Re: Swarmfest 2000 Call for Participation and Papers

[Marcus G. Daniels]

>>>>> "GR" == glen e p ropella <address@hidden> writes:

GR> It would be cool if others posted their abstracts to
GR> Swarm-Modelling, as well.

Title:  How to write fast models in Swarm.

Agent-based models are by nature computationally intensive.
Finding interesting behaviors in a large space can involve parameter sweeps
over numerous variables and these variables may drive the agents in a
model for hundreds of thousands of steps.  Many questions are costly
to ask and there is no getting around it.

Choosing programming techniques that fully-exploit available computer
resources can make a real difference in determining whether or not a
given agent-based model's dynamics can be considered to an adequate extent.

In my talk, I'll trace through the process of improving the performance
of a Swarm model.  Topics that will be covered include:

  o Constructs to avoid and their algorithmic cost

  o Advanced fine-grained profiling techniques with the GNU C Library

  o Java profiling techniques

  o Demo of ahead-of-time native code generation: 
    The GCC Java frontend and Kaffe

  o Common bottlenecks for Java and Objective C Swarm models

  o Cache behavior

  o Technologies (within Swarm and external) for facilitating parallel
    parameter sweeps, and a demo



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