2,041 research outputs found
Slisp: A Flexible Software Toolkit for Hybrid, Embedded and Distributed Applications
We describe Slisp (pronounced âEss-Lispâ), a hybrid LispâC programming toolkit for the development of scriptable and distributed applications. Computationally expensive operations implemented as separate C-coded modules are selectively compiled into a small Xlisp interpreter, then called as Lisp functions in a Lisp-coded program. The resulting hybrid program may run in several modes: as a stand-alone executable, embedded in a different C program, as a networked server accessed from another Slisp client, or as a
networked server accessed from a C-coded client. Five years of experience with Slisp, as well experience with other scripting languages such as Tcl and Perl, are summarized. These experiences suggest that Slisp will be most useful for mid-sized applications in which the kinds of scripting and embeddability features provided by Tcl and Perl can be extended in an efïŹcient manner to larger applications, while maintaining a
well-deïŹned standard (Common Lisp) for these extensions. In addition, the generality of Lisp makes Lisp a good candidate for an application-level communication language in distributed environments
CRAID: Online RAID upgrades using dynamic hot data reorganization
Current algorithms used to upgrade RAID arrays typically require large amounts of data to be migrated, even those that move only the minimum amount of data required to keep a balanced data load. This paper presents CRAID, a self-optimizing RAID array that performs an online block reorganization of frequently used, long-term accessed data in order to reduce this migration even further. To achieve this objective, CRAID tracks frequently used, long-term data blocks and copies them to a dedicated partition spread across all the disks in the array. When new disks are added, CRAID only needs to extend this process to the new devices to redistribute this partition, thus greatly reducing the overhead of the upgrade process. In addition, the reorganized access patterns within this partition improve the arrayâs performance, amortizing the copy overhead and allowing CRAID to offer a performance competitive with traditional RAIDs.
We describe CRAIDâs motivation and design and we evaluate it by replaying seven real-world workloads including a file server, a web server and a user share. Our experiments show that CRAID can successfully detect hot data variations and begin using new disks as soon as they are added to the array. Also, the usage of a dedicated
partition improves the sequentiality of relevant data access, which amortizes the cost of reorganizations. Finally, we prove that a full-HDD CRAID array with a small distributed partition (<1.28% per disk) can compete in performance with an ideally restriped RAID-5 and a hybrid RAID-5 with a small SSD cache.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
WebWave: Globally Load Balanced Fully Distributed Caching of Hot Published Documents
Document publication service over such a large network as the Internet challenges us to harness available server and network resources to meet fast growing demand. In this paper, we show that large-scale dynamic caching can be employed to globally minimize server idle time, and hence maximize the aggregate server throughput of the whole service. To be efficient, scalable and robust, a successful caching mechanism must have three properties: (1) maximize the global throughput of the system, (2) find cache copies without recourse to a directory service, or to a discovery protocol, and (3) be completely distributed in the sense of operating only on the basis of local information.
In this paper, we develop a precise definition, which we call tree load-balance (TLB), of what it means for a mechanism to satisfy these three goals. We present an algorithm that computes TLB off-line, and a distributed protocol that induces a load distribution that converges quickly to a TLB one. Both algorithms place cache copies of immutable documents, on the routing tree that connects the cached document's home server to its clients, thus enabling requests to stumble on cache copies en route to the home server.Harvard University; The Saudi Cultural Mission to the U.S.A
Middlewareâs message : the financial technics of codata
In this paper, I will argue for the relevance of certain distinctive features of messaging systems, namely those in which data (a) can be sent and received asynchronously, (b) can be sent to multiple simultaneous recipients and (c) is received as a âpotentially infiniteâ flow of unpredictable events. I will describe the social technology of the stock ticker, a telegraphic device introduced at the New York Stock Exchange in the 1860s, with reference to early twentieth century philosophers of synchronous experience (Bergson), simultaneous sign interpretations (Mead and Peirce), and flows of discrete events (Bachelard). Then, I will show how the tickerâs data flows developed into the 1990s-era technologies of message queues and message brokers, which distinguished themselves through their asynchronous implementation of ticker-like message feeds sent between otherwise incompatible computers and terminals. These latter systemsâ characteristic âpublish/subscribeâ communication pattern was one in which conceptually centralized (if logically distributed) flows of messages would be âpublished,â and for which âsubscribersâ would be spontaneously notified when events of interest occurred. This paradigmâcommon to the so-called âmessage-oriented middlewareâ systems of the late 1990sâwould re-emerge in different asynchronous distributed system contexts over the following decades, from âpush mediaâ to Twitter to the Internet of Things
Improving I/O performance through an in-kernel disk simulator
This paper presents two mechanisms that can significantly improve the I/O performance of both hard and solid-state drives for read operations: KDSim and REDCAP. KDSim is an in-kernel disk simulator that provides a framework for simultaneously simulating the performance obtained by different I/O system mechanisms and algorithms, and for dynamically turning them on and off, or selecting between different options or policies, to improve the overall system performance. REDCAP is a RAM-based disk cache that effectively enlarges the built-in cache present in disk drives. By using KDSim, this cache is dynamically activated/deactivated according to the throughput achieved. Results show that, by using KDSim and REDCAP together, a system can improve its I/O performance up to 88% for workloads with some spatial locality on both hard and solid-state drives, while it achieves the same performance as a âregular systemâ for workloads with random or sequential access patterns.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
Space-Efficient Predictive Block Management
With growing disk and storage capacities, the amount of required metadata for tracking all blocks in a system becomes a daunting task by itself. In previous work, we have demonstrated a system software effort in the area of predictive data grouping for reducing power and latency on hard disks. The structures used, very similar to prior efforts in prefetching and prefetch caching, track access successor information at the block level, keeping a fixed number of immediate successors per block. While providing powerful predictive expansion capabilities and being more space efficient in the amount of required metadata than many previous strategies, there remains a growing concern of how much data is actually required. In this paper, we present a novel method of storing equivalent information, SESH, a Space Efficient Storage of Heredity. This method utilizes the high amount of block-level predictability observed in a number of workload trace sets to reduce the overall metadata storage by up to 99% without any loss of information. As a result, we are able to provide a predictive tool that is adaptive, accurate, and robust in the face of workload noise, for a tiny fraction of the metadata cost previously anticipated; in some cases, reducing the required size from 12 gigabytes to less than 150 megabytes
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