Patent · US Expired

Consistent asynchronous checkpointing of multithreaded application programs based on active replication

US7305582B1 · kind B1 · utility

48Cited by
15References
35Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 30, 2003
Grant dateDec 4, 2007
Priority date
Expiry dateJan 30, 2026

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F2209/521
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method for checkpointing a multithreaded application program, based on the egalitarian and competitive active replication strategy. The invention enables different threads to be checkpointed at different times in such a way that the checkpoints restore a consistent state of the threads at a new or recovering replica, even though the threads operate concurrently and asynchronously. Separate checkpoints are generated for the local state of each thread and for the data that are shared between threads and are protected by mutexes. The checkpoint of the shared data is communicated in a special message that also determines the order in which the claims of mutexes are granted to the threads. A source-code preprocessor tool is described for inserting code into an application program to checkpoint the state of the thread during normal operation and to restore the state of the thread from the checkpoint subsequently.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.