Reliability SocietyN E W S L E T T E R

Vol. 45, No. 2, July 1999 (ISSN 1059-8642)

http://www.ieee.org/society/rs

President’s Message

Statics and DynamicsBefore I explain the “Statics and Dynamics” theme of my message

in this issue, I want to thank all of you for supporting me in my electionto the position of President. It is indeed an honor to be in this position.My predecessors, Loretta Arellano, Dick Doyle, and the others haveprovided me with an excellent base from which tomove into the next century. I give my thanks to themand to all who have supported them. I also thank theAdCom members with whom I worked as Vice Presi-dent for Technical Operations. They were a greatgroup! We have new AdCom members, who I wel-come heartily. I look forward to the same kind of sup-port and enthusiasm from them that brought theSociety to this point. Finally I’d like to note with plea-sure the increasingly international nature of ourAdCom. As one who has worked international pro-grams in the past, I can say from experience that the addition of interna-tional perspectives is absolutely exciting. I certainly welcome thisbroader representation within the AdCom.

You probably wonder why I chose the “Statics and Dynamics” themefor a reliability newsletter. After all, many of us have “fond” memoriesof those subjects in college. Statics was tough enough, but when thingsstarted moving - dynamics - then they really got tough! Well, we’re insomething of that type of situation now, as I perceive the reliability disci-pline. We have the statics of the more traditional reliability disciplinessuch as prediction, demonstration, growth testing, FMECA, and others.They are evolving, but basically the evolution is one of the enhancementof a pretty sound base. Now, impose upon that the very dynamic tech-nology environment. Electronic technologies “roll over” every sixmonths to one year and new technologies are being matured and de-ployed at an increasing rate. Dynamic new technologies such as micro-systems, information technology, new medical technologies, and newtransportation technologies are maturing rapidly.

These new technologies and the rapidity of their deployment willrequire that reliability engineers and managers adapt rapidly. A reli-ability engineer or manager who limits himself or herself to rote appli-cations of the traditional disciplines will be lost (i.e. probablyunemployed). Since the new technologies tend to be deployed withoutpackages of information on how reliability disciplines might be ap-plied to them, it is essential that reliability engineers and managers ex-ercise a little (or a lot) of creativity regarding which reliabilitydisciplines should be applied and how they should be applied. The Re-

C O N T E N T SPresident’s Message

1

Editor’s Column2

Chapter Activities4

Reliability Society President AdCom NominationsRequested

6

AdCom Meeting Minutes7

IEEE Reliability Society AdCom Meeting Agenda forMarch 21, 1999

8

Branding and Logo Status and History8

New Standards Published9

Meeting Notice: Microelectronic Systems Education(MSE-99)

10

Preliminary Notice: HighSys’99 First InternationalWorkshop on High ReliableHard- & Software Systems

10

Preliminary Notice: 1999 Pacific Rim InternationalSymposium on Dependable Computing (PRDC 1999)

11

Preliminary Notice: CSCWD’99 Computer SupportedCooperative Work in Design 99

19

Call for Papers: IEE Telecom Conference ChangesName & Calls for Papers

12

Preliminary Announcement and Call for Papers: IEEETransactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems

13

6th Electronic Devices and Systems InternationalConference

13

Announcing the 2nd Annual Polymeric Materials forMicroelectronics & Photonics Applications:

Mechanics, Physics, Reliability, Processing Workshop14

Call for Participation: New and EmergingTechnologies (NET*2000)

15

More on Triangles15

Conference Calendar20

Preliminary Notice: InterPack ‘99 The Pacific Rim/ASME International, Intersociety Electronic

Packaging Conference20

Editor:Dave Franklin

Associate Editor:Dr. Robert J. Loomis, Jr.

continued on page 3

2 Reliability Society Newsletter ■ July 1999

Editor’s Column ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Reliability Society Newsletter Inputs

All RS newsletter inputs should be sent to:Editor Associate EditorDave Franklin Dr. Robert J. Loomis, Jr.300 North Oak Hills Drive Consulting Engineer,Agoura, CA 91301 United Space AllianceTel: (818) 586-9683 Tel: (407) 861-5921E-mail: FranklinDL@aol.com Fax: (407) 861 5922

robert.j.loomis@psc.nasa.govor rloomis@fit.edu

The schedule for submittals is: Newsletter Due Date

January November 19April February 26July May 28October August 27

Reliability Society Newsletter is published quarterly by the Reliability So-ciety of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Inc. Headquar-ters: 3 Park Avenue, 17th Floor, New York, NY 10016-5997. Sent at a cost of$1.00 per year to each member of the Reliability Society. Printed in U.S.A.Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and at additional mailing offices.Postmaster: Send changes to Reliability Society Newsletter, IEEE, 445 HoesLane, Piscataway NJ 08854.

©1999 IEEE. Information contained in this newsletter may be copied with-out permission provided that copies are not used or distributed for directcommerical advantage, and the title of the publication and its date appearon each photocopy.

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ADVERTISING RATESAll copy that contains graphics or special fonts must be camera-ready or

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Discounted per issue rates are shown for ads run in more than one issue.

RELIABILITYSOCIETY OFFICERSPresidentK. P. LaSala (k.lasala@ieee.org)

Vice President – MembershipM. Abramo (m.t.abramo@ieee.org)

Vice President – PublicationsD. R. Hoffman (d.hoffman@ieee.org)

Vice President – MeetingsR. Gauger (r.gauger@ieee.org)

Vice President - Technical OperationsO. D. Trapp (o.trapp@ieee.org)

SecretaryJ. Voas (jmvoas@rstcorp.com)

TreasurerR. A. Kowalski (dkowalsk@arinc.com)

AdCom Members1999 Term EndingM. Ciappa (ciappa@iis.ee.ethz.ch)D. Franklin (d.l.franklin@ieee.org)D. Hoffman(d.hoffman@ieee.org)S. Keene (s.keene@ieee.org)R. Loomis (r.j.loomis@ieee.org)S. Nitta (nitta@cc.tuat.ac.jp

2000 Term EndingJ. B. Dugan (jbd@virginia.edu)R. H. Gauger (r.gauger@ieee.org)V. R. Lalli (rqlalli@lims02.lerc.nasa.gov)T. Rost (t-rost@ti.com)O. D. Trapp (o.trapp@ieee.org)P. Tsung (PWTsung@aol.com)

2001 Term EndingM. Abramo (m.t.abramo@ieee.org)A. N. Campbell (ancampbe@sandia.gov)K. Inoue (inoue@vib.kuaero.kyoto-u.ac.jp)K. P. LaSala (k.lasala@ieee.org)B. Tonti (wtonti@us.ibm.com)J. Voas (jmvoas@rstcorp.com)

Ex Officio Members With Vote

Jr. Past PresidentL. Arellano (l.arellano@ieee.org)

Newsletter EditorD. Franklin (d.l.franklin@ieee.org)

Transactions EditorW. Kuo

SecretaryJ. Voas (jmvoas@rstcorp.com)

TreasurerR. A. Kowalski (dkowalsk@arinc.com)

Ex Officio Mewmbers Without Vote

Chapter Chrp.

Std. Comm. Chrp.

Tech. Comm.Chrp.M. W. Buckley, Jr.D. SeneseM. Ward-Callan

What Happened toApril?

As you have provably noted our news-letter has been arriving 2 to 3 months late.This was caused by various logisticalproblems, including an increase in cuetime at the publisher. In order to get thedate on the newsletter back to real timewe have designated this the July issue andhopefully you are reading it in July. Notethat despite the dates on the newsletters,this is the third one mailed this year.

Dave FranklinEditor

The Reliability Societygoes to the OPeRA

Now RS members have access tosome of the electronic periodicals avail-able through the IEEE Online Periodicalsand Research Area (OPeRA). Here ishow to do it:

1. Go to the IEEE Web site: http://www.ieee.org

2. There you will find a link to OP-eRA in the “Technical Societies”section, use the link.

3. You must actually register to useOPeRA the first time. It is a

Continued on page 19

July 1999 ■ Reliability Society Newsletter 3

STANDING COMMITTEESStandards and DefinitionsT. Brogan(Thomas_L_Brogan@res.raytheon.com)

Y. Lord(Yvonne_Lord@mail.northgrum.com)

Meetings OrganizationR. Gauger (r.gauger@ieee.org)

General MembershipM. Abramo (m.t.abramo@ieee.org)

ChaptersM. Abramo (m.t.abramo@ieee.org)

Academic Education CommitteeM. Abramo (m.t.abramo@ieee.org)

Professional DevelopmentM. Abramo (m.t.abramo@ieee.org)

Constitution and BylawsT. Fagan (tfagan@nva.lmco.com)

Nominations and AwardsL. Arellano (l.arellano@ieee.org)

FellowsT. L. Regulinski (regulinski@ece.arizona.edu)

FinanceR. A. Kowalski (dkowalsk@arinc.com)

HistorianA. Plait (aplait@ieee.org)

TECHNICAL OPERATIONSVice PresidentO. D. Trapp (o.trapp@ieee.org)

Advanced ReliabilityTechniques and R&DC. Hansen (chansen@ewu.edu)

CAD-Concurrent Engineering,Expert SystemsD. Hoffman (d.hoffman@ieee.org)

Computers, Information Systems andTelecommunicationsH. Wolf (hwolf@VMS1.gmu.edu)

Emerging (New) TechnologiesD. Franklin (d.l.franklin@ieee.com)

Energy Systems Reliability andEnergy Technology AssessmentsN. Lively (301-428-3618)

Health Care and Medical Reliability(Vacant)

Human Performance ReliabilityK. P. LaSala (k.lasala@ieee.org)

International ReliabilityJ. P. Rooney (jprooney@foxboro.com)

MaintainabilityVacant

Mechanical ReliabilityR. L. Doyle (r.doyle@ieee.com)

Nuclear ReliabilityJ. Zamanali (561) 694-3857)

Quality Assurance TechnologyP. Luthra (pluthra@seistl.com)

Reliability PhysicsT. Rost (t-rost@ti.com)

Reliability PredictionsS. J. Keene, Jr. (s.keene@ieee.org)

Software ReliabilityS. J. Keene, Jr. (s.keene@ieee.org)

Speakers BureauM. Abramo (m.t.abramo@ieee.org)

Testing and ScreeningA. Chan (h.a.chan@ieee.org)

Vehicular Technology & Transporta-tion SystemsVacant

PUBLICATIONS

Vice PresidentD. R. Hoffman (d.hoffman@ieee.org)

Transactions on Reliability EditorW. Kuo

Transactions on SemiconductorManufacturingT. Rost (t-rost@ti.com)

Newsletter EditorD. Franklin (d.l.franklin@ieee.org)

WebmasterR. Loomis (r.j.loomis@ieee.org)

Video Tutorials CoordinatorS. J. Keene, Jr. (s.keene@ieee.org)

MEETINGS

Vice PresidentR. Gauger (r.gauger@ieee.org)

Meeting OrganizationR. Gauger (r.gauger@ieee.org)

IRPS RepresentativesO. D. Trapp (o.trapp@ieee.org),D. Franklin (d.l.franklin@ieee.org)

RAMS RepresentativeT. Fagan,V. R. Monshaw (fax 609-428-2342)

International Integrated ReliabilityWorkshopH. Schafft, (Schafft@apollo.eeel.nist.gov)D. Franklin (d.l.franklin@ieee.org)

International Software Reliability En-gineering SymposiumS. J. Keene (s.keene@ieee.org)

MEMBERSHIP

Vice PresidentM. Abramo (m.t.abramo@ieee.org)

General MembershipM. Abramo (m.t.abramo@ieee.org)

ChaptersM. Abramo (m.t.abramo@ieee.org)

Professional DevelopmentM. Abramo (m.t.abramo@ieee.org)

LIAISON MEMBERS

Communications & Information Pol-icy CommitteeH. Wolf (hwolf@VMS1.gmu.edu)

Energy Policy CommitteeM. Lively (301) 428-3618

Medical Technology Policy(Vacant)

PACEM. Abramo, (m.t.abramo@ieee.org)R. Gauger (r.gauger@ieee.org)

IEEE/Accreditation Board for Eng. andTech.T. L. Regulinski (regulinski@ece.arizona.edu)

IEEE R&D Policy CommitteeJ. Voas (jmvoas@rstcorp.com)

IEEE Society on Social Implications ofTechnologyH. N. Hartt (hhartt@vitro.hqnasa.gov)

IEEE Standards BoardK. LaSala (k.lasala@ieee.org)

IEEE Sensors Committee/CouncilK. LaSala (k.lasala@ieee.org)

IEEE Intelligent Transportation Sys-tems CouncilO. Trapp (o.trapp@ieee.org)

IEEE Superconductivity Council(Vacant)

liability Society can help generate thiscreativity in a collective sense. Indeed, oneof my objectives during my term as Presi-dent will be to provide information to ourmembership and others regarding the ap-plication of reliability disciplines to new,rapidly emerging technologies. The Soci-ety has taken the first steps toward achiev-ing this objective with its video program.Under the leadership of Sam Keene, ourvideo program coordinator, we have set

forth a program of cutting-edge videotutorials that address software, concurrentengineering, MEMS, and human perfor-mance. I would like to see this objectivesupported also by our standards program,so that engineers and managers have docu-mented collective advice on how to ap-proach new technologies from a reliabilityperspective.

