From Non-preemptive to Preemptive Scheduling Using Synchronization Synthesis

Abstract. We present a computer-aided programming approach to concurrency. The approach allows programmers to program assuming a friendly, non-preemptive scheduler, and our synthesis procedure inserts synchronization to ensure that the final program works even with a preemptive scheduler. The correctness specification is implicit, inferred from the non-preemptive behavior. Let us consider sequences of calls that the program makes to an external interface. The specification requires that any such sequence produced under a preemptive scheduler should be included in the set of such sequences produced under a non-preemptive r. The solution is based on a finitary abstraction, an algorithm for bounded language inclusion modulo an independence relation, and rules for inserting synchronization. We apply the approach to devicedriver programming, where the driver threads call the software interface of the device and the API provided by the operating system. Our experiments demonstrate that o...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2015
• Where: CAV
• Authors: Pavol Cerný, Edmund M. Clarke, Thomas A. Henzinger, Arjun Radhakrishna, Leonid Ryzhyk, Roopsha Samanta, Thorsten Tarrach
• Keywords: CAV 2015, Hardware