Task (computing)

About: Task (computing) is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 9718 publications have been published within this topic receiving 129364 citations.

Fault-Tolerant Rate-Monotonic Scheduling

Abstract: Due to the critical nature of the tasks in hard real-time systems, it is essential that faults be tolerated. In this paper, we present a scheme which can be used to tolerate faults during the execution of preemptive real-time tasks. We describe a recovery scheme which can be used to re-execute tasks in the event of single and multiple transient faults and discuss conditions that must be met by any such recovery scheme. We then extend the original Rate Monotonic Scheduling (RMS) scheme and the exact characterization of RMS to provide tolerance for single and multiple transient faults. We derive schedulability bounds for sets of real-time tasks given the desired level of fault tolerance for each task or subset of tasks. Finally, we analyze and compare those bounds with existing bounds for non-fault-tolerant and other variations of RMS.

Determinating timing channels in compute clouds

Abstract: Timing side-channels represent an insidious security challenge for cloud computing, because: (a) massive parallelism in the cloud makes timing channels pervasive and hard to control; (b) timing channels enable one customer to steal information from another without leaving a trail or raising alarms; (c) only the cloud provider can feasibly detect and report such attacks, but the provider's incentives are not to; and (d) resource partitioning schemes for timing channel control undermine statistical sharing efficiency, and, with it, the cloud computing business model. We propose a new approach to timing channel control, using provider-enforced deterministic execution instead of resource partitioning to eliminate timing channels within a shared cloud domain. Provider-enforced determinism prevents execution timing from affecting the results of a compute task, however large or parallel, ensuring that a task's outputs leak no timing information apart from explicit timing inputs and total compute duration. Experiments with a prototype OS for deterministic cloud computing suggest that such an approach may be practical and efficient. The OS supports deterministic versions of familiar APIs such as processes, threads, shared memory, and file systems, and runs coarse-grained parallel tasks as efficiently and scalably as current timing channel-ridden systems.

Hybrid machine/human computing arrangement

Abstract: A hybrid machine/human computing arrangement which advantageously involves humans to assist a computer to solve particular tasks, allowing the computer to solve the tasks more efficiently. In one embodiment, a computer system decomposes a task, such as, for example, image or speech comparison, into subtasks for human performance, and requests the performances. The computer system programmatically conveys the request to a central coordinating server of the hybrid machine/human computing arrangement, which in turn dispatches the subtasks to personal computers operated by the humans. The humans perform the subtasks and provide the results back to the server, which receives the responses, and generates a result for the task based at least in part on the results of the human performances.

Method and apparatus for controlling connected computers without programming

Abstract: A process for creating, maintaining, and executing network applications. A user specifies a network application as an interconnection (102) of tasks (100), each task being addressed to run on one or more computers (103-105). Process steps install and execute the application with accommodation for dynamically changing addresses. During execution, process steps compile or interpret source code on remote computers or other devices (106) as needed. Process steps permit application changes during execution subject to limitations and fail-safes that prevent non-programmers from creating invalid changes.

Method and system for an atomizing function of a mobile device

Abstract: Methods and systems for an atomizing function for a mobile device are disclosed and may include discovering available resources via a handheld wireless communication device (HWCD) and assessing respective cost functions for processing tasks by the HWCD and/or the discovered resources. The tasks may be apportioned for local and/or remote execution by the HWCD and/or the discovered resources based on the assessed cost functions. The assessed cost functions may be dependent on factors comprising communication bandwidth, memory space, CPU processing power, and battery power, which may be weighted. The cost functions may be dynamically assessed, enabling dynamic reapportioning of the tasks, which may be apportioned based on latency, quality of service (QoS), priority and/or user preferences associated with the local and/or remote execution. The apportioning of the processing of the tasks may be based on the assessed cost functions, and a priority and/or a QoS associated with the task.