However the Reliability SocietyAdCom cannot do this by itself. We needyour active participation in our technicalcommittees and other activities. Join us tohelp create a win-win situation for your-

selves and the Reliability Society in thecurrent dynamic, world-wide technologyenvironment by participating actively.

Finally, we are always looking for waysto improve our service to our ReliabilitySociety members. If you have any sugges-tions please contact the other AdCommembers, or me. If I may assist you in anyway, please contact me directly.

KenKenneth P. LaSala, Ph.D.

President, IEEE Reliability Societyk.lasala@ieee.org

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President’s Messagecontinued from page 1

4 Reliability Society Newsletter ■ July 1999

Chapter Activities ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Boston ChapterOn January 13, 1999, we had a tour of

the Reliability Lab of Assurance Tech-nology Corporation. Chelmsford, MA.18 people gathered, despite the stormyNew-England night, to hear all aboutFailure Analysis from Cosmo DiCiaccio,VP or Testing at ATC. Assurance Tech-nology Corporation, headquartered inCarlisle, MA, was established in 1969 toprovide management, engineering, andconsulting services in product assuranceand systems effectiveness for space sys-tems. The evening started with a brief in-troduction to Assurance TechnologyCorporation. Then we had a tour of the fa-cilities and saw the laboratories, equip-ment and samples of destructive physicalanalysis and failure analysis of parts thatwere done by ATC. Methods covered in-clude sectioning, radiography, andacoustic, optical and electron microscopyamong others. We had a chance to get aninside look at and better understanding ofthe techniques and results of failure anal-ysis as practiced by a key contributor tohi-rel space programs. The evening con-cluded with a discussion session andquestions and answers. Some samples ofthe failure analysis can be seen on ATC’sweb site at http://www.assurtech.com/dpa/dpaindex.htm.

The topic of February meeting was“Sampling Strategies for Design andManufacturing Stress Testing.” Thespeakers were Joe Dzekevich, 3ComCorporation, and Harry Saraidaridis, Lu-cent Technologies Corporation. The

meeting, with 30 participants, took placeat the 3Com facility in Southborough,MA. The speakers shared with us the pre-sentations that they gave at AST’98. Joeopened with “When to Change fromHASS or 100% ESS to HASA or SampleESS”. He started with a short statisticalbackground (yield, MLE, binomial,hypergeometric and Beta). Then, he cov-ered lot-based HASA sampling as wellcontinuous HASA sampling plans, withan emphasis being placed on the continu-ous sampling plans (CSPs). He con-cluded with some QC charts and Exceltechniques. The second presentation byHarry was: “Environmental StressTesting in Development and Manufac-turing - How Many Units to Test? Whatto conclude and Recommend?” Harryspoke about EST, HALT, and STRIFEtests in development, HASS in manufac-turing of newly introduced products, andHASA for the manufacturing of matureproducts. Manufacturing sampling plansfor new products and mature productswere presented and the benefits of thissampling discussed. Joe Dzekevich is aPrincipal Reliability Engineer with3Com Corporation. He has a B.S.I.T.from Northeastern University and aMBA from Clark University and is a se-nior member of both the IEEE and ASQ.Harry Saraidaridis is a DistinguishedMember of Technical Staff in the Reli-ability Management and EngineeringGroup in Bell Labs Advanced Technol-ogies, Lucent Technologies. He has aPh.D. in Statistics from Case Western

Reserve University and is amember of the IEEE and theASQ. Joe and Harry frequentlyjoin forces as a very effectiveand successful team. The pho-tograph below was taken onApril 1998, when they chairedour very successful AnnualSpring Reliability Symposium,Joe as a Program Chair andHarry as the Symposium Chair.

March monthly meeting, onMarch 10, at 3ComSouthborough, was an unusualone: Instead frontal technicalpresentation by a technical ex-pert (or two…) we viewed thevideotape Seminar: “De-

veloping Reliable Software in theShortest Cycle Time”. This is aco-production of the IEEE ReliabilitySociety and the IEEE Educational Activ-ities and presented by Samuel Keene,Ted Keller and John Musa. 3Com Corpo-ration purchased a copy of the video in1995 and the Boston Chapter was granteda special permission from Sam Keene topresent it to our members in a monthlymeeting. Usually the technical part of ourmeetings is limited to one hour. On thisspecial evening, per unanimous request ofthe 23 attendees, we went on and on formore than two hours. I was surprised andpleased by the interest level of our mem-bers in attending the evening (unfortu-nately some of them called in too late) andin the enthusiastic feedback from thosethat registered on time and viewed theVideo Seminar. The response of the audi-ence was: “Excellent presentation. All areexcellent speakers!” Thanks to SamKeene for the initiative creating the video,the excellent presentation and especiallythe permission to share it with our mem-bers. We plan on presenting the seminaragain and give an opportunity it to thosewho missed this evening. March meeting,was the last one of the Boston Chapter inthis 3Com Facility. 3Com Southboroughmoved at the end of March to a new cam-pus in Marlborough, MA. I thank 3Comfor the continued access to the facilities inthe past, and hope to be able to use the fa-cilities in the new campus.

In March had a special opportunity toparticipate in the Awards Banquet duringthe IRPS on March 24, 1999 in SanDiego. I was extremely pleased andproud to represent the Boston Chapterand to accept on behalf or our AdComand our Members the Best ChapterAward for the year 1997-1998. Meetingin person Dave Franklin, our editor, whowas sitting in the next table to mine, was avery pleasant surprise indeed.

I hope this newsletter will be mailedearly enough to inform the Reliability So-ciety members about the Boston ChapterSpring Reliability Symposium that willbe this year on Wednesday, May 5, 1999in the Holiday In, Boxborough MA.

The theme this year is “The ReliabilityEngineer On the Job” - The ReliabilityEngineering Profession in Today’s Busi-

February monthly meeting speakers Joe Dzekevich (left)and Harry Saraidaridis.

July 1999 ■ Reliability Society Newsletter 5

ness Environment. Please visit our website at http://www.channel1.com/us-ers/ieee/home.html for details and regis-tration form or contacts Joe Dzekevich,Symposium Chair at (508) 323-1983, orat Joe_Dzekevich@ne.3com.com.

Giora Kedem,Chair, Boston Chapter

Giora_Kedem@ne.3com.comPhone: (508) 490-5662

Cleveland ChapterFor information contact:

Vincent Lalli, ChairVincent.R.Lalli@lerc.nasa.gov

Dallas ChapterBest Regards,

Tim Rost, ChairPhone: (972) 995-9035e-mail: t-rost@ti.com

Denver

Tom Basso, TreasurerPhone 303-384-6765

thomas_basso@nrel.gov

Los Angeles ChapterDesktop Video-conferencing on the

Internet, or “I’ll See You Online” waspresented by Lee Johnson of RaytheonLearning Institute (RLI) at our Maymeeting.

With large corporations having facili-ties located nationwide and cross- coun-try travel not always feasible, it can be areal challenge to get all the parties re-quired for a particular meeting together inthe same place. Enter the latest high-techsolution to that dilemma: Video-conferencing via the Internet.

Lee Johnson, the manager of computertraining for Raytheon Learning Institute -Western Region, talked about this new tech-nology. His topics of discussion includedInternet telephony, video-conferencingtechnology, collaboration and virtual meet-ings, and available software/hardware. Hewill also gave a live demonstration ofMicrosoft NetMeeting TM .

Lee began training people on com-puter applications in 1983 and has beeninvolved in training for Raytheon Sys-

tems Company (formerly Hughes Air-craft Company) since 1990. He also coor-dinated the deployment of Computer-Based Training for the company duringthe period of 1997-1998. Lee is now withthe Raytheon Learning Institute, which isthe training organization for all ofRaytheon. His current projects includeInteractive Distance Learning and otheralternative training methods.

David L FranklinChair

d.l.franklin@ieee.org

Philadelphia ChapterOn November 17, 1998 Dr William G

Duff presented a talk on ElectromagneticInterference (EMI): The Nemesis ofMedical electronics. Sensitive medicalelectronic equipments are subject to per-formance degradation or failure as a re-sult of the severe ambient electro-magnetic environment in hospitals orclinics in which they must operate. Nu-merous instances of fatalities and lifethreatening situations have been reportedand documented. In addition to the prob-lems that have been recognized or re-ported as resulting from EMI, there haveprobably been numerous other EMIproblems that were not recognized or re-ported. In order to avoid EMI problems,(which are expected to become more fre-quent and more serious), medical equip-ment designers and manufacturers mustensure that: (1) equipment performanceis not compromised by EMI; and, (2) alllegal and regulatory requirements are sat-isfied. This talk addressed the problemsassociated with EMI in medical electron-ics and identified methods and tech-niques that may be used to designmedical electronic equipments for elec-tromagnetic compatibility.

We also heard Mr Arnie Wolfman ad-dress Improving Your Companies Time toMarket – Even If You Have a LimitedBudget. In many very large companies,process reengineering of the company’snew product development (NPD) processhas yielded some very significant operat-ing improvements when intelligently ap-plied. However, small to moderate sizedcompanies trying to emulate these con-cepts have met mixed results – sometimesdownright disappointing. How does asmaller company – with its limited finan-

cial, people and management resources –manage the daunting challenges associ-ated with the “clean sheet of paper” ap-proach that process reengineering puristsextol. Is it unrealistic for a small companyto seek quantum gains through the vehicleof process reengineering? Can such com-panies successfully reengineer their NPDprocesses to significantly reduce theirtime to market, reduce product develop-ment time and cost, nd improve their abil-ity to hit home runs with their new productentries?

A talk entitled System architecture for“Human-Computer Interface was pre-sented” by Raymond Martel on January26, 1999. He described how computerprocess and control systems performreal-time work that humans, unaided,cannot perform. These complex systems,however, continue to require continuoushuman control and intervention but donot currently contain the necessary sys-tem control architectures. Paradoxically,automated systems are experiencing anever-increasing frequency of design-in-duced human error, caused by informa-tion deficit and control encumbrances.Mr Martel briefly explored system infor-mation architecture, a theoretical modeland its application to legacy systems.

