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The Argentine software and computer services sector (SSI) has been active for two decades, driven by public policies and international outsourcing. However, growth in the sector has currently stagnated. This stalling is the result of the extractivism of capacities that operate in three ways: price-salaries, training and financial. The first explanation is the growing competition for costs resulting in contractions of wages and benefits. The second is capacity building that is geared to the requirements of international demand in standardized skills. The third is the financial valuation of the undertakings. This article builds a set of statistical information that enables this phenomenon for the Argentine case to be described and documented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to shed light on notable aspects of the history of computing in Greece, starting from 1920. We cover six areas, including the early days of computing in the country, the transition to the Internet era, the formation of a computer-related educational infrastructure, the evolution of data networks, and the growth of the software and hardware industry. In each area we highlight findings that involve the important role of women in this technological evolution, how the risks taken by particular individuals pushed the boundaries of the field, the slow pace of the universities at the early stages, and the key part of multinational technology companies and state-controlled banks. Apart from numerous reports and publications, our sources also include interviews with individuals who played a major part in the development of computing in Greece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the development of the German software company Software Aktiengesellschaft (AG), which was among the few European companies that succeeded in the US market already in the 1970s. Utilizing the concept of path creation, it examines how early success impacted the development of the company. It shows that at least two paths in the development, the focus on the Adaptable Database System (Adabas) product ecosystem and the underlying technology, as well as the strong internationalization, relate to the early success and influenced the further evolution of it. The analyses reveal that they played an important role in how the company reacted on to the rise of relational databases and the vertical disintegration of the computer industry. As a consequence of the late adoption, of them they company got into troubles and needed to adjust their profile and orientation during the 1990s and early 2000s, which is analyzed in the final part of the article. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Software reuse can be defined as the process of creating software products from the existing ones rather than developing software from scratch. Thus, software reuse is normally proposed to increase software productivity and quality and leads to economic benefits. In this sense, the reuse of software requirements has received important attention because it provides a solid support to develop quality software through obtaining and reusing quality software requirements [i.e., software product line (SPL) approach used in large-sized software enterprises]. However, the small-sized enterprises-which represent up to 85 % of all software organizations in many countries around the world-cannot implement a SPL approach because it does not fit with the context, properties, and complexity of their software projects. Moreover, the software engineering community has not adequately explored a more proper approach in the context of small-sized software enterprises. The use of a software requirements catalog could be this proper approach. In this context, the aim of this paper was to introduce the requirements reuse model for software requirements catalog (RRMSRC). Also, a set of guidelines to perform the main activities defined for reusing functional requirements within small-sized software enterprises is provided. As evidence of its feasibility, RRMSRC has been used in an industrial context, and the obtained results and learned lessons are summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite substantial amount of research in software process improvement (SPI) and a wide variety of SPI approaches and software process maturity models, many of the SPI initiatives still fail. This is mainly because the improvement projects are found to be far more complex than expected from the beginning. They embrace a myriad of various organizational, managerial, process, and social properties that need to be considered, such as clear directions, full commitment, continuous sponsorship, and dedicated resources. Some of those properties have been already widely known within SPI arena while others have not yet been recognized. This paper identifies the properties that need to be fulfilled for making SPI projects successful and puts them into an SPI Checklist to be used in the assessment of SPI projects. It then reports on its pilot evaluation within 10 SPI projects at Rolls Royce. The evaluation results show a strong relationship between the fulfillment of the checklist items by the projects studied and the success rates of those projects. Thereby, the results provide a strong proof of concept demonstrating that the success of SPI projects is no accident but a foreseeable outcome of clearly identified and assessable characteristics. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ireland's software industry emerged in the 1970s and 1980s due to significant international developments and, more importantly, the industrial policy approach adopted in Ireland. The attraction of software foreign direct investment during these decades was followed by the emergence of an internationally competitive Irish software sector. A multitude of factors combine to explain the trajectory of software in Ireland: from developments related to globalization and international trade, to policy makers' efforts to promote an industry where Ireland could forge a comparative advantage internationally. An analysis of industrial dynamics and institutionalized relationships (IRs) furthers our understanding of significant developments in the industry in terms of interactions between firms, government and other stakeholders. This paper makes a novel contribution by analysing Ireland's software industry within the IR framework. The IR approach we employ focuses on the finance IR, the purchase IR, the employment IR, and the commercial IR. The adoption of the IR framework approach is particularly insightful in the Irish case as it facilitates a multifaceted analysis of the complex relationships that have moulded the Irish software industry. Such an approach also facilitates a study of the policy implications and policy prescriptions that are pertinent to the software sector. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This history of Informix is told from the founder's point of view and his personal experience. He talks about the Silicon Valley of the late 1970s, the "fire in the valley" days, and the feeling that history was going to be made and that computer scientists would be playing a major role in these changes. The relational database revolution, the flourishing success of the PC packaged software industry, and the Unix server victories are the backdrop for this story. Like all stories about a young company, it is about people and what drives entrepreneurs to take oversized chances and accept the risks involved. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Rick Bennett was Oracle's one-man ad agency from 1984 to 1990 as it grew from $15 million to $1 billion in sales. Bennett chronicles the company's approach to advertising, some of its more successful and controversial ads, and his experiences working personally with Larry Ellison. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

