University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Compiler-assisted debugging and multiple instruction retry

Chen, Shyh-Kwei

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/21777

Description

Title
Compiler-assisted debugging and multiple instruction retry
Author(s)
Chen, Shyh-Kwei
Issue Date
1994
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Fuchs, W. Kent
Department of Study
Computer Science
Discipline
Computer Science
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Computer Science
Language
eng
Abstract
  • Backward execution requires the saving of historic information concurrently with the normal execution in order for a program to roll back. There are several applications for which backward execution is useful. In an environment where reliability is a concern, it may be necessary to roll back the program to a previously executed state in case of system faults. Multiple instruction retry is an alternative to checkpointing for recovery from a transient processor failure, especially when the error detection latency is only a few cycles. Speculative execution can achieve significant speedup for superscalar architectures by utilizing instruction retry to roll back the computation above mispredicted branches. Debugging is another field that can benefit from backward execution. Allowing the user to undo several instructions at specific positions may facilitate program debugging.
  • This thesis describes schemes that have been implemented for multiple instruction retry for both RISC-type scalar processors, and very long instruction word (VLIW) architectures. The thesis also presents approaches that incorporate backward execution into a debugger, at both the compiler and the debugger levels.
Type of Resource
text
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/21777
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 1994 Chen, Shyh-Kwei

Owning Collections

Graduate Dissertations and Theses at Illinois PRIMARY
Graduate Theses and Dissertations at Illinois
Dissertations and Theses - Computer Science
Dissertations and Theses from the Dept. of Computer Science