Gary Fenical then presented “Gal-vanic Corrosion of Electrically Conduc-tive Elastomers”. Electrically conductiveelastomers are effective shielding materi-als, because they provide good attenua-tion to electromagnetic radiation, whileat the same time providing an environ-mental seal. When conductive elastomersare assembled in an enclosure, they are inclose contact with a metal flange andreadily conduct current. These two con-ditions, close contact with a metallic sub-strate and electrical conductivity, create agalvanic couple. Significant corrosion ofone of the components of the couple canoccur under suitable conditions includingconductive environment (salt, water,acid, etc.), and the potential differencebetween the elastomer and the metalflange (the difference between the EMFvalues of the two materials). If the elasto-mer corrodes, an insulating corrosionproduct is formed that reduces the con-ductivity of the elastomer. This presenta-tion addressed the design issues and theprocesses to minimize these conditions.The data provided was intended as a

6 Reliability Society Newsletter ■ July 1999

Reliability SocietyAdCom Nominations Requested

It is time to consider nominations forthe Reliability Society AdministrativeCommittee Members who will serve theSociety from 2000 through 2002. Thereare two ways for a candidate to be placedon the ballot:

1. A nominating petition signed byten or more Reliability SocietyMembers in good standing (ex-cluding student members),2. Selection by the Reliability Soci-ety’s Nominating Committee.

Candidates placed on the ballot are notdesignated between type 1 and type 2candidates. The sponsor of a nomineeshould secure the candidate’s willingnessto serve (The AdCom meets four timesper year. Expenses for attending themeetings are not borne by the ReliabilitySociety). A Nominating Petition signedby at least ten members of the Reliability

Society (excluding student members) anda biographical sketch should be includedin the submittal. For uniformity, the bio-graphical sketch should be typed and in-clude four sections:

1. Education: Degrees, Univer-sities, Subjects2. Work Experience3. IEEE Experience4. Other

The biographical sketch should belimited to one side of one 8.5" x 11" sheetof paper. The nominating material: 1)Agreement to serve if elected (signed), 2)Biographical sketch, and 3) Nominatingpetition, should be sent before August 1,1999 to: Loretta Arellano NominatingCommittee Chair, C/O Raytheon Sys-tems, P.O. Box 92426, Los Angeles, CA90009. Questions can also be e-mailed tol.arellano@ieee.org

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The data provided was intended as aguide to help in choosing the appropriatetype of couple(s).

Fulvio E OlivetoPhiladelphia Section

609-722-3147

San Diego ChapterAt the march chapter meeting Dick

Doyle presented a talk on Mi-cro-Mechanical Reliability. This presen-tation was made in conjunction with theworld renowned “International Reliabil-ity Physics Symposium” held this year inSan Diego. In addition to attending theChapter meeting, members were allowedto attend the Exhibits part of the Sympo-sium. The meeting was held on 23 March99 at the Town and Country Hotel, HotelCircle, San Diego, CA. The presenter,Dick Doyle is the Reliability ChapterSecretary. He recently gave a similar pre-sentation in Zurich Switzerland last Octo-ber. He has taught tutorials and writtenchapters for Reliability Handbooks onMechanical Reliability. He outlined theprocess for predicting failures of smallparts, both electrical and mechanical and

showed how to determine thecatastrophic stresses. Included with thepresentation was a 20-page instructionbooklet that he has prepared.

Richard L. Doyle,PE Secretary of Rel. Chap

r.doyle@ieee.org

Singapore Chapter(ED/Reliability/CPMTJoint Chapter)

For Information contact

Daniel Chan, Chairman,Singapore Reliability/ED/CPMT

Chapterelecshd@nus.edu

SwitzerlandMauro Ciappa

Switzerland Chapter Chairemail:

Tokyo ChapterKoichi Inoue

Chairmaninoue@vib.kuaero.kyoto-u.ac.jp

New IEEE WebSite Features

Virtual ReadingRoom

PISCATAWAY, NJ, 3 March1999 – The IEEE Educational Ac-tivities Department announces therelease of its Online EducationReading Room at:

http://www.ieee.org/eab

Once inside the virtual room,viewers can click on any book in thebest-selling IEEE Selected Read-ings series or Engineers’ Guides ToBusiness Series, and “flip through”the full text of its pages. Titles up forbrowsing include Cellular RadioAnd Personal Communications,Smart Antennas, Recent Develop-ments in Power Electronics, Mar-keting for Engineers, Working In AGlobal Environment, Writing ForCareer Growth, and more!

Logical and user-friendly in itsdesign, the reading room features:

■ Keyword, title, and authorsearch options

■ Full table-of-contents displaysfor each title

■ Navigation tools that enableviewers to move from page topage and section to section, andto zoom in for a closer look atdiagrams and formulas

■ Online ordering options

“Having a reading room on theInternet gives visitors the opportu-nity to browse through books beforebuying them, just as they would in atraditional bookstore,” says AlanTrembly, Business DevelopmentManager for IEEE Educational Ac-tivities. “A distribution mediumsuch as this really enhances theIEEE’s image as practitioner of thetechnology of the future.” For moreinformation about the reading roomcontact Alan Trembly ata.trembly@ieee.org.

July 1999 ■ Reliability Society Newsletter 7

AdCom Meeting Minutes ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Hilton and TowersWashington D.C.January 16-17, 1999

Attendees: J. Voas, M. Roush, L.Arellano, W. Tonti, R. Kowalski, M.Lively, T. Rost, Y. Lord, B. Trapp, K.Inoue , B. Gauger, A. Campbell, S.Keene, D. Hoffman, D. Doyle, B.Loomis, K. LaSala, D. Franklin

CALL TO ORDER, the meetingstarted at 1:40 p.m. on 1/16. We agreed tothe agenda and a motion was approvedaccepting the minutes from the October1998 Zurich AdCom meeting.

Dick Kowalski gave the Treasurers re-port. He noted that 1/3 fewer pages oc-curred in the ‘98 Trans. on Reliability.IEEE will pay the less because of this.Dick still projects a surplus in ‘99.

For her presidents report Loretta re-ported on the TAB Meeting. Loretta rec-ommended that Ken LaSala work on“decision streamlining”, Dick Kowalskiwork on the IEEE’s “new financialmodel”, and Phil Tsung work on “brand-ing”. Loretta also talked to the IEEE aboutgetting an executive director for the RS.

Loretta is taking the lead on Objective#5, to Identify Section / Chapter SupportRequirements. She hopes to be done withit by the end of ‘99.

VP meetings Bob Gauger reportedthat RS was asked for SAE TOPTECsponsorship. No one at the AdCom meet-ing knew what TOPTEC stood for, soBob Gauger took an action item to findout what TOPTEC is and will report backat next AdCom meeting.

Technical (non-financial) sponsor-ship of 1999 Pacific Rim InternationalSymposium on Dependable Computingwas approved. Financial sponsorship tothe next PRDC conference (presumablyit is in 2000) was also approved. BobGauger took an action item to notify Mi-chael Lyu of this action since Lyu is incharge of PRDC’99.

Ann Campbell gave an overview ofthe IRPS ‘99 status (symposium was heldin late March).

Ann Campbell also informed theadcom that the EDS Device ReliabilityPhysics Committee is considering estab-

lishing a new multi- societysponsored journal on DeviceReliability Physics. ManyAdCom members expressed in-terest in the project.

The 3rd AdCom meeting of‘99 will be held on July 31.

Membership issues:Ken LaSala took an action

item to look into the activitiesof the Italy and Spain Chapters.

Dennis Hoffman talkedabout Membership activities.

January 17, 1999Dave Morton talked about

his activities with the IEEE His-tory Center in NJ. They arelooking for a total of $10M inendowment support, gathering a smallamount from each IEEE entity.

The publications report was presentedby Dennis Hoffman, who took an actionitem to look into the 75% camera readycharge for Transactions on Reliabilityand will be talking to Ralph Evans moreabout this. Dennis also will also deter-mine if our support person at HQ can dothe “support for the review process” tasksand therefore save the charge currentlyexpended for this task. Additional actionitems for Dennis include determiningwhat to do when Ralph retires and howshould we handle electronic publishingof RS publications in the future. He willbe coming back with recommendations.

Transactions Editor Search Statuswas reported by Dennis. He said theCommittee first needs to form a consen-sus on the editor’s requirements and fo-cus. More people may be added to searchcommittee. J. Dugan is currently actingas editor.

Bob Loomis gave update on the website. Many improvements have oc-curred and all AdCom members seemedpleased with the material there. Gettingmore hits on the RS web site is a futuregoal to achieve. Bob Loomis was autho-rized to hire a service that will enableweb crawlers to more rapidly find theRS web site. Currently, Bob Loomissaid that searches on “reliability” even-tually find the RS web site but findmany other sites before ours.

Sam Keene then talked about VideoProgram Status and revenue to date. Fourvideos have been made to date, costingthe RS $77.5K with a total return to dateis $51,828. Sam said that software videossold well.

Sponsorship of a Software TestingVideo and an Accelerated Testing Videowas approved

Publication of ISSRE Papers in RSTransactions

J. Dugan agreed to investigate techni-cal sponsorship for SRDS’99 and arrangesponsorship if the other sponsors agreed.

In addition J. Dugan was asked to tryto get 2 or 3 symposia to place their verybest papers into the Transaction, wherethese papers met all other publication re-quirements.

TECHNICAL OPERATIONSIEEE Sensors Council, Ken LaSala

talked about a newly proposed council onsensors. A motion was approved givingRS support to the council.

AdCom approved participation in thesuperconductivity council and to supportone person to attend the meetings.

NEW BUSINESSVoas was given an action item to redo

the Roster, and to give the AdCom Rosterto Bob Loomis for future control andplacement on the web site.

Introduction of the New AdCom class, Jeff Voas, BillTonti, Koichi Inoue, Marsha Abromo, Ann Campbell,Ken LaSala (pres.)

8 Reliability Society Newsletter ■ July 1999

IEEE Reliability Society ADCOM Meeting Agendafor March 21, 1999

Call to OrderAgree to Agenda Ken LaSalaMinutes Approval Jeff Voas

Treasurers Report Dick KowalskiBudget and finances reportUpdate on new obligations esp.

council contributionsYear 2000 budget parametersCalendar for inputs to the 2000 budget

President’s Report - Ken LaSalaTAB Meeting OverviewIEEE “Branding” - Phil TsungIEEE New Financial Model -

Dick KowalskiIEEE Decision Streamlining -

Ken LaSalaContinued appointment of

representatives to IEEETechnology Policy ActivitiesCouncil (TPA)

RS Organization ChartsRS Audit Preparation - Dick Kowalski

Vice Presidents’ Reports

Meetings Bob Gauger■ RAMS Results brief - Bob Gauger

(input from Henry Hartt)■ IRPS status - Ann Campbell■ Testing Comptuer Software (TCS

99) Conference Sponsorship - S.Keene/R. Gauger

Membership Marsha Abramo■ Membership status■ February Membership

Development Retreat■ Update RS recruitment display

Phil Tsung

■ Report on Chapter ActivitiesMarsha Abramo

■ Report PACE ActivitiesMarsha Abramo/Bob Gauger

■ Report Educational ActivitiesMarsha Abramo

Publications Dennis Hoffman■ Transactions status

Joanne Bechta Dugan■ Newsletter status

Dave Franklin■ Distribution of IRPS Proceedings

via CD vs hard copyA. Campbell

■ Web site updateBob Loomis

■ Video Program StatusSam Keene

■ Transactions Editor Search(Search committee chair)

■ RS TransactionsJoanne Bechta Dugan

■ Loaning RS Videos to librariesJoanne Bechta Dugan

Technical Operations Bud Trapp■ Technical operations status and

committee significant events◗ Replacement for John Adams as

committee chair and representativeto IEEE Medical Technology Pol-icy Committee

■ IEEE Sensors CouncilKen LaSala - see attached

■ IEEE Intelligent TransportationSystems Council Bud Trapp

■ IEEE-ETSI agreementTom Brogan/ Yvonne Lord

■ StandardsTom Brogan/ Yvonne Lord

◗ IEEE P1332 CustomerReaction/Satisfaction

◗ IEEE P.1413 progress and fol-low-on activity

◗ IEEE SA issues CS position paper◗ Superconductivity Council

Ken LaSala◗ Need RS Representative to

Superconductivity Council■ Software Developer Certification

Sam Keene■ Junior Past President’s Report

Loretta Arellano◗ Nominations Committee Report■ Singapore nomination◗ Officer Responsibilities Summaries◗ Current ADCOM Assignments◗ Updated Field of Interest Statement

Dennis Hoffman◗ Update of By-laws and Constitution

Tom Fagan/ Dick Doyle

Senior Past President ReportDick Doyle◗ Long Range Planning Report

New Business - All◗ Volunteers for assignments

Loretta

Old Business◗ “Executive Director” Piscataway -

identify duties, determine if neededor possible through current IEEEservices - Sr. or Jr. Past Pres.?

