Towards Type-Based Optimizations in Distributed Applications Using ABS and JAVA 8

In this paper we present an API to support modeling applications with Actors based on the paradigm of the Abstract Behavioural Specification (ABS) language. With the introduction of JAVA 8, we expose this API through a JAVA library to allow for a high-level actor-based methodology for programming distributed systems which supports the programming to interfaces discipline. We validate this solution through a case study where we obtain significant performance improvements as well as illustrating the ease with which simple high and low-level optimizations can be obtained by examining topologies and communication within an application. Using this API we show it is much easier to observe drawbacks of shared data-structures and communications methods in the design phase of a distributed application and apply the necessary corrections in order to obtain better results

A design pattern for optimizations in data intensive applications using ABS and JAVA 8

Cloud environments have become a standard method for enterprises to offer their applications by means of web services, data management systems, or simply renting out computing resources. In our previous work, we presented how we can use a modeling language together with the new features of JAVA 8 to overcome certain drawbacks of data structures and synchronization mechanisms in parallel applications. We extend this solution into a design pattern that allows application-specific optimizations in a distributed setting. We validate this integration using our previous case study of the Prime Sieve of Eratosthenes and illustrate the performance improvements in terms of speed-up and memory co

A design pattern for optimizations in data intensive applications using ABS and JAVA 8

Cloud environments have become a standard method for enterprises to offer their applications by means of web services, data management systems, or simply renting out computing resources. In our previous work, we presented how we can use a modeling language together with the new features of JAVA 8 to overcome certain drawbacks of data structures and synchronization mechanisms in parallel applications. We extend this solution into a design pattern that allows application-specific optimizations in a distributed setting. We validate this integration using our previous case study of the Prime Sieve of Eratosthenes and illustrate the performance improvements in terms of speed-up and memory consumption

Partial unfolding for compositional nonblocking verification of extended finite-state machines

This working paper describes a framework for compositional nonblocking verification of reactive systems modelled as extended finite-state machines. The nonblocking property can capture the absence of livelocks and deadlocks in concurrent systems. Compositional verification is shown in previous work to be effective to verify this property for large discrete event systems. Here, these results are applied to extended finite-state machines communicating via shared memory. The model to be verified is composed gradually, simplifying components through abstraction at each step, while conflict equivalence guarantees that the final verification result is the same as it would have been for the non-abstracted model. The working paper concludes with an example showing the potential of compositional verification to achieve substantial state-space reduction

Low energy cache memory implementation with data compression

El consumo de energía en las CPUs ha alcanzado un punto en que dificulta la disipación de calor, y la alta temperatura reduce el rendimiento del procesador. Además, el dispositivo que alimenta la CPU con datos, la memoria caché, está creciendo, y cuanto más crece, más energía consume. Para solventar ese problema, esta tesis propone un nuevo diseño de caché de compresión, la 'Ghost Cache'. Esta propuesta intenta ampliar otros algoritmos de compresión de cachés para comprimir 3 valores distintos (0, 1 y -1) en 2 bits. De esta manera reducimos un banco de datos de 32 bits a uno de 8. También analizamos 5 algoritmos distintos, y los probamos en nuestra caché programada en Verilog para ver en qué casos hay mejoras en nuestra caché y en cuáles no.Energy consumption on CPUs is reaching a point where the heat is becoming hard to dissipate, and the temperature is hindering the overall performance of the processors. In addition, the device that feeds the data to the processor, the cache memory, it is getting larger, and the larger it is, the more power it uses. In order to solve the energy problem, this thesis proposes a new design of compressing cache, the 'Ghost Cache'. The proposal for the 'Ghost Cache' tries to extend another existing cache compressing algorithms in order to compress 3 possible values (0, 1 and -1) in 2 bits. Doing this, we reduced the regular 32-bit data banks of caches, into a 8-bit data bank. We analyzed 5 different algorithms, and we tested them on our cache programmed in Verilog to show which algorithms work better on the cache and which work worse

Boosting performance of transactional memory through transactional read tracking and set associative locks

