Information Technology

An innovative set of tools that enable the use of component-based software engineering (CBSE) in the full lifecycle of applications will soon be at the disposal of small and big business.

Completed in October 2003, the ’software toolbox’ that resulted from the IST project, ECO-ADM, is now in its ’pre-commercial phase’ with the finished product expected to go on sale before the end of this year, according to project coordinator Joan Canal at Centro de Calculo de Sabadell

UK plans for Grid computing changed gear this week. The pioneering European DataGrid (EDG) project came to a successful conclusion at the end of March, and on 1 April a new project, known as Enabling Grids for E-Science in Europe (EGEE), begins. The UK is a major player in both projects, providing key staff and developing crucial areas of the technology. While EDG tested the concept of large-scale Grid computing, EGEE aims to create a permanent, reliable Grid infrastructure across Europe.

Gr

Engineers at Purdue University are developing a system that will enable people to search huge industry databases by sketching a part from memory, penciling in modifications to an existing part or selecting a part that has a similar shape.

“It’s like a special kind of Google that lets you search for parts based on their three-dimensional shapes,” said Karthik Ramani, a professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Purdue Research and Education Center for Information Systems in

One of the key challenges to managing distributed projects is to keep track of the overall project execution ensuring that all parties are kept informed when, say, one partner makes a breakthrough. This communications and coordination challenge led to GENESIS’ open source solution.

“The idea was to develop a flexible and low intrusive environment for managing the distributed teams of people working on the same project,” says Pierluigi Ritrovato, Manager of the Centre for Research in Pure a

Institute of Physics Condensed Matter and Materials Physics Conference
University of Warwick, 4-7 April, 2004

Developments in snap-shot MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), organic semiconductor technology, high temperature superconductivity, and progress towards quantum computers are some of the topics being presented at a major conference organised by the Institute of Physics next month. The four-day conference, CMMP 2004, will take place from Sunday 4th to Wednesday 7th April 200

Competitiveness in the chip design and fabrication sector depends on fast turn-arounds and ever shorter concept-to-product cycles. New hardware design tools based on object-oriented methods should help shorten the design cycle.

The design gap

The complexity of recently available products, such as new 3G mobile phones, camera and PDA combos, is staggering and requires a huge design effort. “There is no doubt that electronic systems of the future are going to be very complex,”