◗ Contribution to IEEE History Com-mittee - $5000 recommended

Adjourn

Branding and Logo Statusand History ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

The Reliability Society would like tothank all those who have submitted a logodesign in response to our efforts over thepast few years to develop a new Reliabil-ity Society logo. We appreciate your in-terest and involvement. However, we did

not select any logo submittal. One of thereasons is that there is currently an effortat IEEE referred to as “branding” whichwould impact any of its individual soci-ety’s efforts to develop its own logo.Branding is the term used for “adopting

an image” for the entire IEEE. Thecurrent IEEE logo, with its emphasis onelectromagnetic (see history below), mayno longer serve as a symbol representingthe entire electrical engineering disci-pline. For example, how does the Medical

July 1999 ■ Reliability Society Newsletter 9

Society identify itself with the IEEE?What about the large and growing Com-puter Society, with all the software pro-fessionals who grew up in the digitalworld and have no formal training or in-terest in power engineering, electromag-netic theory, etc.? Given the breadth ofmembership in IEEE, the scope of thisbranding effort is large and it is difficultto please all member societies. We at theReliability Society can help the IEEEBranding Committee by doing the fol-lowing:

a. Fill out a survey re: the brandingand image issue. This surveyshould be available in Spring/Sum-mer 1999.

b. Solicit opinions re. how the IEEEshould position itself to address allthe different societies (about 40)and interests. In particular, giventhe diversity of the organization,should we try to have a centralizedsystem on image, or keep it decen-tralized (i.e. every society for it-self?).

c. Provide any unique issues that theReliability Society needs to be con-sulted on re: branding and im-age.Any inputs on the above issueswould be appreciated.

Please e-mail comments or sugges-tions to Phil Tsung at pwtsung@aol.com

This history of the current IEEE logois taken from the IEEE Student Journal,May 1963. The IEEE Logo, represents anorganization formed by the consolidationof the American Institute of ElectricalEngineers (AIEE) and the Institute of Ra-dio Engineers (IRE) in 1963. The em-blem of IEEE derives its design from theinsignia of the two constituents. How-ever, it is not a mere compound of thesetwo components. Rather, it continues thetrend toward an emphasis of basic con-cepts characteristic not only of the evolu-tion of the emblems of the constituentorganizations, but of the whole electricalengineering education and practice. Inthis, it also conforms to the best moderndesign and traditional heraldry.

Both the emblems of AIEE and IREhad as a central motif the association ofelectricity and magnetism, perhaps themost fundamental concept lending itself tographical representation. In the IRE case,two arrows represent current and

magnetomotive force. In the AIEE case,linked circles suggest the relation of theelectric and magnetic fields. In IEEE, as inits two predecessor organizations, thechoice of an emblem was the subject ofmuch careful consideration. AIEE wasfounded in 1884. Its first badge wasadopted in 1893 after three years of dis-cussion during which a committee headedby Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, who wasthe President of AIEE from 1891 – 1892,offered various designs.. The badge’s out-line represented Franklin’s kite. An actualcoil of gold wire marked its periphery,with midpoints spanned by a galvanome-ter complete with blued steel needle andcovered by an amber disc. Thus, it wassought to embody the Wheatstone bridge.For good measure, Ohm’s law and the let-ters AIEE were imprinted in gold on theenamel base. But this badge was aban-doned after four years.

In 1897, AIEE adopted the emblem,which served essentially unchanged until1963. Here, the central theme is the linkedcircles representing the relation of the elec-tric and magnetic fields. The symmetricaloutline approximates a hypocycloid of fourcusps. It may still suggest a kite and abridge, but in any event it provides for abalanced distribution of the four initials ofthe society. The IRE, founded in 1912,chose the now familiar triangle and arrowsrepresenting electrical and magnetic forcesin the conventional “right-hand rule” rela-tionship. In choosing this emblem, the IRErejected designs of its predecessor organi-zations, the Society of Wireless TelegraphEngineers (SWTE) and The Wireless Insti-

tute (TWI), both of which has used as theirinsignia the Hertz oscillator and receiverloop. IRE judged that emblems embodyingspecific techniques or equipment were in-adequate symbols for a dynamic organiza-tion. The triangular outline of the IREemblem also provided for a balanced dis-play of three initials.

The IEEE badge then, evolved ratio-nally from its predecessors and retainsin its outline and central device readilyrecognizable features of the emblems ofboth the AIEE and IRE. It was propor-tioned and designed by competent artists.The design of the IEEE badge was settledin less than 15 minutes actually. It wasperceived that the AIEE and IRE badgeshad features that could be combined. Thefour-sided “kite” outline of the AIEEbadge was retained with minor adjust-ment. The central feature of the IREbadge, the straight and curved arrowssymbolizing the “right-hand rule” ofelectromagnetism, was recognized as ba-sic in electrical theory from megawattpower generators to radio waves. Onechange, however, was to have the centralarrow point upward rather than down.One notable difference between the newIEEE badge (circa 1963) and its prede-cessors was the absence of lettering. Abadge without lettering could be read inany language. Additionally, it wasthought that letters would clutter the de-sign. There was an implied hope that intime, the outline of the badge would be-come so familiar in engineering and sci-ent i f ic professions that fur theridentification would not be needed.

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

New Standards PublishedBelow are the standards published

from 1 January 1999 to 31 March1999.Details about these standards and otherstandards published or in developmentcan be found on the IEEE Standards Webpage at http://standards.ieee.org/ca=talogor e-mailing stds.info@ieee.org

IEEE Computer SocietyIEEE Std 802.1Q-1998, IEEE Stan-

dards for Local and Metropolitan AreaNetworks: Virtual Bridged Local AreaNetworks

IEEE Std 1220-1998, IEEE Standardfor Application and Management of theSystems Engineering Process

IEEE Std 1320.2-1998, IEEE Standardfor Conceptual Modeling Language Syn-tax and Semantics for IDEFIX97 (IDEFobject)

IEEE Std 1490-1998, IEEEGuide-Adoption of PMI Standard, AGuide to the Project Management Body ofKnowledge ISO/IEC 15068-2 1999(IEEE Std 1387.1-1995), Informationtechnology-Portable Operating System

10 Reliability Society Newsletter ■ July 1999

Interface (POSIX) system administra-tion-Part 2: Software administration

IEEE Electron DevicesSociety

IEEE Std 1005-1998, IEEE StandardDefinitions and Characterization ofFloating Gate Semiconductor Arrays

IEEE Power EngineeringSociety

IEEE Std 492-1998, IEEE Guide forOperation and Maintenance of Hy-dro-Generators

IEEE Std 1416-1998, IEEE Recom-mended Practice for the Interface of NewGas-Insulated Equipment in ExistingGas-Insulated Substations

IEEE Reliability SocietyIEEE Std 1413-1998, IEEE StandardMethodology for Reliability Predic-tion and Assessment for ElectronicSystems and Equipment

IEEE StandardsCoordinating Committee(SCC)

IEEE Std 1231.2-1998, IEEETrial-Use Standard for Artificial Intelli-gence Exchange and Service Tie to AllTest Environments (AI-ESTATE): Ser-vice Specification IEEE Std 1445-1998,IEEE Standard for Digital Test Inter-change

For additional information on Standardscontact:Karen McCabe Manager,Marketing IEEE Standards Activitiesk.mccabe@ieee.org1-732-562-3824;FX: 1-732-562-1571http://standards.ieee.org/The Institute of Electrical andElectronics Engineers, Inc.445 Hoes Lane,PO Box 1331,Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331, USA

Meeting Notice

Microelectronic SystemsEducation (MSE-99)

Jul. 19-21, 1999; Arlington, VA1999 IEEE Computer Society In-

ternational Conference on Microelec-tronic Systems Education “SystemsEducation in the 21st Century"

The 1999 Microelectronic SystemsEducation conference (MSE-99) isdedicated to furthering undergraduateand graduate education in designingand building innovative microelec-tronic systems.

The meeting will focus on the fol-lowing topics: Needs and Expecta-tions of Industry Capabilities andConstraints of Academia Mixing Ed-ucational Concepts and Technol-ogy-Dependent Issues InfrastructureSupport Mentoring and PartneringAmong Institutions Using Comple-mentary Research to Facilitate Educa-

tion Distributed Learning — WhatWorks and What Doesn’t Contrib-uting and Sharing Educational Mod-ules Project-oriented EducationDistributed Design and use of IP inEducation

For Information go to:

http://microsys6.engr.utk.edu/ece/bouldin_contact.html

A EUROPEAN CONFERENCE isalso held. Conferences on this subjectare being held in the U.S. on odd yearsand in Europe in even years. Pleasenote that the European Workshop onMicroelectronics Education will beheld during May 18-19, 2000, inFrance.

Preliminary Notice

HighSys’99First InternationalWorkshop on HighReliable Hard- &

Software Systems

September 28 - 30, 1999(Tuesday - Thursday)

Sindelfingen (Messehalle),Federal Republic of Germany

The congress HighSys’99:

High availability receives the highestpriority for many computer systems in-side industrial as well as non-industrialapplications. Based on the reliability ofused hardware and software components,this is only obtained by the system knowl-edge of developers and users. The con-gress HighSys’99 aims to present ascientific platform for exchange in the ar-eas of High Reliability and High Avail-ability, from theory to practice and viceversa. This is driven by the increasing im-portance and by the requirements for ex-plaining such complex technologies.Inside the congress, workshops and freepresentations will be included. The topicsinclude, but are not restricted to

■ Real-time systems and require-ments

■ Bus systems■ PCI■ Industrial PCs■ Responsive systems

■ Telecommunications■ Reconfigurable hardware■ Tele-services inside small and

medium size companies■ Internet

■ Internet technologies■ Java

■ General topics■ Fault tolerance■ Fault resilience■ High availability, high reliability■ Redundant systems■ Hot swapping, life insertion

July 1999 ■ Reliability Society Newsletter 11

Parallel to all workshops and presen-tations, scientific poster sessions as wellas industrial forum with topics likeOSEK, telecommunicat ions in-ternet/intranet and real-time systems willoccur. HighSys’99 is embedded into theexhibition IT Engineering ‘99 - Informa-

tion-Technology-Engineering - whichcovers the following topics: telecommu-nication, industrial applications, auto-motive, aircraft, space, controls andprocesses technologies, medical applica-tions. Further information is obtainablefrom http://www.it-engineering.

