Software portability

About: Software portability is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 8987 publications have been published within this topic receiving 164922 citations. The topic is also known as: portability.

Power-Management Architecture of the Intel Microarchitecture Code-Named Sandy Bridge

Abstract: Modern microprocessors are evolving into system-on-a-chip designs with high integration levels, catering to ever-shrinking form factors. Portability without compromising performance is a driving market need. An architectural approach that's adaptive to and cognizant of workload behavior and platform physical constraints is indispensable to meeting these performance and efficiency goals. This article describes power-management innovations introduced on Intel's Sandy Bridge microprocessor.

Native Client: a sandbox for portable, untrusted x86 native code

Abstract: This paper describes the design, implementation and evaluation of Native Client, a sandbox for untrusted x86 native code. Native Client aims to give browser-based applications the computational performance of native applications without compromising safety. Native Client uses software fault isolation and a secure runtime to direct system interaction and side effects through interfaces managed by Native Client. Native Client provides operating system portability for binary code while supporting performance-oriented features generally absent from web application programming environments, such as thread support, instruction set extensions such as SSE, and use of compiler intrinsics and hand-coded assembler. We combine these properties in an open architecture that encourages community review and 3rd-party tools.

Method and system for automated data storage system space allocation utilizing prioritized data set parameters

Abstract: A method and system for automatically allocating space within a data storage system for multiple data sets which may include units of data, databases, files or objects. Each data set preferably includes a group of associated preference/requirement parameters which are arranged in a hierarchical order and then compared to corresponding data storage system characteristics for available devices. The data set preference/requirement parameters may include performance, size, availability, location, portability, share status and other attributes which affect data storage system selection. Data storage systems may include solid-state memory, disk drives, tape drives, and other peripheral storage systems. Data storage system characteristics may thus represent available space, cache, performance, portability, volatility, location, cost, fragmentation, and other characteristics which address user needs. The data set preference/requirement parameter hierarchy is established for each data set, listing each parameter from a "most important" parameter to a "least important" parameter. Each attempted storage of a data set will result in an analysis of all available data storage systems and the creation of a linked chain of available data storage systems representing an ordered sequence of preferred data storage systems. Data storage system selection is then performed utilizing this preference chain, which includes all candidate storage systems.

Portable electronic faxing, scanning, copying, and printing device

Abstract: A lightweight, battery operated, portable, personal electronic device capable of faxing, scanning, printing and copying media as a standalone device or in cooperation with other electronic devices including PCs, mobile telephones, PDAs, etc. is provided. The device automatically detects the presence of fax-capable devices and reconfigures the software for compatibility with the fax-capable device eliminating the need for user programming. The device's ergonomic design, intrinsic physical stability, and same side paper feeds and user interface provide use in work areas having limited space. The device includes unidirectional, independent pathways for original and recording media such that paper jams are minimized. Portability is maximized through innovative power management software and hardware.

Models and languages for parallel computation

Abstract: We survey parallel programming models and languages using six criteria to assess their suitability for realistic portable parallel programming. We argue that an ideal model should by easy to program, should have a software development methodology, should be architecture-independent, should be easy to understand, should guarantee performance, and should provide accurate information about the cost of programs. These criteria reflect our belief that developments in parallelism must be driven by a parallel software industry based on portability and efficiency. We consider programming models in six categories, depending on the level of abstraction they provide. Those that are very abstract conceal even the presence of parallelism at the software level. Such models make software easy to build and port, but efficient and predictable performance is usually hard to achieve. At the other end of the spectrum, low-level models make all of the messy issues of parallel programming explicit (how many threads, how to place them, how to express communication, and how to schedule communication), so that software is hard to build and not very portable, but is usually efficient. Most recent models are near the center of this spectrum, exploring the best tradeoffs between expressiveness and performance. A few models have achieved both abstractness and efficiency. Both kinds of models raise the possibility of parallelism as part of the mainstream of computing.