Scientist to make multi-processor computers smarter

Washington: Luis Ceze, a Washington University computer scientist is trying to bring discipline in the modern multiprocessor computers, as he believes that they perform in an unpredictable way even after giving certain sets of commands. "With older, single-processor systems, computers behave exactly the same way as long as you give the same commands. Today's computers are non-deterministic. Even if you give the same set of commands, you might get a different result," he says, according to ANI.

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Ceze and UW associate professors of computer science and engineering Mark Oskin and Dan Grossman and UW graduate students Owen Anderson, Tom Bergan, Joseph Devietti, Brandon Lucia and Nick Hunt have now come up with a way to get modern, multiple-processor computers to behave in predictable ways, by automatically parceling sets of commands and assigning them to specific places. Sets of commands get calculated simultaneously, so the well-behaved program still runs faster than it would on a single processor.

Ceze says: "With multi-core systems the trend is to have more bugs because it's harder to write code for them. And these concurrency bugs are much harder to get a handle on. We've developed a basic technique that could be used in a range of systems, from cell phones to data centers. Ultimately, I want to make it really easy for people to design high-performing, low-energy and secure systems."

Ceze says this will help many people and simplify the process. "We can compress the effect of thousands of people using a program into a few minutes during the software's development. We want to allow people to write code for multi-core systems without going insane. If this erratic behavior irritates us, as software users, imagine how it is for banks or other mission-critical applications."