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Preliminary Notice

1999 Pacific Rim InternationalSymposium on Dependable

Computing (PRDC 1999)

December 16-17, 1999

Hong Kong, China

The symposium is sponsored by, theIEEE Reliability Society, the IEEEComputer Society Technical Committeeon Fault-Tolerant, the Computing (ap-proval pending) IEEE Hong Kong Sec-tion Computer Chapter. With the supportof: the Chinese University of HongKong, the City University of HongKong, the Hong Kong Polytechnic Uni-versity, Hong Kong University, theHong Kong University of Science andTechnology.

General Information:The Pacific Rim International Sym-

posium on Dependable Computing (for-merly Pacif ic Rim Internat ionalSymposium on Fault-Tolerant Systems)is a biennial symposium for dissemina-tion of the state-of-the-art research in de-pendable computing, with particularemphasis on systems and software. Thiswill be the sixth in the series of biennialsymposia organized since 1989. Re-search papers ranging from fundamentaltheoretical contributions to practical ex-perimental projects are welcome. PRDC1999 will be held in conjunction with theInternational Computer Congress 1999which also features The Fifth Interna-tional Computer Science Conference

(ICSC’99) and The Sixth InternationalConference on Real Time ComputingSystems and Applications (RTCSA’99).

Topics of interestinclude, but notlimited to:

■ Design for system dependability■ Fault-tolerant systems and software■ Software and hardware reliability,

testing, verification and validation■ Dependability measurement, mod-

eling and evaluation■ Safety-critical systems and soft-

ware■ Security issues and approaches■ Tools for design and evaluation of

dependable systems■ Component-based technology and

dependability■ Dependability issues related to the

Year 2000 problem■ Application-specific dependability

issues in distributed and parallelsystems, computer networks,real-time systems, database andtransaction processing systems,world wide web and Internet

Symposium Home Page:

Preliminary Notice

CSCWD’99ComputerSupported

Cooperative Workin Design 99

September 29 - October 1,1999, Compigne, France

Details concerning the above conferencecan also be found at

http://www.hds.utc.fr/~barthes/CSCWD99/CSCW99-CFP.html

Themes:Design of complex new artifacts re-

quires the cooperation of a number ofspecialists working in different domains.New trends are currently appearing:

■ The addition of new computer tech-nology to increase the efficiency ofcommunications

■ The requirement to reuse R&D re-sults from previous projects

The necessity to take into account re-sults and criticisms, occurring during theentire life cycle of the designed product.

Thus, new supporting technologies,mostly centered on computer networks,cannot be restricted any longer to theircomputer or software components. De-sign strongly interacts at least with manu-facturing, and then, CSCW must considersuch strong interactions.

In parallel the human component ofCSCW should not be forgotten, and thesocial and organizational aspects of thedomain deserve more attention than cur-rently given. Thus, specialists of socialsciences (e.g., cognitive ergonomists,cognitive psychologists) must now be in-vited to participate in our discussions.

The themes of CSCWD’99 include thefollowing topics:

■ Techniques, methods, and tools forimproving CSCW in Design

■ Social organization of the CSC pro-cess

■ Integration of tools and methodswithin the work organization

12 Reliability Society Newsletter ■ July 1999

■ Interaction between design andother steps in the production cycle(e.g. production planning, schedul-ing, and control)

■ Interaction between the CSC ap-proach and knowledge reuse asfound in knowledge management

■ Internet and CSCW in Design■ Applications and testbedsThis year we are organizing for the

first time a new track on collaborationtechnologies and applications to elec-tronic commerce. Recently, in particularsince the advancement of the Internet andthe World Wide Web for business pur-poses, there has been considerable inter-est in the modeling and execution ofcollaborative business and other organi-zational processes. The design and thedevelopment of new and improved col-laborative organizational computing andcommunication platforms and electroniccommerce technologies is now emergingas one of the most active research areas inapplied computer science and managementinformation systems. Information technol-ogy supported organizational collabora-tions occur both within organizational units(intra-organizational collaborations) andacross organizational boundaries(inter-organizational collaborations). Elec-tronic commerce encompasses all aspectsof conducting business that are essentiallymediated by electronic computing and

communication infrastructures. This in-cludes, for example, business activitiessuch as marketing, opportunity finding,sales, bidding, negotiation, production, in-ventory management, procurement, supplychain networks, distribution channels, pay-ment, customer service and support, and soon. This track concerns the theory, meth-ods, systems as well as the adoption, appli-cation and usage of collaborationtechnologies in business environments.Hence, methodological issues, theoreticalissues, implementation issues, case studies,empirical studies and behavioral researchare all relevant to our discussion.

We anticipate original research papersthat are theoretical, applied, conceptualor descriptive in nature but position pa-pers, survey papers, and tutorials. Paperswill be specifically but not exclusively re-lated to one of the following areas.

■ Workflow management systems■ Office automation systems■ Business Process Reengineering■ Collaborative decision-making■ Group Support Systems■ Electronic Meeting Systems■ Collaborative learning infrastruc-

tures and systems■ Distributed learning networks■ Business-to-business collaborations

in electronic commerce■ Auctioning and trading in electronic

markets

■ Electronic intermediaries andbrokerage systems

■ Digital money and electronicbanking

■ Organizational memory systems■ Digital document management■ Intelligent business agents■ Negotiation Support Systems■ Digital contracting■ Virtual Organizations■ Telework and organizational

connectivity■ Collaborative virtual environments

and digital landscapes■ Adoption and diffusion of collabo-

ration technologies■ Social issues of collaboration

technologies■ Interaction and relationships in

cyberspace and virtual communities■ Computer-mediated communica-

tion and discourse■ Collaboration systems user

experience■ Collaboration technology■ Human factors and usability

Information about the previous work-shops can be found at the following ad-dress:

http://imsg.enme.ucalgary.ca/CSCWID/

Call for PapersIEE Telecom Conference Changes Name; &Calls for Papers

London, UK, 26 Mar — To reflectthe changes in communications that areoccurring worldwide, the InternationalSwitching Symposium will becomeThe World Telecommunications Con-gress in the year 2000. The new eventwill take place in Birmingham, UnitedKingdom in May 2000. A formal callfor papers has been announced for top-ics including; The IP World-how willwe make it work?; Switching Invest-ments: Living with Risk; What’s YourNetwork IQ?; Towards the Mobility

Dream; Access Technologies Beyond2000; Smarter Network and ServiceManagement; Information ServicesBeyond 2000; and Who Will Create theFuture?

For information contact IEE Con-ventions, Ltd, Savoy Place, London,WC2R 0BL: Telephone: +44 (0)171344 5478; Fax: +44 (0)171 240 8830:Email wtc@iee.org.uk.

Media Contact: David Dowle, Di-rector of Public Relations, IEE Tel:

+44 (0) 171 344 8403, Fax: +44 (0)171379 7707, ddowle@iee.org.uk

IEEE Corporate CommunicationsMarsha H. Longshore732-562-6824(voice)732-981-9511(fax)445 Hoes LanePiscataway, NJ 08805-1331m.longshore@ieee.orghttp://www.ieee.org/newsinfo

July 1999 ■ Reliability Society Newsletter 13

Preliminary Announcement and Call for Papers

IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems

The IEEE Intelligent TransportationSystems Council (ITSC) announces a newtransactions journal, the IEEE Transactionson Intelligent Transportation Systems.Contingent on formal IEEE approval, theITSC plans to begin publishing the firstquarterly issue March 2000.

Improved planning, design, manage-ment, and control of future transportationsystems requires conducting both basic andapplied research to expand the knowledgebase on transportation. The new IEEETransactions on ITS will focus on the de-sign, analysis, and control of informationtechnology as it is applied to transportationsystems. Topics to be considered will in-clude, but will not be limited to:

■ Sensors (infrastructure & vehi-cle-based)

■ Communications (wide area & vehi-cle-to-roadside)

■ Man-Machine Interfaces (displays,artificial speech)

■ Decision Systems (expert systems,intelligent agents)

■ Simulation (continuous, discrete,real-time)

■ Reliability & Quality Assurance■ Imaging and Image Analysis■ Information Systems (databases,

data fusion, security)■ Computers (hardware, software)

■ Control (adaptive, fuzzy, coopera-tive, neuro, large systems)

■ Technology Forecasting & Transfer■ Systems (engineering, architecture,

evaluation)■ Signal Processing■ Standards.Transportation systems are usually

large-scale in nature and are invariablygeographically distributed. The complexityof transportation systems arises from manysources. Transportation systems can in-volve humans, vehicles, shipments, infor-mation technology, and the physicalinfrastructure—all interacting in complexways. Many aspects of transportation sys-tems are uncertain, dynamic and nonlinear,and such systems may be highly sensitiveto perturbations. Controls can involve mul-tiple agents that are distributed and hierar-chical. Personnel who invariably playcritical roles in a transportation systemhave a diversity of objectives and a widerange of skills and education.

Despite such complexity, the emer-gence of new technologies—such assensors, communications, low-cost,faster computation, and new controland optimization algorithms—providesnew opportunities to substantially im-prove efficiency, safety and environ-mental impact. With the use of these

technologies, new and faster measure-ments are possible and more data can bemanaged and processed. Additionally,new strategies for management andcontrol will be developed to deal withboth the static and the dynamic natureof transportation systems. So, whilemost of the classical transportationproblems raised in the past continue toexist, there now are new approaches todeal with many of them.

The intent of the IEEE Transactionson ITS will be to serve as a forum for thetechnological aspects of applications ofinformation technology to transporta-tion, thus providing researchers with anoutlet for publication for these new ap-proaches.

Please send five (5) copies of yourmanuscript for possible publication to:

Chelsea C. White, III, EditorDepartment of Industrial and OperationsEngineeringCollege of EngineeringUniversity of MichiganAnn Arbor, Michigan 48109-2117USA.

For further publication guidelines,contact the editor at mailto: ccwiii@umich.edu or by call 734-764-5723.

6th Electronic Devices and Systems International ConferenceNovember 19-20, 1999, Brno, Czech Republic

The 6th Electronic Devices and Sys-tems International Conference aims atproviding a place to discuss ElectronicDevices, Circuits, Systems and relatedtopics.

Possible topics to be addressed include■ Electronic Devices■ Signal Processing■ Semiconductor Structures■ Microelectronic Sensors■ Physics of Semiconductors■ Mixed-Signal Testing■ Integrated Circuit Design■ Electromagnetic Compatibility

■ Integrated Circuit Technology■ CAD and CAE Tools■ Electronic Circuits and Systems■ Software Tools for Education

Submit Papers to-EDS’99 - UMEL FEI VUTÚdolní 53CZ-60200 BrnoCzech Republic

Deadlines and Key DatesSubmission of Camera-readyFull Papers

August 23, 1999

Notification of AcceptanceSeptember 15, 1999

Conference SessionsNovember 19 - 20, 1999

For General InformationE-mail: eds99@umel.fee.vutbr.czhttp://www.umel.fee.vutbr.cz/conf/eds99.htmlPhone: +420 5 4316 7159,+420 5 4621 1690Fax: +420 5 4316 7298

14 Reliability Society Newsletter ■ July 1999

Announcing the 2nd Annual

Polymeric Materials For Microelectronics &Photonics Applications: Mechanics, Physics,Reliability, Processing Workshop

Paris, France / December 12-15, 1999

Sponsored by the IEEE Components,Packaging & Manufacturing TechnologySociety (IEEE-CPMT); American Soci-ety of Mechanical Engineers (ASME In-ternational), in cooperation with theSociety of Plastics Engineers (SPE); Ma-terials Research Society (MRS); Associ-ation Francaise de Mecanique (AFM);

Polymeric materials are widely used inengineering, including the areas of micro-electronics and photonics. Examples are:plastic packages of integrated circuit (IC)devices, adhesives, various enclosures andplastic parts, polymeric coatings of opticalsilica fibers, and even polymericlightguides. There are numerous and rapidlygrowing opportunities for the application ofpolymers for diverse functions in thehigh-technology field. Polymeric materialsare inexpensive and lend themselves easilyto processing and mass production tech-niques. The reliability of these materials,however, is usually not as high as the reli-ability of inorganic materials and is often in-sufficient for particular applications, therebylimiting the area of the technical use of poly-mers. We intend to bring together mechani-cal, electrical, optical, reliability, industrialand manufacturing engineers; materials sci-entists, applied physicists and chemists, todiscuss and advance experimental and theo-retical methods, techniques and approachesaimed at the prediction and improvement ofthe short/long-term performance of poly-meric materials for different applications,and particularly those used in plastic pack-ages of IC devices.

