Faults in Linux 2.6

In August 2011, Linux entered its third decade. Ten years before, Chou et al. published a study of faults found by applying a static analyzer to Linux versions 1.0 through 2.4.1. A major result of their work was that the drivers directory contained up to 7 times more of certain kinds of faults than other directories. This result inspired numerous efforts on improving the reliability of driver code. Today, Linux is used in a wider range of environments, provides a wider range of services, and has adopted a new development and release model. What has been the impact of these changes on code quality? To answer this question, we have transported Chou et al.'s experiments to all versions of Linux 2.6; released between 2003 and 2011. We find that Linux has more than doubled in size during this period, but the number of faults per line of code has been decreasing. Moreover, the fault rate of drivers is now below that of other directories, such as arch. These results can guide further development and research efforts for the decade to come. To allow updating these results as Linux evolves, we define our experimental protocol and make our checkers available

Idle Period Propagation in Message-Passing Applications

Idle periods on different processes of Message Passing applications are unavoidable. While the origin of idle periods on a single process is well understood as the effect of system and architectural random delays, yet it is unclear how these idle periods propagate from one process to another. It is important to understand idle period propagation in Message Passing applications as it allows application developers to design communication patterns avoiding idle period propagation and the consequent performance degradation in their applications. To understand idle period propagation, we introduce a methodology to trace idle periods when a process is waiting for data from a remote delayed process in MPI applications. We apply this technique in an MPI application that solves the heat equation to study idle period propagation on three different systems. We confirm that idle periods move between processes in the form of waves and that there are different stages in idle period propagation. Our methodology enables us to identify a self-synchronization phenomenon that occurs on two systems where some processes run slower than the other processes.Comment: 18th International Conference on High Performance Computing and Communications, IEEE, 201

ToPoliNano: Nanoarchitectures Design Made Real

Many facts about emerging nanotechnologies are yet to be assessed. There are still major concerns, for instance, about maximum achievable device density, or about which architecture is best fit for a specific application. Growing complexity requires taking into account many aspects of technology, application and architecture at the same time. Researchers face problems that are not new per se, but are now subject to very different constraints, that need to be captured by design tools. Among the emerging nanotechnologies, two-dimensional nanowire based arrays represent promising nanostructures, especially for massively parallel computing architectures. Few attempts have been done, aimed at giving the possibility to explore architectural solutions, deriving information from extensive and reliable nanoarray characterization. Moreover, in the nanotechnology arena there is still not a clear winner, so it is important to be able to target different technologies, not to miss the next big thing. We present a tool, ToPoliNano, that enables such a multi-technological characterization in terms of logic behavior, power and timing performance, area and layout constraints, on the basis of specific technological and topological descriptions. This tool can aid the design process, beside providing a comprehensive simulation framework for DC and timing simulations, and detailed power analysis. Design and simulation results will be shown for nanoarray-based circuits. ToPoliNano is the first real design tool that tackles the top down design of a circuit based on emerging technologie

Reductie van het geheugengebruik van besturingssysteemkernen Memory Footprint Reduction for Operating System Kernels

In ingebedde systemen is er vaak maar een beperkte hoeveelheid geheugen beschikbaar. Daarom wordt er veel aandacht besteed aan het produceren van compacte programma's voor deze systemen, en zijn er allerhande technieken ontwikkeld die automatisch het geheugengebruik van programma's kunnen verkleinen. Tot nu toe richtten die technieken zich voornamelijk op de toepassingssoftware die op het systeem draait, en werd het besturingssysteem over het hoofd gezien. In dit proefschrift worden een aantal technieken beschreven die het mogelijk maken om op een geautomatiseerde manier het geheugengebruik van een besturingssysteemkern gevoelig te verkleinen. Daarbij wordt in eerste instantie gebruik gemaakt van compactietransformaties tijdens het linken. Als we de hardware en software waaruit het systeem samengesteld is kennen, is het mogelijk om nog verdere reducties te bekomen. Daartoe wordt de kern gespecialiseerd voor een bepaalde hardware-software combinatie. Overbodige functionaliteit wordt opgespoord en uit de kern verwijderd, terwijl de resterende functionaliteit wordt aangepast aan de specifieke gebruikspatronen die uit de hardware en software kunnen afgeleid worden. Als laatste worden technieken voorgesteld die het mogelijk maken om weinig of niet uitgevoerde code (bijvoorbeeld code voor het afhandelen van slechts zeldzaam optredende foutcondities) uit het geheugen te verwijderen. Deze code wordt dan enkel ingeladen op het moment dat ze effectief nodig is. Voor ons testsysteem kunnen we met de gecombineerde technieken het geheugengebruik van een Linux 2.4 kern met meer dan 48% verminderen