APPLICATION LEVEL SPECULATIVE PROCESSING

• US 20130239125A1
• Filed: 03/06/2012
• Published: 09/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Autodesk, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Francesco Iorio
• Inventors: IORIO, Francesco
• Granted Patent: US 9,009,734 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/318
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44 Arrangements for executing specific programs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/466 Transaction processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications

Abstract

One or more embodiments of the invention is a computer-implemented method for speculatively executing application event responses. The method includes the steps of identifying one or more event responses that could be issued for execution by an application being executed by a master process, for each event response, generating a child process to execute the event response, determining that a first event response included in the one or more event responses has been issued for execution by the application, committing the child process associated with the first event response as a new master process, and aborting the master process and all child processes other than the child process associated with the first event response.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for speculatively processing application event responses, the method comprising:

identifying one or more event responses that could be issued for processing by an application executing on a computing device;

determining whether processing a first event response requires an interaction with at least one resource included in the computing device other than a system memory;

selecting a first type of speculative processing of the first event response when the first event response requires an interaction with the at least one resource, or

selecting a second type of speculative processing of the first event response when the first event response does not require an interaction with the at least one resource.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, when the first type of speculative processing is selected, generating a clone process to process the first event response that is a clone of a master process that causes the application to execute on the computing device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the master process comprises a master virtual machine and the clone process comprises a clone virtual machine.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising determining that the first event response has been issued for processing by the application, and replacing the master process with the clone process.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising, when the second type of speculative processing is selected, generating a transaction to process the first event response.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein a master process causes the application to execute on the computing device, and further comprising determining that the first event response has been issued for processing by the application, and committing the transaction to the master process.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising determining that the first event response has not been issued for processing by the application, and reversing the transaction.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one resource included in the computing device comprises a network interface card.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one resource included in the computing device comprises a hard-disk drive.

10. A computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to speculatively process application event responses, by performing the steps of:

identifying one or more event responses that could be issued for processing by an application executing on a computing device;

determining whether processing a first event response requires an interaction with at least one resource included in the computing device other than a system memory;

selecting a first type of speculative processing of the first event response when the first event response requires an interaction with the at least one resource, or

selecting a second type of speculative processing of the first event response when the first event response does not require an interaction with the at least one resource.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 10, further comprising, when the first type of speculative processing is selected, generating a clone process to process the first event response that is a clone of a master process that causes the application to execute on the computing device.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the master process comprises a master virtual machine and the clone process comprises a clone virtual machine.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 11, further comprising determining that the first event response has been issued for processing by the application, and replacing the master process with the clone process.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 10, further comprising, when the second type of speculative processing is selected, generating a transaction to process the first event response.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein a master process causes the application to execute on the computing device, and further comprising determining that the first event response has been issued for processing by the application, and committing the transaction to the master process.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 14, further comprising determining that the first event response has not been issued for processing by the application, and reversing the transaction.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the at least one resource included in the computing device comprises a network interface card.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the at least one resource included in the computing device comprises a hard-disk drive.

19. A computer system, comprising:

a memory; and

a processor configured to;

identify one or more event responses that could be issued for processing by an application executing on a computing device,

determine whether processing a first event response requires an interaction with at least one resource included in the computing device other than a system memory,

select a first type of speculative processing of the first event response when the first event response requires an interaction with the at least one resource, or

select a second type of speculative processing of the first event response when the first event response does not require an interaction with the at least one resource.

20. The computer system of claim 19, wherein the processor is further configured to, when the second type of speculative processing is selected, generate a transaction to process the first event response.