9729848 Gupta, Gopal New Mexico State University CISE Instrumentation: Parallel and Distributed Constraint Programming Systems on Multiprocessor PCs: Implementations and Applications This research instrumentation serves to support the purchase of four-processor Pentium-based multiprocessors and a fast Ethernet hub to enable the following projects in parallel and distributed computing at the NMSU Computer Science: - Parallel and Distributed Constraint Logic Programming Systems,- A Concurrent Constraint-based Unified Framework for Internet Programming, - Parallel Constraint-based Natural Language Processing, and- Parallel Specification and Verification of Real-time Systems,all sharing the common theme of constraint-based technology. For the projects cited, the purchased equipment facilitates: first, the design and implementation of systems that exploit parallelism implicit in logic and constraint programs; second, the distributed network is enabling the prototyping of a unified framework for Internet programming, encompassing symbolic constraints and concurrency; third, parallel constraint software technology will significantly speed up the execution of large natural language processing applications; and fourth, the development of parallel tools for verifying large, complex real-time systems. Parallelism and distributivity are key to accomplishing the goals of these projects. The chosen platform is cost-effective, flexible, and provides a balance between shared memory multiprocessors, which are efficient but not scalable, and distributed networks of processors, which are less efficient but scalable.
