Document Type

Technical Report

Department

Computer Science and Engineering

Publication Date

1993-01-01

Filename

WUCS-93-21.PDF

Technical Report Number

WUCS-93-21

Abstract

Dynamic reconfiguration is explored in the context of I/O abstraction, a new programming model that defines the communication structure of a system in terms of connections among well-defined data interfaces for the modules in the system. The properties of I/O abstraction, particularly the clear separation of computation from communication and the availability of a module's state information, help simplify the reconfiguration strategy. Both logical and physical reconfiguration are discussed, with an emphasis on a new module migration mechanism that (1) takes advantage of the underlying I/O abstraction model, (2) avoids the expense and complication of state extraction techniques, (3) minimizes the amount of code required for migration and confines that code to a separate section of the program, and (4) is designed to permit migration across heterogeneous hosts and to allow replacemnt of one implementation by another, even if the new implementation is written in another programming language. The flexibility of the migration mechanism is illustrated by presenting three different paradigms for constructing reconfiguration modules that are supported by this new mechanism. A uniform specification mechanism is provided for both logical and physical reconfiguration.

Comments

Permanent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7936/K7Q52MVW

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