MLAB SERVERS, WINDOWS 3.0 USER INTERFACE, AND PARALLELISM

MLAB IS CIVILIZED SOFTWARE'S POWERFUL MATHEMATICAL MODELING SYSTEM, DESIGNED FOR BIOMEDICAL AND SCIENTIFICAPPLICATIONS. AVAILABLE FOR DOS PCS, MLAB CURRENTLY HAS INSEPARABLE USER INTERFACE AND COMPUTATIONAL COMPONENTS. WE PROPOSE TO CREATE A SEPARATION INTO A "STANDARD MLAB INTERFACE" AND A "MLAB SERVER" INITIALLY UNDER DOS. A SERVER ALLOWS MLAB'S POWER TO BE ACCESSED FROM ALTERNATIVE STYLES OF INTERFACE. IT PERMITS THE DEVELOPMENT OF CUSTOMIZED FRONT ENDS ADDRESSING PARTICULAR SCIENTIFIC AND CLINICAL NEEDS. SINCE SUCH FRONT ENDS CAN ALSO CALL OTHER SERVERS AMD SUBROUTINE LIBRARIES, DATA-ACCESS AND MANIPULATION TOOLS FROM MULTIPLE SOURCES CAN BE FORMED INTO SIGNIFICANT SYSTEMS. DURING LATE PHASE I AND PHASE II, THE DOS MLAB SERVER WILL NUCLEATE A WINDOWS 3.0 MLAB SERVER. CONCURRENTLY A WINDOWS DIRECT-MANIPULATION MLAB USER INTERFACE WILL BE DESIGNED AND BUILT. THIS TWO-COMPONENT SYSTEM ACCESSES MLAB'S FUNCTIONALITY THROUGH THE USE OF AN ICONIC AND MENU-DRIVEN INTERFACE WITH INTEGRATED MOUSE CAPABILITIES. BOTH DOS AND WINDOWS SYSTEMS WILL FEATURE THE INTEGRATION OF A HIGH-RESOLUTION; LARGE-PALLET GRAPHICS BOARD. FINALLY, LATE PHASE II WILL SEE THE FORMATION OF A SEPARATE "MLAB ENGINE" LAYER BELOW THE SERVER, THAT WILL TAP THE CAPABILITIES OF A SPECIALIZED PARALLEL-HARDWARE BOARD TO SPEED UP LENGTHY NUMERIC PROCESSING OPERATIONS.