meeting included the traditional emphases of this c- ference, and experiences with contemporary architectures. Around 70 presentations were included into the conference program in the following sessions: Parallel Algorithms and solvers Parallel performances with contemporary architectures Structured and unstructured grid methods, boundary methods software framework and components architecture CFD applications(Bio ?uid, environmentalproblem)Lattice Boltzmannmethodand SPH Optimisation in Aerodynamics This book presents an up-to-date overviewof the state of the art in Parallel C- putational Fluid Dynamics from Asia, Europe, and North America. This reviewed proceedingsincluded about sixty percent of the oral lectures presented at the conf- ence. The editors. VI Preface Parallel CFD 2008 was organized by the Institut Camille Jordan of the Univ- sity of Lyon 1 in collaboration with the Center for the Development of the Parallel Scienti?c Computing. The Scienti?c Committee and Local Organizers of Parallel CFD 2008 are - lighted to acknowledge the generous sponsorship of the following organizations, through ?nancial or in-kind assistance. Assistance of our sponsors allowed to - ganize scienti?c as well as social program of the conference.

Software has become a decisive cost and time factor in regard to developing and establishing manufacturing systems and setting them into operation. In addition, software determines the availability, reliability as well as functionality of manufacturing units. Software Engineering for Manufacturing Systems considers the methods and procedures required to deal with problems in the software engineering of control technology for manufacturing systems. Significantly, the following topics are addressed: * definitions and requirements of software for control technology * system design, describing forms of control software * CASE tools for the generation of a code * configuration, adaption of standard software variants, and re-usability of software * and man-machine interface. It contains the selected proceedings of the International Conference on Software Engineering and Case Tools for Control Technology of Manufacturing Systems, sponsored by the IFIP and held in Germany, in March 1996.

Designing is one of the foundations for change in our society. It is a fundamental precursor to manufacturing, fabrication and construction. Design research aims to develop an understanding of designing and to produce models of designing that can be used to aid designing. The papers in this volume are from the Sixth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Design (AID'00) held in June 2000, in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. They represent the state of the art and the cutting edge of research and development in this field, and demonstrate both the depth and breadth of the artificial intelligence paradigm in design. They point the way for the development of advanced computer-based tools to aid designers, and describe advances in both theory and application. This volume will be of particular interest to researchers, developers, and users of advanced computer systems in design.

A virtual prototype is a major interim step towards the creation of a virtual environment. This book explores the simulation, interaction, concepts and tools of virtual prototypes and environments. It provides a mixture of state-of-the-art, advanced research and industrial papers.

This monograph is devoted to theoretical and experimental study of inhibitory decision and association rules. Inhibitory rules contain on the right-hand side a relation of the kind "attribut = value." The use of inhibitory rules instead of deterministic (standard) ones allows us to describe more completely infor- tion encoded in decision or information systems and to design classi?ers of high quality. The mostimportantfeatureofthis monographis thatit includesanadvanced mathematical analysis of problems on inhibitory rules. We consider algorithms for construction of inhibitory rules, bounds on minimal complexity of inhibitory rules, and algorithms for construction of the set of all minimal inhibitory rules. We also discuss results of experiments with standard and lazy classi?ers based on inhibitory rules. These results show that inhibitory decision and association rules can be used in data mining and knowledge discovery both for knowledge representation and for prediction. Inhibitory rules can be also used under the analysis and design of concurrent systems. The results obtained in the monograph can be useful for researchers in such areas as machine learning, data mining and knowledge discovery, especially for those who are working in rough set theory, test theory, and logical analysis of data (LAD). The monograph can be used under the creation of courses for graduate students and for Ph.D. studies. TheauthorsofthisbookextendanexpressionofgratitudetoProfessorJanusz Kacprzyk, to Dr. Thomas Ditzinger and to the Studies in Computational Int- ligence sta? at Springer for their support in making this book possible.

This introductory book discusses how to plan and build useful, reliable, maintainable and cost efficient computer systems for automated engineering design. The book takes a user perspective and seeks to bridge the gap between texts on principles of computer science and the user manuals for commercial design automation software. The approach taken is top-down, following the path from definition of the design task and clarification of the relevant design knowledge to the development of an operational system well adapted for its purpose. This introductory text for the practicing engineer working in industry covers most vital aspects of planning such a system. Experiences from applications of automated design systems in practice are reviewed based on a large number of real, industrial cases. The principles behind the most popular methods in design automation are presented with sufficient rigour to give the user confidence in applying them on real industrial problems. This book is also suited for a half semester course at graduate level and has been complemented by suggestions for student assignments grown out of the lecture notes of two postgraduate courses given annually or biannually during the last ten years at the Product development program at the School of Engineering at Joenkoeping University.