The objective of the workshop is to ad-dress the state-of-the-art knowledge inthe field of mechanics, physics and reli-ability of polymers employed in micro-electronics and photonics engineering.

The scope of the workshop includes,but is not limited to, the following majortopics:

■ Mechanical behavior and short andlong-term performance of poly-meric materials;

■ Polymeric materials characteriza-tion;

■ Thermal, mechanical, electrical, op-tical and other properties of poly-mers;

■ Fracture mechanics of polymericmaterials;

■ Moisture sensitivity of polymericmaterials and plastic packages of ICdevices;

■ Organic microelectronics;■ Polymer lightguides;■ Polymers for wireless applications;■ Aging and its effects on the

long-term reliability of polymericmaterials;

■ Thermal and electric field effects ondamage and fracture of polymericmaterials;

■ Accelerated testing of polymericmaterials and plastic electronicpackages: approaches and tech-niques;

■ Mechanics, physics and chemistryof adhesion, adhesives and adhe-sively bonded joints;

■ Stress concentration effects in poly-meric materials and plastic elec-tronic packages;

■ Performance of polymeric materialsat high/low temperatures and inharsh environments;

■ Role of fillers in the mechanical be-havior and performance of poly-meric materials;

■ Thermal management of systemsemploying polymeric materials (in-cluding electronic components andphotonic devices);

■ Interfacial phenomena affecting thepolymeric materials reliability;

■ Response of polymeric materials todynamic and thermal loading;

■ Manufacturing processes in plasticsengineering;

■ Reliability problems associatedwith manufacturing, testing,

■ Surface mounting, and operation ofplastic electronic packages.

■ New and emerging technologies forfuture electronic and photonic sys-tems.

The program of the workshop will in-clude tutorials (short courses) on variousaspects of the reliability of polymeric ma-terials for microelectronics and photonicsapplications. The (partial) list of tutorialsincludes:

Failures in Plastic Packages of IC De-vices: Understanding, Prediction andPrevention. Instructor: Ephraim Suhir,Lucent Technologies, USA

Polymers for Electronic Packaging:Materials, Processes and Reliability. In-structor: C.P. Wong, Georgia Tech, USA

Adhesives in Electronic Packaging.Instructors : J . Morr is , SUNY-Binghamton, USA, J. Liu, IVF, Sweden

Application of Computational HeatTransfer to Thermal Management ofPlastic Packages of IC Devices. Instruc-tor: Dereje Agonafer, IBM, USA

Reliability and Lifetime Assessmentsfor Polymeric Materials. Instructor: A.Chudnovsky, University of Illinois atChicago, USA

Audience:Engineers and scientists dealing with,

and/or interested in the mechanical reli-ability of polymeric materials, especiallythose used in the high-technology field.

http://www.asme.org/conf/POLY99/index.htm

or contact:Brian Bigalke,Meetings & Conferences,ASME InternationalTel: 212.591.7057Fax: 212.591.7856Email: bigalkeb@asme.org

July 1999 ■ Reliability Society Newsletter 15

CALL FOR PARTICIPATIONAnnouncing a New ECTC Session:

New and Emerging Technologies (NET*2000)Las Vegas, NV, May 21-24

Sponsored by the CPMT New Technology DirectionsTechnical Committee (TC-15)

BACKGROUND: It is well knownthat new technologies are creating newmarkets and provide new opportuni-ties. Companies that make aggressiveuse of technological innovation gain anenormous advantage. Those that do notmake use of technical innovation willfind it hard to remain competitive. Thefuture of a company may well dependon the ability of its leaders to stay on thecutting edge of technology. A newIEEE CPMT Technical Committee,New Technology Directions Commit-tee (NTDC, TC-15), has been recentlyformed to assist CPMT Society mem-bers to obtain information on new tech-nologies. One important activity of thecommittee activities is to organize

workshops and conferences on newtechnology directions. We have de-cided to start with organizing a sessionon new and emerging technologies.The advertised session is the first one ofits kind. It will be held during the 2000ECTC in Las Vegas, NV, May 21-24,2000.

OBJECTIVE: We intend to bringtogether engineers, technical manag-ers, researchers and market specialiststo discuss new and emerging technolo-gies related to the scope of the CPMTsociety; new applications of the exist-ing technologies, as well as new mar-kets for the CPMT related products,technologies and businesses.

INTENT TO PARTICIPATE: Ifyou feel that what you are going to pres-ent at the 2000 ECTC conference has todo with a new or emerging technology,a new application of the existing tech-nology, a new innovative approach ortechnique, or a new market for a CPMTrelated technology, please contact:

E. SUHIRBell Laboratories,Lucent Technologies, Inc.600 Mountain Ave.,Room 1D-443,Murray Hill, NJ 07974 USAPh: 908.582.530Fx: 908.582.5106email: suhir@lucent.com

More on Triangles

Dear Dick:In regard to your article about Pythag-

orean triples in the “Reliability Society”,Oct, 1998, Vol. 44, No. 4, I have com-posed a brief exposition on what isknown about this topic. I know this isquite a bit after the fact (it just shows howhard it is to keep up with all of my journalreading!), but I hope it is interesting anduseful.

Primitive Pythagorean Triples &Fermat’s Last Theorem

I will address just two aspects of yourarticle, namely (1) the generation ofprimitive Pythagorean triples and (2)Fermat’s Last Theorem.

(1) Generating primitive Pythagoreantriples: By a primitive Pythagorean tri-ple, we mean a threesome (a, b, c) of pos-itive integers such that c2 = a2 + b2 and a,

b, and c have no common divisor (otherthan 1). There is an interesting history tothis subject, which goes back to ancienttimes. The following historical notes aretaken from Stillwell[1] (pages 3 and fol-lowing): It is known that there was atleast a partial understanding of this prob-lem in China (examples can be given forthe period between 200 B.C. and 220A.D.) and India (examples between 500and 200 B.C.). The most complete under-standing in ancient times was achievedby the Greeks, between Euclid (~300B.C.) and Diophantus (~250 A.D.). Spe-cial formulas for generation of these tri-ples were known to Pythagoras himselfand Plato. The first known completelygeneral statement and general proof wasgiven by Euclid in his Elements, Book X(lemma following Prop. 28).

The most general method for generat-ing primitive Pythagorean triples is ofcourse well known today, and the solu-

tion appears in most books on elementarynumber theory. I recommend, for exam-ple, the classic Uspensky and Heaslet[2](see pages 37 and following). The solu-tion, quite elegant and beautiful is this:

Pick any two positive integers p and q,where p and q are relatively prime, of op-posite parity, and p > q. By relativelyprime, we mean p and q have no commondivisor (other than 1). By opposite parity,we mean that one of p and q is even andone is odd. Then the numbers

a = p2 – q2 b = 2pq c = p2 + q2

form a primitive Pythagorean triple. It issimple algebra to show that c2 = a2 + b2.It is a little more work to show that a, b,and c have no common divisor (otherthan 1), and I will not do this here. This isan interesting (and not too difficult) exer-cise, which I will leave to the reader.What is most germane to your article,

16 Reliability Society Newsletter ■ July 1999

though, is the fact that this proceduregenerates all primitive Pythagorean tri-ples. Thus, in one fell swoop, we see thatthere are an infinite number of such tri-ples, and furthermore, have a simple pro-cedure for generating them. For moredetails, consult Uspensky and Heaslet[2].

(2) Fermat’s Last Theorem was, forover 350 years, one of the most famous(if not the most famous) unsolved prob-lems of mathematics. This is due to thefollowing facts. The statement of theproblem is understandable by anyonewho knows a modicum of algebra. Fur-thermore, Fermat claimed he had a sim-ple proof (which he never gave, themargin of his notes being too small tocontain it), but its solution eluded everygreat mathematician (and every graduatestudent hoping to be a great mathemati-cian) for almost four centuries.

The statement of the theorem is this:The only positive integers n for which theequation cn = an + bn has positive integersolutions a, b, and c are n = 1, 2.

Think about this for a moment: Al-though we have just claimed that thereare an infinite number of solutions for n =2 (and there are obviously infinitelymany solutions for n = 1), there are no(positive integer) solutions for any otherpositive integer n.

Although the complete and final solu-tion was not given until 1993, there is along history of partial solutions. The fol-lowing historical notes are taken fromRibet and Hayes[3]. Fermat himselfproved that there are no positive integer so-lutions when n = 4. Leonhard Euler, thegreat 18th century Swiss mathematician,proved there are no solutions for n = 3. Inthe 1820’s, Legendre and Dirichlet dis-posed of the case n = 5. In 1840, Kummermade a major advance by showing thatFermat’s theorem is true for all values of nthat are divisible by “regular” primes (wewill not go into these here). In essence, thisdisposed of all n less than 100.

Note that all of this was done long be-fore the computer age! Sometimes weforget that humans can be very clever,and that computers should be used as anaid, not as an all-knowing final arbiter.Of course, in recent years, computershave helped dispose of many more cases.But the final solution was still providedby a human mathematician.

His name is Andrew Wiles, and hishistorical result appeared in Wiles[4].

This was a monumental event. Articlesabout this feat have appeared in numer-ous mathematical and scientific publica-tions, and in such non-scientificpublications as the Wall Street Journaland the New York Times. Wiles wasnamed as one of the “25 most intriguingpeople of 1993” by People magazine,along with Princess Diana, Michael Jack-son, and the Clintons. Seminars and con-ferences on this topic werestanding-room only for a long time.There are humorous stories of mathema-ticians behaving like crazed music fansattempting to get into overcrowded con-ference rooms. There was also a PBSbroadcast devoted to the life and times ofAndrew Wiles as he struggled in solitudefor 7 years to come up with his proof. Ibelieve this is available as a video, and iswell worth buying. It also turns up fromtime to time as a rerun on PBS. There is awhole sub-culture that has sprung up onthe WWW about Fermat’s Last Theoremand Andrew Wiles. A good starting placewould be http:/ /rendezvous.com/tangledweb/conferences/fermat/

(This web page has links to ways toobtain the video, among other things).

References:1. John Stillwell, “Mathematics and

its History”, Springer-Verlag, 1989.2. J.V. Uspensky and M.A. Heaslet,

“Elementary Number Theory”,McGraw-Hill, 1939.

3. Kenneth A. Ribet and Brian Hayes,“Fermat’s Last Theorem and ModernArithmetic”, American Scientist, Vol. 82,March-April, 1994.

4. Wiles first presented his proof in athree-part lecture at the Newton Institute,Cambridge, in June 1993. A revised ver-sion of the paper has appeared in the Bul-letin of the AMS, vol. 31, 1994, pp. 15-38.

Michael L UlreyMichael.Ulrey@Boeing.com

“Prime Triangles”Article in “ReliabilitySociety Newsletter”,October 1998

Below is a proof, with an explicit con-struction, that establishes the following:

Claim: For every positive integer X >2, there exist positive integers Y and H sothat (X**2) + (Y**2) = (H**2). (Inyour words, “every single number that

you can think of can form one leg of aperfect triangle”—adopting the con-vention that here “number” equates to“positive integer”.)

