Abstract
Sorting is an important operation for a number of embedded applications. As sorting large datasets may impose undesired performance degradation, acceleration units coupled to the embedded processor can be an interesting solution for speeding-up the computations. This paper presents and evaluates three hardware sorting units, bearing in mind embedded computing systems implemented with FPGAs. The proposed architectures take advantage of specific FPGA hardware resources to increase efficiency. Experimental results show the differences in resources and performances among the three proposed sorting units and also between the sorting units and pure software implementations for sorting. We show that a hybrid between an insertion sorting unit and a merge FIFO sorting unit provides a speed-up between 1.6 and 25 compared to a quicksort software implementation.

Abstract
This paper presents an approach to teaching design of non-programmable application-specific architectures using VHDL, logic and physical synthesis tools and FPGAs. The approach relies on mini-projects that resemble typical problems that students may face in real-life concerning the design of application-specific architectures. The teaching approach presented in this paper supports the incremental learning of both VHDL and the tools used. as the projects are being developed, i.e., students are motivated to acquire skills at the pace at which those skills are required to advance project development. The results so far are very encouraging. Even students with little knowledge of hardware design and embedded systems have succeeded in their assignments. Feedback obtained front students reveals the suitability of certain aspects of the approach and the major difficulties they have faced.

Abstract
COORDINSPECTOR is a Software Tool aiming at extracting the coordination layer of a software system. Such a reverse engineering process provides a clear view of the actually invoked services as well as the logic behind such invocations. The analysis process is based on program slicing techniques and the generation of, System Dependence Graphs and Coordination Dependence Graphs. The tool analyzes Common Intermediate Language (CIL), the native language of the Microsoft Net Framework, thus making suitable for processing systems developed in any Net Framework compilable language. COORDINSPECTOR generates graphical representations of the coordination layer together with business process orchestrations specified in WS-BPEL 2.0.

Abstract
More and more current software systems rely on non trivial coordination logic for combining autonomous services typically running on different platforms and often owned by different organizations. Often, however, coordination data is deeply entangled in the code and, therefore, difficult to isolate and analyse separately. COORDINSPECTOR is a software tool which combines slicing and program analysis techniques to isolate all coordination elements from the source code of an existing application. Such a reverse engineering process provides a clear view of the actually invoked services as well as of the orchestration patterns which bind them together. The tool analyses Common Intermediate Language (CIL) code, the native language of Microsoft Net Framework. Therefore, the scope of application Of COORDINSPECTOR is quite large: potentially any piece of code developed in any of the programming languages which compiles to the Net Framework. The tool generates graphical representations of the coordination layer together and identifies the underlying business process orchestrations, rendering them as Ore specifications.

Abstract

Abstract
Due to data-driven application nature and its increasing complexity, developing its user interface can be a repetitive and time-consuming activity. Consequently, developers tend to focus more on the user interface aspects and less on business related code. In this paper, we're presenting an alternative approach to graphical user interface development for data-driven applications, that allows developers to refocus on the source code and concentrate their efforts on application core logic. The key concept behind our approach is the generation of concrete graphical user interface from a source code based model, which includes the original source code metadata and non-intrusive declarative language extensions that describes the user inter-face structure. Concrete user interface implementation will be delegated to specialized software packages, developed by external entities, that provides complete graphical user interfaces services to the application. When applying our approach, we're expecting faster graphical user interface development.