One of the cofounders of Sybase tells about the birth of the company in 1984 and its strategy for entering what appeared to be a crowded marketplace. The article discusses how they were able to raise the funding needed. It tracks the technical development of the initial product that supported Sun and DEC computers and was rapidly accepted by the Wall Street community. The technical advantages of Sybase are described along with its marketing thrust to compete with Oracle. It covers the business relationship with Microsoft and Ashton-Tate and how the product performed in benchmarking tests. The problems with acquisitions, growth, and competition are described. It concludes with the changes in management and the company's acquisition by SAP. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article tells the story of Oracle from 1984 through 2001, primarily through the author's experiences during those years. Andrew Mendelsohn worked on the software development team that built the Oracle relational database management system (RDBMS). During this time, Oracle went from being a small niche software company to becoming one of the giants in the software industry. Although many observers believe Oracle's strong marketing and sales organizations were the primary reasons for its success during this time, Mendelsohn argues that Oracle's success was also due to its highly innovative RDBMS product that was strongly differentiated from its competitors. This article traces the development of the Oracle RDBMS through the mainframe, minicomputer, client-server, and Internet computing eras. It calls out the key competitors at each stage and the key product innovations that allowed Oracle to compete so successfully in the market. Finally, this article also provides insight into the workings of the overall Oracle business and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the issues whether and when viral terms should be directly enforceable against downstream users. It is mentioned that the technical infrastructure that the Internet provides is not adequate and it is important that viral terms be widely enforceable. Discussed also are peer production of software, viral marketing, academic peer review and commenting. Courts and commentators have applied two different justifications to the enforcement of viral terms. It is stated that notice strategies and registration of viral terms would be infeasible and ineffectual. In addition, it is inferred that the Internet has the capacity to create more changes in the business and if some viral terms are enforceable, viral business methods can develop fully.