Proof: Write X = (2**P)*D where P isa nonnegative integer (possibly = 0 if X isodd) and D is a positive odd integer. Ini-tially consider the case of D > 1. Then setY = (2**(P - 1)) * ((D**2) - 1) = X*{D -(1/D)}/2, where the { } term > 0, and H =Y + (2**P) = Y + (X/D) > 0. Observe that(H**2) - (Y**2) = [2*Y*(X/D)] +[(X/D)**2] = [(X**2) - ((X/D)**2)] +[(X/D)**2] = X**2, which completes theproof for D > 1.

Now return to the remaining case ofD = 1, or X = 2**P (and X >= 4). Then setY = ((X/2)**2) - 1 (which is > 0) and H =Y + 2 > 0. Observe that (H**2) - (Y**2) =[4*Y] + 4 = [(X**2) - 4] + 4 = X**2,which completes the proof.

Note: This result recovers most, butnot all, of the triangles that you specifi-cally list in your article. It fails to captureyour prime triangles when the first side Xis a multiple of a previously establishedperfect triangle—e.g., for X=12 you haveY=35, but I merely recover Y=16 andH=20 (being 4 times the standard (3,4,5)triangle).

From: Arthur FriesThanks for your brilliant input.

Sincerely,Dick Doyle

Thanks to all who requested the pro-gram from my article “Prime Triangles”.The program listings follow this letter.The basic file requires a copy of QBasicto run. It possibly could be converted intoVisual Basic, but I have not tried that. Ifyou have any problems with the programplease let me know. Please let me know ifyou find a number that does not have a so-lution. If I get some more comments, Iwill put them up on the Reliability Soci-ety discussion forum (Web Page). Other-wise, I will try to share your informationwith others that write to me. Thanks foryour requests.

Sincerely,Dick Doyle

TRIANGLE Basic5 DIM XSPC(10)7 FF$ = “PRN”8 OPEN FF$ FOR OUTPUT AS #110 PRINT #1, “PROPERTIES OF”

July 1999 ■ Reliability Society Newsletter 17

20 PRINT #1, “PERFECT TRIAN-GLES”25 PRINT #1, “BY DICK DOYLE -DEC 1994"40 PRINT #1,45 REM : DATA INPUT MODULE50 PRINT #1,55 PRINT “LARGEST NUMBER OFSHORT LEGS ? ”60 PRINT #1, “LARGEST NUMBEROF SHORT LEGS ? ”61 INPUT N380 PRINT #1,90 PRINT #1, “TEST FOR LARGESTDIFERENCE”100 PRINT #1, “BETWEEN LONGLEG AND HYPOTINUSE”110 PRINT #1, “MUST BE ATLEAST 1"112 PRINT “TEST FOR LARGESTDIFERENCE”114 PRINT “BETWEEN LONG LEGAND HYPOTINUSE”116 PRINT “MUST BE AT LEAST 1"118 PRINT “999 ENDS PROGRAM”120 PRINT #1,130 PRINT #1,140 PRINT #1,150 PRINT #1, “DEFINITION OFEXTERIOR CONTOUR”160 PRINT #1,170 PRINT #1, “NUMBER OFMODULES ? ”171 INPUT N1180 PRINT #1,190 N = N1192 X1 = 0193 X = 1194 IF N1 = 999 THEN 1400195 IF N3 < .00001 THEN 10197 REM ==COMPUTE ELEMENTPROPERTIES FOR MODULE==200 Y = (X ^ 2 - N ^ 2) / (2 * N)210 R = Y - INT(Y)220 IF R < .00001 THEN GOSUB1030230 N = N - 1233 IF N = 0 THEN 295235 REM == SIMFLY CONNECTEDDOMAIN PROPERTIES==240 GOTO 200295 REM == RUN NEXT BASE NO.(SHORT LEGS)==297 X = X + 1300 IF N3 = X THEN 735

305 REM == RESET N AND RERUN==310 N = N1320 GOTO 200495 REM == ASK FOR NEW INPUTS==520 PRINT #1,530 PRINT #1,540 PRINT #1, “THESE ARE ALLTRIANGLES”550 PRINT #1, “UP TO”560 PRINT #1,570 PRINT #1, “ SHORT LEG OF = ”;N3580 PRINT #1, “ MODULE OF = ”; N1600 PRINT #1,610 PRINT #1,620 PRINT #1,630 PRINT #1,640 PRINT #1,650 PRINT #1,660 PRINT #1,735 REM == RETURN TO TOP ==740 GOTO 101030 REM1040 X1 = X1 + 11050 REM Y1 = ATAN(Y / X)1112 PRINT #1, “TRIANGLE NOAND LEGS AND ANGLE ”; X1; X;Y; Y + N1113 PRINT #1,1340 RETURN1400 PRINT “END OF RUN”1405 STOP1410 END

TRIANGLE2 Basic5 DIM XSPC(10)7 FF$ = “PRN”8 OPEN FF$ FOR OUTPUT AS #110 PRINT #1, “PROPERTIES OF”20 PRINT #1, “PERFECT TRIAN-GLES”25 PRINT #1, “BY DICK DOYLE -DEC 1994"40 PRINT #1,45 REM : DATA INPUT MODULE50 PRINT #1,55 PRINT “LARGEST NUMBER OFSHORT LEGS ? ”60 PRINT #1, “LARGEST NUMBEROF SHORT LEGS ? ”61 INPUT N380 PRINT #1,90 PRINT #1, “TEST FOR LARGESTDIFERENCE”

100 PRINT #1, “BETWEEN LONGLEG AND HYPOTINUSE”110 PRINT #1, “MUST BE AT LEAST1"112 PRINT “TEST FOR LARGESTDIFERENCE”114 PRINT “BETWEEN LONG LEGAND HYPOTINUSE”116 PRINT “MUST BE AT LEAST 1"118 PRINT “999 ENDS PROGRAM”120 PRINT #1,130 PRINT #1,140 PRINT #1,150 PRINT #1, “DEFINITION OF EX-TERIOR CONTOUR”160 PRINT #1,170 PRINT #1, “NUMBER OF MOD-ULES ? ”171 INPUT N1180 PRINT #1,190 N = N1191 X4 = 1 : REM 0 = ALL TRIAN-GLES, 1 = PRIME TRIANGLES192 X1 = 0193 X = 1194 IF N1 = 999 THEN 1500195 IF N3 < .00001 THEN 10197 REM ==COMPUTE ELEMENTPROPERTIES FOR MODULE==200 Y = (X ^ 2 - N ^ 2) / (2 * N)210 R = Y - INT(Y)220 IF R < .00001 THEN GOSUB1030230 N = N - 1233 IF N = 0 THEN 295235 REM == SIMFLY CONNECTEDDOMAIN PROPERTIES==240 GOTO 200295 REM == RUN NEXT BASE NO.(SHORT LEGS)==297 X = X + 1300 IF N3 = X THEN 735305 REM == RESET N AND RERUN==310 N = N1320 GOTO 200495 REM == ASK FOR NEW INPUTS==520 PRINT #1,530 PRINT #1,540 PRINT #1, “THESE ARE ALLTRIANGLES”550 PRINT #1, “UP TO”560 PRINT #1,570 PRINT #1, “ SHORT LEG OF = ”;N3580 PRINT #1, “ MODULE OF = ”; N1600 PRINT #1,

18 Reliability Society Newsletter ■ July 1999

610 PRINT #1,620 PRINT #1,630 PRINT #1,640 PRINT #1,650 PRINT #1,660 PRINT #1,735 REM == RETURN TO TOP ==740 GOTO 101030 REM1040 X1 = X1 + 11050 REM Y1 = ATAN(Y / X)1060 REM == PRINT DUPLICATETRIANGLES ==1070 REM IF X4 = 1 THEN GOSUB13501071 GOTO 13501112 PRINT #1, “TRIANGLE NO ANDLEGS AND ANGLE ”; X1; X; Y; Y + N1113 PRINT #1,1340 RETURN1350 REM == FILTER DUPLICATETRIANGLES ==1360 IF Y < 0 THEN 13401361 IF Y < X THEN 13401362 REM == DIVIDE BY PRIME NO.==1365 P1 = 21366 N5 = 11367 R = 01370 R = Y/P1 - INT(Y/P1)1372 R = R + X/P1 - INT(X/P1)1373 R = R + (Y + N)/P1 - INT((Y +N)/P1)1375 IF R < .00001 THEN 13401380 REM == LAST PRIME, RETURNTO NEXT TRIANGLE ==1390 IF N5 = 6 THEN 11121400 N5 = N5 + 11405 P1 = 31410 IF N5 = 2 THEN 13671415 P1 = 51420 IF N5 = 3 THEN 13671425 P1 = 71430 IF N5 = 4 THEN 13671435 P1 = 111440 IF N5 = 5 THEN 13671445 P1 = 131450 IF N5 = 6 THEN 13671500 PRINT “END OF RUN”1505 STOP1510 END

TRICUBE Basic5 DIM XSPC(10)7 FF$ = “PRN”8 OPEN FF$ FOR OUTPUT AS #110 PRINT #1, “PROPERTIES OF”

20 PRINT #1, “PERFECT TRIAN-GLES”25 PRINT #1, “BY DICK DOYLE -DEC 1994"40 PRINT #1,45 REM : DATA INPUT MODULE48 PRINT #1,49 PRINT “TEST FOR LARGESTDIFERENCE”50 PRINT “BETWEEN LONG LEGAND HYPOTINUSE”52 PRINT “MUST BE AT LEAST 1"53 PRINT “999 ENDS PROGRAM”55 PRINT “LARGEST NUMBER OFSHORT LEGS ? ”60 PRINT #1, “LARGEST NUMBEROF SHORT LEGS ? ”61 INPUT N380 PRINT #1,90 PRINT #1, “TEST FOR LARGESTDIFERENCE”100 PRINT #1, “BETWEEN LONGLEG AND HYPOTINUSE”110 PRINT #1, “MUST BE ATLEAST 1"119 PRINT “ 1 OR -1 ? ”120 PRINT #1,130 PRINT #1,140 PRINT #1,150 PRINT #1, “DEFINITION OF EX-TERIOR CONTOUR”160 PRINT #1,170 PRINT #1, “ 1 OR -1 ? ”171 INPUT S1180 PRINT #1,183 REM ==RESTRICTION ON N1,MAY BE LIMIT, MUST RUN -1 ==185 N1 = INT(0.999 * N3)190 N = N1192 X1 = 0193 X = 1194 IF N3 = 999 THEN 1400195 IF N3 < .00001 THEN 10197 REM ==COMPUTE ELEMENTPROPERTIES FOR MODULE==198 A=N*3: B=(N^2)*3: C=(N^3) -(X^3)202 Q1 = (B^2 - 4*A*C)203 IF Q1 < 0 THEN 230204 Q1 = Q1^.5205 Y = -1*(B/2/A) + S1* (Q1/2/A)210 R = Y - INT(Y)220 IF R < .00001 THEN GOSUB 1030223 IF R > .99999 THEN GOSUB 1030

225 REM ******** REMOVE THISLINE AND NEXT LINE *******227 REM **** GOSUB 1030230 N = N - 1233 IF N = 0 THEN 295235 REM == SIMFLY CONNECTEDDOMAIN PROPERTIES==240 GOTO 197295 REM == RUN NEXT BASE NO.(SHORT LEGS)==297 X = X + 1300 IF N3 = X THEN 735305 REM == RESET N AND RERUN==306 REM ==RESTRICTION ON X,MAY BE LIMIT ==307 IF X > 2 THEN N1 = INT(0.95 *X) - 1310 N = N1320 GOTO 197495 REM == ASK FOR NEW INPUTS==520 PRINT #1,530 PRINT #1,540 PRINT #1, “THESE ARE ALLTRIANGLES”550 PRINT #1, “UP TO”560 PRINT #1,570 PRINT #1, “ SHORT LEG OF = ”;N3580 PRINT #1, “ MODULE OF = ”; N1600 PRINT #1,610 PRINT #1,620 PRINT #1,630 PRINT #1,

640 PRINT #1,

650 PRINT #1,

660 PRINT #1,

735 REM == RETURN TO TOP ==740 GOTO 101030 REM1040 X1 = X1 + 1

1050 REM Y1 = ATAN(Y / X)

1060 IF Y = 0 THEN 1340

1070 IF Y+X = 0 THEN 1340

1112 PRINT #1, “TRIANGLE NOAND LEGS AND ANGLE ”; X1; X; Y;Y + N

1113 PRINT #1,

1340 RETURN

1400 PRINT “END OF RUN”

1405 STOP

1410 END

July 1999 ■ Reliability Society Newsletter 19

Call For Manuscripts For IEEE Potentials Magazine

The IEEE Potentials Magazine is so-liciting manuscripts for all aspects oftrical / electronic / computer engineeringand computer science the IEEE Poten-tials Magazine goes to all student mem-bers of the IEEE (USA and Canada),presently about 45,000. the level of thearticle is addressed to the undergraduatestudent and has several objectives: inter-esting the student in a topic for furtherstudy, explaining technological advancesin an area, a forum for technical ideas, ar-ticles of interest technically.