Why this book? Simply because it is due. Cognitive automation and its system-ergonomic introduction into work systems have been advanced in the meantime to such a degree that already applications for operational work systems are slowly becoming reality. This book shall contribute to give system designers some more guidelines about designing work systems and associated cognitive machines effectively, in particular those related to guidance and control of manned and unmanned vehicles. The issue is that the findings on cognition have to become sufficient commonsense for all from the various disciplines involved in system design, and that guidelines are given how to make use of it in an appropriate and systematic manner. These guidelines are to account for both the needs of the human operator in the work process and the use of computational potentials to make the work system a really most effective one. In other words, this book is meant to provide guidelines for the organisational and technical design of work systems. Therefore, this book is an interdisciplinary one. Findings in individual disciplines are not the main issue. It is rather the combination of these findings for the sake of the performance of work systems which makes this book a useful one for designers who are interested in this modern approach and its implementation.

Decision diagrams (DDs) are data structures for efficient (time/space) representations of large discrete functions. In addition to their wide application in engineering practice, DDs are now a standard part of many CAD systems for logic design and a basis for severe signal processing algorithms. "Spectral Interpretation of Decision Diagrams" derives from attempts to classify and uniformly interpret DDs through spectral interpretation methods, relating them to different Fourier-series-like functional expressions for discrete functions and a group-theoretic approach to DD optimization. The book examines DDs found in literature and engineering practice and provides insights into relationships between DDs and different polynomial or spectral expressions for representation of discrete functions. In addition, it offers guidelines and criteria for selection of the most suitable representation in terms of space and time complexity. The work complements theory with numerous illustrative examples from practice. Moreover, the importance of DD representations to the verification and testing of arithmetic circuits is addressed, as well as problems related to various signal processing tasks.

Rapid prototyping is used to design and develop medical devices and instrumentation. This book details research in rapid prototyping of bio-materials for medical applications. It provides a wide variety of examples of medical applications using rapid prototyping, including tissue engineering, dental applications, and bone replacement. Coverage also discusses the emergence of computer aided design in the development of prosthetic devices.

Recent years have seen major changes in the approach to Computer Aided Design (CAD) in the architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) sector. CAD is increasingly becoming a standard design tool, facilitating lower development costs and a reduced design cycle. Not only does it allow a designer to model designs in two and three dimensions but also to model other dimensions, such as time and cost into designs.

Computer Aided Design Guide for Architecture, Engineering and Construction provides an in-depth explanation of all the common CAD terms and tools used in the AEC sector. It describes each approach to CAD with detailed analysis and practical examples. Analysis is provided of the strength and weaknesses of each application for all members of the project team, followed by review questions and further tasks.

Coverage includes:

• 2D CAD
• 3D CAD
• 4D CAD
• nD modelling
• building Information Modelling
• parametric design, virtual reality and other areas of future expansion.

With practical examples and step-by step guides, this book is essential reading for students of design and construction, from undergraduate level onwards.

Computer Aided Design (CAD) technology plays a key role in today's advanced manufacturing environment. To reduce the time to market, achieve zero defect quality the first time, and use available production and logistics resources effectively, product and design process knowledge covering the whole product life-cycle must be used throughout product design. Once generated, this intensive design knowledge should be made available to later life-cycle activities. Due to the increasing concern about global environmental issues and rapidly changing economical situation worldwide, design must exhibit high performance not only in quality and productivity, but also in life-cycle issues, including extended producer's liability. These goals require designers and engineers to use various kinds of design knowledge intensively during product design and to generate design information for use in later stages of the product life-cycle such as production, distribution, operation, maintenance, reclamation, and recycling. Therefore, future CAD systems must incorporate product and design process knowledge, which are not explicitly dealt with in the current systems, in their design tools and design object models.

Computer graphics, computer-aided design, and computer-aided manufacturing are tools that have become indispensable to a wide array of activities in contemporary society. Euclidean processing provides the basis for these computer-aided design systems although it contains elements that inevitably lead to an inaccurate, non-robust, and complex system. The primary cause of the deficiencies of Euclidean processing is the division operation, which becomes necessary if an n-space problem is to be processed in n-space. The difficulties that accompany the division operation may be avoided if processing is conducted entirely in (n+1)-space. The paradigm attained through the logical extension of this approach, totally four-dimensional processing, is the subject of this book. This book offers a new system of geometric processing techniques that attain accurate, robust, and compact computations, and allow the construction of a systematically structured CAD system.

The aim of the book is to lay out the foundations and provide a detailed treatment of the subject. It will focus on two main elements in dual phase evolution: the relationship between dual phase evolution and other phase transition phenomena and the advantages of dual phase evolution in evolutionary computation and complex adaptive systems. The book will provide a coherent picture of dual phase evolution that encompasses these two elements and frameworks, methods and techniques to use this concept for problem solving.