Abstract: We present a new software implementation to more efficiently compute the mutual information for all pairs of genes from gene expression microarrays. Computation of the mutual information is a necessary first step in various information theoretic approaches for reconstructing gene regulatory networks from microarray data. When the mutual information is estimated by kernel methods, computing the pairwise mutual information is quite time-consuming. Our implementation significantly reduces the computation time. For an example data set of 336 samples consisting of normal and malignant B-cells, with 9563 genes measured per sample, the current available software for ARACNE requires 142 hours to compute the mutual information for all gene pairs, whereas our algorithm requires 1.6 hours. The increased efficiency of our algorithm improves the feasibility of applying mutual information based approaches for reconstructing large regulatory networks. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Software industry development is acknowledged as an important engine of economic growth for many developing countries. The role of national policy has been identified as a catalyst to software industry and software exports development. Academic and practitioner frameworks have emerged to guide policymakers to the factors that are critical to success. This article adopts an institutional theory perspective on the strategy-making and implementation process and examines how historically rooted, taken-for-granted assumptions limit the possible courses of action and may also simultaneously open up new opportunities. Certain complexities and contradictions are highlighted through a longitudinal case study of Costa Rica where there is an ongoing strategic planning effort to increase software exports. Key findings from the research are related to improving our understanding of how software exports policy is influenced by local, emergent institutions that have been shaped by particular historical circumstances. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A novel architecture to accelerate a neocortex inspired cognitive model is presented. The architecture utilizes a collection of context switchable processing elements (PEs). This enables time multiplexing of nodes in the model onto available PEs. A streaming memory system is designed to enable high-throughput computation and efficient use of memory resources. Several scheduling algorithms were examined to efficiently assign network nodes to the PEs. Multiple parallel FPGA-accelerated implementations were evaluated on a Cray XD1. Networks of varying complexity were tested and indicate that hardware acceleration can provide an average throughput gain of 184 times over equivalent parallel software implementations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Korea has been leading the world in broadband Internet access services since 1999. Based on an in-depth case analysis of the penetration of asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) in Korea, the present study explores the patterns of decision making and interactions among key innovation actors, such as the government, Internet service providers, equipment providers, and content providers, using a conceptual framework wherein models of innovation systems and decision making under uncertainty are combined. The results revealed that the Korean government played a pivotal role in the creation of the ADSL-based Internet service market by providing a strong vision for this emerging service, building a coalition among various key actors, and stimulating initial market needs and supply of necessary equipment during the early period of higher uncertainty. As the level of uncertainty decreased with market evolution, however, the role of industrial actors and their market competition became more important to the rapid growth of the ADSL market. Based on these findings, policy and managerial implications are proposed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article turns to classical economic insights on the division of labor and to institutional reasoning to identify some costs and benefits of open source software (OSS) and proprietary software production. It suggests that, thanks to its licenses, OSS favors market expansion more than proprietary software does by tapping into spontaneous work input. The spontaneous tapping leads to a division of labor that exhibits what the article calls redundant economies. By generating a circle of knowledge growth, reuse, and sharing, redundant economies lead to increasing returns, which are crucial for economic growth. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Timing has a key role in several traffic control functions encountered in modern packet-switched networks. In order to be effective, a timing unit must provide fine resolution, be simple to implement and scale well with the number of controlled traffic streams. This paper addresses the design, implementation and evaluation of a timing unit that can support accurate and efficient implementations of traffic shaping, policing and charging in packet-switched networks. The timing unit is implemented in hardware and, therefore, overcomes constraints associated with software-based timers. It accommodates a pool of independently-clocked timers and counters, organised in timing blocks, and, consequently, is able to support, in parallel, traffic streams with diverse timing requirements. The design supports shaping and policing through token buckets, leaky buckets and a scheme, variation of the token bucket, that aims at providing statistical quality of service guarantees by exploiting the effective rate concept. Charging is supported by dedicated counters that measure the utilization of the effective rate. The granularity of the timing unit is adjustable in run-time to adapt to changes in the rate parameters of the shaping and policing functions. The validation of the timing unit is done through the development of a prototype board consisting of programmable hardware and embedded software blocks. The temporal resolution of the timing unit and the advantages of the hardware/software co-design are experimentally evaluated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this study we focus on knowledge-intensive services used by small and medium-sized companies in the software industry. Our study explores the sources, use and perceived importance of different types of knowledge-intensive services in software business. In addition to revealing the use of commercial privately or publicly produced knowledge-intensive business services, the results of this study indicate the remarkable proportion and strategic role of non-commercial knowledge-intensive service activities that are co-produced in network partnerships. These activities are accomplished in networks in order to mutually generate or transfer knowledge between companies, customers, subcontractors or authorities of the industry, and the knowledge itself is not an object of trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: High-level performance estimation of embedded software implemented in a particular processor is essential for a fast design space exploration, when the designer needs to evaluate different processor architectures (and their different versions) and also different task allocations in a multiprocessor system. The development of fast and adequate performance estimators is required to achieve the necessary speed in this design phase. However, advanced architectures present many features, such as pipelines, branch prediction mechanisms, and caches, which have a non-linear impact on the execution time, which thus becomes hard to evaluate using simple linear methods. In order to cope with this problem, this paper presents a high-level performance estimator based on a neural network, which easily adapts to the non-linear behaviour of the execution time in advanced architectures and presents a speed-up up to 190 times in comparison with cycle-accurate simulators, using the PowerPC 750 as target architecture. A method for automatic domain classification is proposed to group applications with similar characteristics, resulting in an increase of the estimation precision. For the PowerPC 750, the mean estimation error has been reduced from 7.90% to 6.41% thanks to domain-specific estimators. This precision level and the fast estimation time are suitable for high-level design space exploration, when different architectures or processor versions and different task allocations need to be evaluated in a fast way. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article reports on the study about aggregating experimental results derived from previous studies that address the same problem in unit testing in software engineering. The researchers aim to determine through experimental results the manner by which aggregation could help practitioners make better decisions. The researchers made of previous experiments dealing on the same problems through extensive research on the digital libraries. Most experiments chosen are focused on the effectiveness and efficiency of the techniques applied while others are laboratory experiments, thus, assuming that aggregation results are not conclusive and far from the ideal. INSET: Unit-Testing Techniques.

