7,973 research outputs found
Actors: The Ideal Abstraction for Programming Kernel-Based Concurrency
GPU and multicore hardware architectures are commonly
used in many different application areas to accelerate problem solutions
relative to single CPU architectures. The typical approach to accessing
these hardware architectures requires embedding logic into the programming
language used to construct the application; the two primary forms
of embedding are: calls to API routines to access the concurrent functionality,
or pragmas providing concurrency hints to a language compiler
such that particular blocks of code are targeted to the concurrent functionality.
The former approach is verbose and semantically bankrupt,
while the success of the latter approach is restricted to simple, static
uses of the functionality.
Actor-based applications are constructed from independent, encapsulated
actors that interact through strongly-typed channels. This paper
presents a first attempt at using actors to program kernels targeted at
such concurrent hardware. Besides the glove-like fit of a kernel to the actor
abstraction, quantitative code analysis shows that actor-based kernels
are always significantly simpler than API-based coding, and generally
simpler than pragma-based coding. Additionally, performance measurements
show that the overheads of actor-based kernels are commensurate
to API-based kernels, and range from equivalent to vastly improved for
pragma-based annotations, both for sample and real-world applications
In-Vivo Bytecode Instrumentation for Improving Privacy on Android Smartphones in Uncertain Environments
In this paper we claim that an efficient and readily applicable means to
improve privacy of Android applications is: 1) to perform runtime monitoring by
instrumenting the application bytecode and 2) in-vivo, i.e. directly on the
smartphone. We present a tool chain to do this and present experimental results
showing that this tool chain can run on smartphones in a reasonable amount of
time and with a realistic effort. Our findings also identify challenges to be
addressed before running powerful runtime monitoring and instrumentations
directly on smartphones. We implemented two use-cases leveraging the tool
chain: BetterPermissions, a fine-grained user centric permission policy system
and AdRemover an advertisement remover. Both prototypes improve the privacy of
Android systems thanks to in-vivo bytecode instrumentation.Comment: ISBN: 978-2-87971-111-
Supporting development and management of smart office applications: a DYAMAND case study
To realize the Internet of Things (IoT) vision, tools are needed to ease the development and deployment of practical applications. Several standard bodies, companies, and ad-hoc consortia are proposing their own solution for inter-device communication. In this context, DYnamic, Adaptive MAnagement of Networks and Devices (DYAMAND) was presented in a previous publication to solve the interoperability issues introduced by the multitude of available technologies.
In this paper a DYAMAND case study is presented: in cooperation with a large company, a monitoring application was developed for flexible office spaces in order to reliably reorganize an office environment and give real-time feedback on the usage of meeting rooms. Three wireless sensor technologies were investigated to be used in the pilot. The solution was deployed in a "friendly user" setting at a research institute (iMinds) prior to deployment at the large company's premises. Based on the findings of both installations, requirements for an application platform supporting development and management of smart (office) applications were listed. DYAMAND was used as the basis of the implementation. Although the local management of networked devices as provided by DYAMAND enables easier development of intelligent applications, a number of remote services discussed in this paper are needed to enable reliable and up-to-date support (of new technologies)
Space Station Freedom data management system growth and evolution report
The Information Sciences Division at the NASA Ames Research Center has completed a 6-month study of portions of the Space Station Freedom Data Management System (DMS). This study looked at the present capabilities and future growth potential of the DMS, and the results are documented in this report. Issues have been raised that were discussed with the appropriate Johnson Space Center (JSC) management and Work Package-2 contractor organizations. Areas requiring additional study have been identified and suggestions for long-term upgrades have been proposed. This activity has allowed the Ames personnel to develop a rapport with the JSC civil service and contractor teams that does permit an independent check and balance technique for the DMS
- …