Rudolf Eigenmann (ed.)

Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking with Realistic Applications

Performance evaluation and benchmarking are of concern to all computer-related disciplines. A
benchmark is a standard program or set of programs that can be run on different computers to give an accurate measure of their performance. This book covers a variety of aspects of computer performance evaluation, with a focus on Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) benchmarks. SPEC is a nonprofit organization whose members represent industry, academia, and other organizations. The book discusses rationales for creating and updating
benchmarks, the use of benchmarks in academic research, benchmarking methodologies, the relation of SPEC benchmarks to other benchmarking activities, shortcomings of current benchmarks, and the need for further benchmarking efforts.

Contributors
Brian Armstrong, Frederica Darema, Edward S. Davidson, Sylvia Dieckmann, Jozo J. Dujmovic,
Rudolf Eigenmann, J. Kelly Flanagan, Greg Gaertner, Jonathan Geisler, John Gustafson, Urs H�lzle,
Shih-Hao Hung, Kathryn S. McKinley, Reinhard Riedl, Faisal Saied, Frank Sorenson, Mark Straka,
Valerie Taylor, Olivier Temam, Rajat Todi, Reinhold Weicker.

January 2001
ISBN 0-262-05066-8
304 pp., 159 illus. (hard cover)

Daniel P. Friedman, Mitchell Wand, and Christopher T. Haynes

Essentials of Programming Languages - 2nd Edition

This textbook offers a deep understanding of the essential concepts of programming languages. The approach is analytic and hands-on. The text uses interpreters, written in Scheme, to express the semantics of many essential language elements in a way that is both clear and directly
executable. It also examines some important program analyses. Extensive exercises explore many design and implementation alternatives.

January 2001
ISBN 0-262-06217-8
408 pp. (hard cover)

by Matthias Felleisen, Robert Bruce Findler, Matthew Flatt,
and Shriram Krishnamurthi

How to Design Programs
An Introduction to Programming and Computing

This introduction to programming places computer science in the core of a liberal arts education. Unlike other introductory books, it focuses on the program design process. This approach fosters a variety of skills--critical reading, analytical thinking, creative synthesis, and attention to detail--that are important for everyone, not just future computer programmers.

The book exposes readers to two fundamentally new ideas. First, it presents program design guidelines that show the reader how to analyze a problem statement; how to formulate concise goals; how to make up examples; how to develop an outline of the solution, based on the analysis; how to finish the program; and how to test. Each step produces a well-defined intermediate product. Second, the book comes with a novel programming environment, the first one
explicitly designed for beginners. The environment grows with the readers as they master the material in the book until it supports a full-fledged language for the whole spectrum of programming tasks.

February 2001
ISBN 0-262-06218-6
720 pp.,128 illus. (hard cover)

Manfred Opper and David Saad (eds.)

Advanced Mean Field Methods
Theory and Practice

A major problem in modern probabilistic modeling is the huge computational complexity involved in typical calculations with multivariate probability distributions when the number of random variables is large. Because exact computations are infeasible in such cases and Monte Carlo sampling techniques may reach their limits, there is a need for methods that allow for efficient approximate computations. One of the simplest approximations is based on the mean field method, which has a long history in statistical physics. The method is widely used, particularly in the growing field of graphical models.

Researchers from disciplines such as statistical physics, computer science, and mathematical
statistics are studying ways to improve this and related methods and are exploring novel application areas. Leading approaches include the variational approach, which goes beyond factorizable distributions to achieve systematic improvements; the TAP (Thouless-Anderson-Palmer) approach, which incorporates correlations by including effective
reaction terms in the mean field theory; and the more general methods of graphical models.

Bringing together ideas and techniques from these diverse disciplines, this book covers the theoretical foundations of advanced mean field methods, explores the relation between the different approaches, examines the quality of the approximation obtained, and demonstrates their
application to various areas of probabilistic modeling.

February 2001
ISBN 0-262-15054-9
300 pp. (hard cover)

Kenneth A. De Jong

Evolutionary Computation
A Unified Approach

This book offers a clear and comprehensive introduction to the field of evolutionary computation:
the use of evolutionary systems as computational processes for solving complex problems. Over the past decade, the field has grown rapidly as researchers in evolutionary biology, computer
science, engineering, and artificial life have furthered our understanding of evolutionary processes and their application in computational systems. Although many excellent books have covered specific areas of evolutionary computations, this one is noteworthy for approaching genetic algorithms, evolution strategies, genetic programming, and so on as specific instances of a more general class of evolutionary algorithms.

March 2001
ISBN 0-262-04194-4
272 pp., 50 illus.(hard cover)