Robert O Davidson

US Patent:

6360361, Mar 19, 2002

Filed:

Mar 15, 1999

Appl. No.:

09/270124

Inventors:

James R. Larus - Mercer Island WA
Robert Davidson - Bellevue WA
Trishul M. Chilimbi - Madison WI

Assignee:

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 945

US Classification:

717 9, 717 4, 717 5, 714 35, 714 45

Abstract:

Fields which are individually addressable data elements in data structures are reordered to improve the efficiency of cache line access. Temporal data regarding the referencing of such fields is obtained, and a tool is used to construct a field affinity graph of temporal access affinities between the fields. Nodes in the graph represent fields, and edges between the nodes are weighted to indicate field affinity. A first pass greedy algorithm attempts to combine high affinity fields in the same cache line or block. Constraints are used to reject invalid combinations of fields. The constraints may be provided by program analysis, programmer, or actual dynamically generated.

US Patent:

60674121, May 23, 2000

Filed:

Aug 17, 1995

Appl. No.:

8/516176

Inventors:

Russell P. Blake - Issaquah WA
David O. Hovel - Redmond WA
Robert I. Davidson - Bellevue WA
David E. Heckerman - Bellevue WA
John S. Breese - Mercer Island WA

Assignee:

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 900

US Classification:

395672

Abstract:

A system and method for determining a workload placed on a target computer system during execution of a specified computer program. The system receives a set of performance measurements representing the performance of the target computer system during execution of the specified computer program. The system then identifies a plurality of workloads and for each identified workload, uses a model of the target computer system to predict a set of performance measurements that would results when a computer program that places the identified workload on the target computer system is executed. The system selects the identified workload whose set of predicted performance measurements most closely matches the received set of performance measurements as the determined workload that was place on the target computer system during execution of the specified computer program. The system uses the selected workload to predict the performance of the specified computer program on the target computer system with various different configurations. The system also determines the resource that is a bottleneck for each of the different configurations.

US Patent:

55598846, Sep 24, 1996

Filed:

Jun 30, 1994

Appl. No.:

8/268967

Inventors:

Robert I. Davidson - Bellevue WA
Nathan Myhrvold - Bellevue WA

Assignee:

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 942

US Classification:

380 4

Abstract:

A method and system for generating and auditing a signature for executable modules are provided. A signature is a means that uniquely identifies an authorized copy of the executable module. The signature of each authorized copy is encoded within the order of instructions of the executable module. Each executable module is made up of multiple blocks of instructions. To place a signature within the executable module, a group of blocks having a flow of execution is selected from the executable module. The group of blocks is then reordered to form a signature for the executable module. To ensure that the reordered group of blocks has the same flow of execution, the blocks within the reordered group of blocks are modified to maintain the flow of execution. The reordered group of modified blocks replaces the unmodified group of blocks within the authorized copy of the executable module. The modified copy of the executable module executes in a manner that is functionally equivalent to the unmodified executable module.

US Patent:

56641915, Sep 2, 1997

Filed:

Jun 30, 1994

Appl. No.:

8/268277

Inventors:

Robert I. Davidson - Bellevue WA
Nathan Myhrvold - Bellevue WA
Keith Randel Vogel - Duvall WA
Gideon Andreas Yuval - Mercer Island WA
Richard Shupak - Bellevue WA
Norman Eugene Apperson - Bellevue WA

Assignee:

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 944

US Classification:

395670

Abstract:

The present invention provides a method and system for determining an optimal placement order for basic blocks within a computer program to improve locality of reference and reduce the working set of the computer program. By reducing the working set, the computer program requires less memory than it normally would require to execute on a computer system. The optimal placement order for basic blocks within a computer program reflects the concurrency of usage for basic blocks during execution of the computer program. The method for determining an optimal placement order includes analyzing the computer program to identify all of the basic blocks, determining how many times each basic block is executed, assigning a placement order to each basic block depending upon how many times each basic block was executed, and reordering the basic blocks according to their assigned placement orders to produce an optimized computer program. The method used to identify all of the basic blocks includes disassembling known instruction addresses to identify the beginning and end of basic blocks and processing jump tables to identify more instruction addresses. Processing jump tables includes processing the first entry of every jump table before processing the second entry of any jump table.

US Patent:

62929348, Sep 18, 2001

Filed:

May 1, 1997

Appl. No.:

8/846893

Inventors:

Robert I. Davidson - Bellevue WA
Nathan Myhrvold - Bellevue WA
Keith Randel Vogel - Duvall WA
Gideon Andreas Yuval - Mercer Island WA
Richard Shupak - Bellevue WA
Norman Eugene Apperson - Bellevue WA

Assignee:

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 945

US Classification:

717 4

Abstract:

The present invention provides a method and system for determining an optimal placement order for basic blocks within a computer program to improve locality of reference and reduce the working set of the computer program. By reducing the working set, the computer program requires less memory than it normally would require to execute on a computer system. The optimal placement order for basic blocks within a computer program reflects the concurrency of usage for basic blocks during execution of the computer program. The method for determining an optimal placement order includes analyzing the computer program to identify all of the basic blocks, determining how many times each basic block is executed, assigning a placement order to each basic block depending upon how many times each basic block was executed, and reordering the basic blocks according to their assigned placement orders to produce an optimized computer program. The method used to identify all of the basic blocks includes disassembling known instruction addresses to identify the beginning and end of basic blocks and processing jump tables to identify more instruction addresses. Processing jump tables includes processing the first entry of every jump table before processing the second entry of any jump table.