Modeling Remaining Useful Life Dynamics in Reliability Engineering applies traditional reliability engineering methods to Prognostics and Health Management (PHM), looking at Remaining Useful Life (RUL) and predictive maintenance to enable engineers to effectively and safely predict machinery lifespan. One of the key tools used in defining and implementing predictive maintenance policies is the RUL indicator. However, it is essential to account for the uncertainty inherent to the RUL, as otherwise predictive maintenance strategies can be incorrect. This can cause high costs, or alternatively, ineffective predictions. Methods used to estimate RUL are very numerous and diverse, and broadly speaking, fall into three categories: model-based, data-driven, or hybrid, which uses both. The book starts by building on established theory, and applying cutting edge research to it, such as artificial intelligence models and deep learning. It looks at traditional reliability engineering methods through their relation to Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) requirements and presents the concept of RUL loss rate. Following on from this, the book presents a general method for defining a nonlinear transformation enabling the MRL to become a linear function. It also touches on topics such as Weibull distribution, gamma distribution and degradation, along with time-to-failure distributions. Features: Provides both practical and theoretical background of RUL Describes how the uncertainty of RUL can be related to RUL loss rate Provides new insights into time-to-failure distributions Offers tools for predictive maintenance_ The book will be of interest to engineers and researchers in reliability engineering, Prognostics and Health Management and industry management.

This book will describe ultra low-power, integrated circuits and systems designed for the emerging field of neural signal recording and processing, and wireless communication. Since neural interfaces are typically implanted, their operation is highly energy-constrained. This book introduces concepts and theory that allow circuit operation approaching the fundamental limits. Design examples and measurements of real systems are provided. The book will describe circuit designs for all of the critical components of a neural recording system, including: Amplifiers which utilize new techniques to improve the trade-off between good noise performance and low power consumption. Analog and mixed-signal circuits which implement signal processing tasks specific to the neural recording application: Detection of neural spikes Extraction of features that describe the spikes Clustering, a machine learning technique for sorting spikes Weak-inversion operation of analog-domain transistors, allowing processing circuits that reduce the requirements for analog-digital conversion and allow low system-level power consumption. Highly-integrated, sub-mW wireless transmitter designed for the Medical Implant Communications Service (MICS) and ISM bands.

Geometric modelling has been an important and interesting subject for many years from the purely mathematical and computer science viewpoint, and also from the standpoint of engineering and various other applications, such as CAD/CAM, entertainment, animation, and multimedia. This book focuses on the interaction between the theoretical foundation of geometric modelling and practical applications in CAD and related areas. Geometric Modelling: Theoretical and Computational Basis towards Advanced CAD Applications starts with two position papers, discussing basic computational theory and practical system solutions. The well-organized seven review papers give a systematic overview of the current situation and deep insight for future research and development directions towards the reality of shape representation and processing. They discuss various aspects of important issues, such as geometric computation for space search and shape generation, parametric modelling, feature modelling, user interface for geometric modelling, geometric modelling for the Next Generation CAD, and geometric/shape standard. Other papers discuss features and new research directions in geometric modelling, solid modeling, free-form surface modeling, intersection calculation, mesh modeling and reverse engineering. They cover a wide range of geometric modelling issues to show the problem scope and the technological importance. Researchers interested in the current status of geometric modelling research and developments will find this volume to be an essential reference.

Gindis introduces AutoCAD with step-by-step instructions, stripping away complexities to begin working in AutoCAD immediately. All concepts are explained first in theory, and then shown in practice, helping the reader understand "what "it is they are doing and why before they do it.

The book contains supporting graphics (screen shots) and a summary with a self-test section at the end of each chapter. Also included are drawing examples and exercises, and two running projects that the reader works on as they progresses through the chaptersExplains the why and how of AutoCAD commands: all concepts are explained first in theory andthencovered in step-by-step detailExtensive use of screen shots, chapter summaries, and aself-test section at the end of each chapter Includesdrawing examples and exercises, and two running projects that the reader works on as he/she progresses through the chaptersEach chapter features a "Spotlight On..." section, highlighting theuse of AutoCAD in various industries Fully updated for AutoCAD 2010 release, including introduction of the ribbon menu structurein chapter 1Strips away complexities, both real and perceived, and reduces AutoCAD to easy-to-understand basic concepts; using the author's extensive multi-industry knowledge of what is widely used in practice, the material is presented by immediately immersing the reader in practical, critically essential knowledge
Strips away complexities, both real and perceived, and reduces AutoCAD to easy-to-understand basic concepts; using the author's extensive multi-industry knowledge of what is widely used in practice, the material is presented by immediately immersing the reader in practical, critically essential knowledgeExplains the why and how of AutoCAD commands: all concepts are explained first in theory andthencovered in step-by-step detailExtensive use of screen shots, chapter summaries, and aself-test section at the end of each chapter Includesdrawing examples and exercises, and two running projects that the reader works on as he/she progresses through the chaptersEach chapter features a "Spotlight On..." section, highlighting theuse of AutoCAD in various industries Fully updated for AutoCAD 2010 release, including introduction of the ribbon menu structurein chapter 1"