It should be stressed that the articleshould not try to mystify the student, butto enable the student to learn more abouttechnical material that he/she may/maynot become acquainted with in their for-mal course work. the length of the articlecan be no more than 10 manuscript pages(8 1/2-11) reduced by number of figures,shorter papers also acceptable the manu-scripts are reviewed by: students, faculty,researchers in area and then a decision ismade as to whether to publish or not. ifinterested, contact:

Dr. George W. ZobristEditor, IEEE Potentials MagazineDepartment of Computer Science1870 Miner Circle

University Of Missouri-RollaRolla, MO 65409Phone: 573-341-4492FAX: 573-341-4501Email: zobrist@umr.eduFurther information can be found atHTTP://WWW.CS.UMR.EDU/

POTENTIALS

For Your InformationWe have been asked to notify our members that the following standard is

now available, IEC 60300-3-11, 1999 Application guide - Reliability Cen-tered Maintenance is now available for purchase from ANSI’s Customer Ser-vice Department at the price of US$135.00 plus shipping and handling.

straightforward process whichgenerates a user ID which is (atleast in my case) a cumbersome 8digit number.

4. Log on to the site. Your IEEEmember number (another clumsy 8digit number) is your password.

5. There are two modes in Opera -Browse and Search. It is easy toswitch between Browse andSearch. I find the Browse mode tobe somewhat more intuitive.

6. When you register, you will be toldwhat publications are available toyou. Currently RS members haveaccess to:

Electromechanical and SolidState Letters, Electron Device Let-ters, Journal of Electronic Mate-rials, Transactions on ElectronDevices

If you try to choose a publication forwhich you are not authorized, you get thelogin screen again. After 3 tries, the sys-tem figures you are not really supposed tobe there and kicks you out (no permanentdamage to your ability to access the sitethat I could tell)

OPeRA appears to be a good mecha-nism for the on-line distribution publica-tions. Aside from having to use twoeight-digit numbers to get into the sys-tem, it seems to be flexible and useful.The Reliability Society is in the prelimi-nary stages of making the Transactionson Reliability available in OPeRA.

Dr. Robert Loomis,RS Webmaster

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

From the Editorcontinued from page 2

Conference Calendar

BostonIEEE ReliabilityChapter Spring

ReliabilitySymposium

The purpose of this message is tonotify you about a Call For Partici-pation for this year’s May 5thBoston IEEE Reliability ChapterSpring Reliability Symposium. Asin past years, IEEE and ASQ mem-bers receive the membership rate.Students and retired folks are admit-ted for half-price.

This year’s theme is, “The Reli-ability Engineer on the Job, The Reli-ability Engineering Profession inToday’s Business Environment.” Wehave seven papers scheduled and I amstill working on a keynote speaker.

The registration fee of $175members (IEEE or ASQ) and $200non-members covers the proceed-ings, morning coffee and muffins, abuffet lunch and an evening recep-tion and dinner.

For information contact:

Joe DzekevichPrincipal Reliability Engineerjoe_dzekevich@ne.3com.comPhone: 508-229-1761Fax: 508-490-5758

20 Reliability Society Newsletter ■ July 1999

Preliminary Notice for a Conference on Accelerated Product Qualification

InterPack ‘99 The Pacific Rim/ASME International,Intersociety Electronic Packaging Conference

Westin Maui Kaanapali Beach HotelLahaina, Hawaii, USA

June 13-19, 1999InterPack’99, to be held in Hawaii,

June 13-19, 1999. InterPack is spon-sored by ASME International and is in-tended as a forum for dissemination ofinformation related to the field of Elec-tronic and Photonic Packaging. The ob-jectives of the conference are to fosterinternational cooperation, understand-ing and promotion of efforts in Micro-electronics, Optoelectronics, andPhotonics Packaging Engineering in anEast/West business setting.

The Accelerated Product Qualifica-tion track invites papers that report on as-pects of accelerated testing that includeand not limited to: state-of-the-art in ac-celerated testing, complex stress envi-

ronments, stress interaction in combinedstress testing, state-of-the-art test hard-ware and software, predictive failuremodels and mechanisms, computer mod-eling and simulation, field to test correla-tion, role of material characterization,role of failure analysis, statistical issuesin determining sample sizes, and quanti-tative estimate of field reliability fromtesting. Overall, the session is intended toprovide a broad coverage of thestate-of-the-art in accelerated testing,physics, and modeling techniques.

For information contact:

Rakesh Agarwalemail: ragarwal@mail.delcoelect.com

Ph. : 765-451-7361Fax: 765-451-9874Delphi Automotive Systems,One Corporate Center, MS R103,Kokomo, IN 46904-9005.

Abhijit Dasguptaemail: dasgupta@eng.umd.eduPh.: 301-405-5251,Fax: 301-314-9477/9269CALCE EPRC, Mechanical Engi-neering, University of Maryland, Col-lege Park, MD 20742

Mark Gibbelemail: Mark.Gibbel@jpl.nasa.govPh.: 818-542-6985/6979Fax: 818 249-5714

10th IEEE International Workshop onRapid System Prototyping

June 16-18, 1999Sheraton Sankley,Clearwater, Florida, U.S.A

http://www-src.lip6.fr/rsp/The IEEE International Workshop

on Rapid System Prototyping (RSP)presents and explores the trends inrapid prototyping of Computer BasedSystems including, but not limited to,communication, information, and man-ufacturing systems. It aims to bring to-gether researchers from both hardwareand software to share their experiencewith rapid prototyping.

The 10th annual workshop will fo-cus on improved approaches to resolveprototyping issues and problems raisedby incomplete specifications, increasedsystem complexity and reduced time tomarket requirements for a multitude ofproducts. The workshop will include akeynote presentation and formal papersessions with a wide range of systemprototyping topics including, but notlimited to:

■ System Emulation■ Virtual Prototyping■ Hardware-Software Codesign■ Tools for Hardware

Prototyping■ Tools for Software

Prototyping■ Methodologies for Hardware

Prototyping■ Methodologies for Software

Prototyping■ The Role of FPGAs in System

Prototyping■ Prototyping Case Studies■ Very Large Scale System

Engineering■ Hardware/Software Tradeoffs■ System Verification/Validation■ Prototype to Product Transition■ Prototyping of Real-Time

Systems

The program committee invites au-thors to submit a full paper (preferred)or an extended Summary. Submissionsshould be electronic in pdf format (pre-ferred) or PostScript presenting origi-nal and unpublished work. Clearlydescribe the nature of the work, ex-plain its significance, highlight itsnovel features, and state its current sta-tus. Authors of selected papers will berequested to prepare a manuscript forthe workshop proceedings. Papers’length should not exceed 7 pages in thestandard IEEE format.

■ Papers due: January 29, 1999■ Notification of Acceptance: Feb-

ruary 26, 1999■ Final Camera Ready Manuscript

due: March 26, 1999

July 1999 ■ Reliability Society Newsletter 21

Preliminary Notification

The Third International Workshop on AdvancedParallel Processing Technologies APPT`99

October 19-20, 1999 Changsha, P. R. Chinahttp://www.njtu.edu.cn/APPT`99

The great mutual acceptance of thefirst and second International WorkshopAPPT`95 and APPT`97 in Beijing andKoblenz encourages us to continue thefruitful scientific dialogue amongChina, Germany and other countries.Based on the established cooperationduring the past meetings, the third meet-ing should increase the strength of co-operation, and provide a forum forexchanging new ideas at the highertechnical level. This should be realizedby the respective selected topics of theWorkshop on Advanced Parallel Pro-cessing Technologies, which will beheld in Changsha, Oct. 19-20, 1999.

This workshop results from coopera-tion between Northern Jiaotong Univer-s i ty and the Universi ty ofKoblenz-Landau as well as the NationalLaboratory for Parallel and DistributedProcessing, University of Hamburg, the

University of Applied Sciences of Heideand the City University of Hong Kong.This workshop has been planning to takeplace biannually alternately in China andGermany. It will act as a forum for tech-nology exchange for the university andindustrial side to present up-to-date re-search results and project works in orderto establish new cooperation in develop-ing innovative concepts and solutions forproducts towards future markets and set-ting up long-term cooperation. The work-shop wil l focus on both theory/methodology and practice/application re-alizations. The working language is Eng-lish. The topics of interest include, but arenot limited to, the following:

■ Parallel & distributed architectures■ Parallel & distributed algorithms■ Parallel programming & parallel-

izing compilers

■ Applications of parallel and distrib-uted computing

■ Meta-computing, and Internet ap-plications

■ Network security■ Heterogeneous computing environ-

ments■ Reliability and fault-tolerance for

parallel & distributed systems■ Wireless networks and mobile com-

puting■ Artificial intelligence techniques

for parallel processing■ Neural networks and their applica-

tions■ Computer-supported cooperative

work■ Distributed operating system■ Hardware/software co-design■ Novel VLSI architectures■ Optical technology in high-perfor-

mance architectures

Singapore June 26 - 28 2000

Following on from the success of the first and second COR-ROSION ASIA conferences in 1992 & 1994, the Corrosion Associ-ation of Singapore is pleased to announce the planning ofCORROSION ASIA 2000.

The main emphasis of the technical programme will be onproblems faced by energy related industries, reflecting theirimportance in the region. However, a diverse range of addi-

tional topics will also be covered, ensuring that there will besomething of interest to all those involved in the field. The or-ganising committee is also particularly interested in receiv-ing abstracts on topics related to the electronic orsemiconductor industries.

Persons wishing to present a paper should submit a pro-posal containing the topic, a 100 to 200 word abstract and full

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22 Reliability Society Newsletter ■ July 1999

particulars of their address, phone and fax to: J. K. Shen c/oCathodic Protection Technology Ltd, No. 4 Tuas Drive 1, Sin-gapore 638671.

Delegate registration fee: S$850.00 (USD610.00). Special rateearly bird registration (4 months before conference): S$750.00(USD540.00). No frills package: S$500.00 (USD360.00) per headfrom groups of 5 or more delegates from the same academic in-stitution (does not include tickets to the banquet or cocktail re-ception and covers only one set of conference papers pergroup). Student rate: S$25.00 per day.

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