Multi-core processors have become so prevalent in server, desktop, and even embedded systems that they are considered the norm for modem computing systems. The trend is likely toward many-core processors with many more than just 2, 4, or 8 cores per CPU. To benefit from the increasing number of cores per chip, application developers have to develop parallel programs [1]. Traditional lock-based programming is too difficult and error prone for most of programmers and is the domain of experts. Deadlock, race, and other synchronization bugs are some of the challenges of lock-based programming. To make parallel programming mainstream, it is necessary to adapt parallel programming by the majority of programmers and not just experts, and thus simplifying parallel programming has become an important challenge. Transactional Memory (TM) is a promising programming model for managing concurrent accesses to the shared memory locations. Transactional memory allows a programmer to specify a section of a code to be "'transactional", and the underlying system guarantees atomic execution of the code. This simplifies parallel programming and reduces the possibility of synchronization bugs. This thesis develops several software- and hardware-based techniques to improve performance of existing transactional memory systems. The first technique is Transactional Read Tracking (TRT). TRT is a software-based approach that employs a locking mechanism for transactional read and write operations. The performance of TRT depends on memory access patterns of applications. In some cases, TRT falls behind the baseline scheme. To further improve performance of TRT, we introduce two hybrid methods that dynamically switches between TRT and the baseline scheme based on applications’ behavior. The second optimization technique is Set Associative Lock (SAL). Memory locations are mapped to a lock table in order to synchronize accesses to the shared memory locations. Direct mapped lock tables usually result in collision which leads to false aborts. In SAL, we increase associativity of the lock table to reduce false abort. While SAL improves performance in most of the applications, in some cases, it increases execution time due to overhead of lock tables in software. To cope with this problem, we propose Hardware-SAL (HW-SAL) which moves the set associative lock table to the hardware. As such, true power of set associativity will be harnessed without sacrificing performance

A Behavioural Theory of Recursive Algorithms

"What is an algorithm?" is a fundamental question of computer science. Gurevich's behavioural theory of sequential algorithms (aka the sequential ASM thesis) gives a partial answer by defining (non-deterministic) sequential algorithms axiomatically, without referring to a particular machine model or programming language, and showing that they are captured by (non-deterministic) sequential Abstract State Machines (nd-seq ASMs). Moschovakis pointed out that recursive algorithms such as mergesort are not covered by this theory. In this article we propose an axiomatic definition of the notion of sequential recursive algorithm which extends Gurevich's axioms for sequential algorithms by a Recursion Postulate and allows us to prove that sequential recursive algorithms are captured by recursive Abstract State Machines, an extension of nd-seq ASMs by a CALL rule. Applying this recursive ASM thesis yields a characterization of sequential recursive algorithms as finitely composed concurrent algorithms all of whose concurrent runs are partial-order runs.Comment: 34 page

Software development by abstract behavioural specification

The development process of any software has become extremely important not just in the IT industry, but in almost every business or domain of research. The effort in making this process quick, efficient, reliable and automated has constantly evolved into a flow that delivers software incrementally based on both the developer's best skills and the end user's feedback. Software modeling and modeling languages have the purpose of facilitating product development by designing correct and reliable applications. The concurrency model of the Abstract Behavioural Specification (ABS) Language with features for asynchronous programming and cooperative scheduling is an important example of how modeling contributes to the reliability and robustness of a product. By abstracting from the implementation details, program complexity and inner workings of libraries, software modeling, and specifically ABS, allow for an easier use of formal analysis techniques and proofs to support product design. However there is still a gap that exists between modeling languages and programming languages with the process of software development often going on two separate paths with respect to modeling and implementation. This potentially introduces errors and doubles the development effort. \par The overall objective of this research is bridging the gap between modeling and programming in order to provide a smooth integration between formal methods and two of the most well-known and used languages for software development, the Java and Scala languages. The research focuses mainly on sequential and highly parallelizable applications, but part of the research also involves some theoretical proposals for distributed systems. It is a first step towards having a programming language with support for formal models. Algorithms and the Foundations of Software technolog