Abstract: Analogy is an important reasoning process in creative design. It enables the generation of new design artifacts using ideas from semantically distant domains. Candidate selection is a crucial process in the generation of creative analogies. Without a good set of candidate sources, the success of subsequent phases can be compromised. Two main types of selection have been identified: semantics-based retrieval and structure-based retrieval. This paper presents an empirical study on the importance of the analogy retrieval strategy in the domain of software design. We argue that both types of selection are important, but they play different roles in the process. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article focuses on the key influences in the emerging personal computer software industry which are called as "influencers." Among the influencers considered are the media, trade shows, and research consulting firms. It has been stressed that the success of computer companies in the personal computer market depends largely on these influencers considering that their opinions can influence the computer buyers. Furthermore, it was noted that the growth of personal computer industries in 1975-1985 was reflected in the growth and later contraction of the media.

The article explores open-world software in the realm of business processes. The authors argue for the application of service-oriented design that has long driven the telecommunications infrastructure development and applications development. Because of its strong emphasis on modularization, development of service-oriented software radically alters the way business processes are modeled, realized, and maintained. The complex functions of the underlying business applications are virtualized by domain-specific services so that they can be loosely coupled to form transorganizational processes. They suggest new tools to guarantee a vertically seamless development of the modeled process.

The article features the Cocomo II cost estimation model and the Coqualmo quality estimation model. These are value-based software engineering models that provide for a quantitative risk analysis which helps determine when to stop testing a software product and the when to release it. Cocomo II parameters include the products' equivalent size in thousands of lines of code or functional equivalent, the personnel characteristics such as capability, experience and continuity, the project characteristics, and the product characteristics. Meanwhile, the Coqualmo model is an extension of Cocomo II. INSET: Value-Based Software Engineering.

The article talks about the relationship of the quality of the software products produced and the tools and materials used as reflected in the whole process of designing and manufacturing. Reflection in action and on action are learning concepts that enable developers to view software engineering as a conversation with the design materials. Meanwhile, design principles are intended to guide the creation of models and codes. There are times that the products and/or its presentation is found to be on the crowded spot and this situation needs reflection. This could either be due to a bad layout and lacking presentation. On the other hand, it could also be due to a bad partitioning of responsibilities among classes. INSETS: Flow, Performance, and Reflection in Action;Backtalk versus Feedback.

The article talks about software development optimization through software virtualization, a powerful mechanism for running multiple operating systems, as well as multiple applications on different software platforms on the same physical hardware. Virtualization approaches can be varied. These approaches include the emulation or full system virtualization, the paravirtualization, the native virtualization and the operating system-level virtualization. Virtualization can save significant capital expenditure in test infrastructure. Furthermore, it saves executing 30 percent of the product tests in the desktop environment.

