Computer Science | Grinnell College

On Thursday, April 18, Brooks Davis will discuss the architecture of new computers designed for research into computer systems and networks:

A team of more than thirty researchers from SRI International and the University of Cambridge have spent the last two years developing a pair of clean-slate processor designs and a supporting set of operating systems and programming language extensions. The primary goal of this work is increasing our ability to compartmentalize important -- but risky -- applications such as web browsers at a much finer scale than currently possible. Secondary goals include modernizing the process of hardware design, raising the bar for CPU research, and developing a platform for future work. This talk will discuss our goals in detail and our progress toward building a research platform to support them.

Refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Noyce 3817). The talk, “Building a platform for modern systems research,” will follow at 4:30 p.m. in Noyce 3821. Everyone is welcome to attend!

On Thursday, February 2, John Stone will discuss the development of software in modern Scheme:

The Revised⁶ report on the algorithmic language Scheme introduces several new constructions into the language that enable programmers to impose a modular structure on their code, simplifying large-scale program development and promoting even greater flexibility in adapting the language to particular applications. This talk illustrates some of the possibilities, drawing on two examples: (0) a reimplementation in R⁶RS of the Smark programmable filter, and (1) an extensive algorithm library, created for the textbook Algorithms for functional programming.

Refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Noyce 3817). The talk, "Software development using R6RS libraries," will follow at 4:30 p.m. in Noyce 3821. Everyone is welcome to attend!