The Software behind the Higgs Boson Discovery
In this column, David Rousseau describes the enormous software development effort associated with teasing out evidence for the elusive Higgs boson, a cornerstone of the Standard Model. In keeping with previous Impact columns, everything about this is huge but the application is unique.
Searching the Internet
This column differs somewhat from previous ones in that the software itself isn't shipped-rather, the results of the software are shipped, and in huge numbers. Mike Andrews of Microsoft reveals some of the intricacies and enormous resources required for successful Web search with a fascinating glimpse into the Bing search engine.
Software in an Evolving Train Traffic Control System
This contribution is rather different from the other articles we're run in this department to date. Here, software volume isn't an issue as there is only one Tokyo-instead, we look at the incremental development of a network of systems controlling railway lines, which requires adding value without disruption. This particular scenario contains many interesting facets, including the use of COTS and refactoring. We're indebted to Takao Futagami for facilitating this contribution.