In many cryptographic schemes, the most time consuming basic arithmetic operation is the finite field multiplication and its hardware implementation for bit parallel operation may require millions of logic gates. Some of these gates may become faulty in the field due to natural causes or malicious attacks, which may lead to the generation of erroneous outputs by the multiplier. In this paper, we propose new architectures to detect erroneous outputs caused by certain types of faults in bit-parallel and bit-serial polynomial basis multipliers over finite fields of characteristic two. In particular, parity prediction schemes are developed for detecting errors due to single and certain multiple stuck-at faults. Although the issue of detecting soft errors in registers is not considered, the proposed schemes have the advantage that they can be used with any irreducible binary polynomial chosen to define the finite field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose the first practical and secure way to integrate the iris biometric into cryptographic applications. A repeatable binary string, which we call a biometric key, is generated reliably from genuine iris codes. A well-known difficulty has been how to cope with the 10 to 20 percent of error bits within an iris code and derive an error-free key. To solve this problem, we carefully studied the error patterns within iris codes and devised a two-layer error correction technique that combines Hadamard and Reed-Solomon codes. The key is generated from a subject's iris image with the aid of auxiliary error-correction data, which do not reveal the key and can be saved in a tamper-resistant token, such as a smart card. The reproduction of the key depends on two factors: the iris biometric and the token. The attacker has to procure both of them to compromise the key. We evaluated our technique using iris samples from 70 different eyes, with 10 samples from each eye. We found that an error-free key can be reproduced reliably from genuine iris codes with a 99.5 percent success rate. We can generate up to 140 bits of biometric key, more than enough for 128-bit AES. The extraction of a repeatable binary string from biometrics opens new possible applications, where a strong binding is required between a person and cryptographic operations. For example, it is possible to identify individuals without maintaining a central database of biometric templates, to which privacy objections might be raised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the software product blue print that would let stakeholders view a software project's status at any point in its development. It explains that one element of project management is cost and time estimation in which researchers in software engineering spent a great deal of effort in trying to effectively estimate a project's effort and duration and to develop supporting tools and metrics. The software product blueprint would likely be the answer, it is a high-level drawing of the software code modules and how these modules are decomposed, interact, and are deployed in hardware that would be helpful for progress tracking.

The article discusses how static code-analysis tools are used and what defects they can detect. It compares several open source tools which reduces the number of bugs of all software types before deploying the more expensive verification techniques. The author explains that programmers employs static checkers after compilation and before testing, they work with a program that has an initial indication of correctness and avoid well known traps and pitfalls before measuring it against its specifications. Open source tools used to detect defects includes FindBugs static code checking in Java developed by the University of Maryland, the program compiles but fails to do the programmers wants, and the PMD and Checkstyle, are tools used for coding problems.

The article focuses on the increasing popularity of parameterized unit tests to document customer requirements, reflect design decisions, protect against changes and achieve set code coverage goals during testing. Developers at Microsoft Corp. commonly utilize unit tests such as Extreme Programming and test execution frameworks which cover only specific cases and cannot automate creation of a comprehensive set of unit tests. But developers are more positive with their parameterized unit tests that use symbolic execution techniques, which increase code coverage by finding relevant variations of existing unit tests. This depends on inputs which describe behavior more concisely than traditional unit tests.

In this paper we analyze the emergence of R&D services in Bangalore, India, by focusing on the process of technological upgrading in the Indian software industry. The development trajectory of the Indian software industry and the upgrading it has experienced, from providing low-skill software services to providing high-skill R&D services, are examined using evidence from interviews with Indian firms in Bangalore. Whereas most research on the Indian software industry thus far has emphasized the role of the state and multinational corporations, in this paper we argue that active local entrepreneurship is playing an increasingly important role in technological upgrading and in the shift from low-skill to high-skill services in Bangalore. These shifts are being facilitated by growing institutional thickness, as evidenced by the accumulation of local expertise, increasing local entrepreneurship addressing specific market niches, and the development of a local technical community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that the information technology services industry in India is having a major effect on global consulting services. Large corporations such as IBM, Accenture, EDS and Deloitte have been expanding rapidly in India to take advantage of the low-cost, high-quality workforce. At the same time, Indian software firms are expanding in the United States to establish the closer customer relationships needed to compete in offering high-end consulting services. However, in order to become recognized as global brands and increase their value, Indian software companies must promote knowledge leadership, foster efforts to improve cultural alignment, and establish incentives to innovate.

The article suggests a new approach for multimethod implementation in C++. Several programming languages allow for multimethods, but C++ semantics do not. The proposed approach is based on recursive deferred dispatching. The multimethod implementation in C++ is discussed. The approach offers advantages that includes using a conventional multimethod syntax, it provides strong compile-time type safety and it decreases compilation time and ensures acceptable usability in real-world projects.

The considerations reflected in this work are focused to emphasize the importance and necessity of the application of verification techniques like software inspections in the software industry. Especially if it is related with small and medium companies because they have the responsibility of achieving a software industry of excellence and also to obtain the quality required in developing countries. A set of authors who have carried out investigations related with the conception of the whole process of software inspection, resources and staff that should be taken into account for It, are also analyzed in this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]