April 2018 - Stack@CS Reading Group

[Sysreading] No more meetings this semester; summer leadership?
by James Davis 30 Apr '18

30 Apr '18

Hey all, Last Friday was the last systems reading group of the spring semester. *There is no meeting on Friday May 4.* *If anyone wants to organize the reading group over the summer, let me know.* (I will not be in Blacksburg) Otherwise, we will resume in the fall. If you have graduated, etc., this is a good time to remove yourself from the mailing list <https://mailman.cs.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/sysreading>. ~Jamie -- Jamie Davis PhD student, Computer Science, 2015-? Virginia Tech http://people.cs.vt.edu/~davisjam/

1 0

[Sysreading] Update: Starting tomorrow with a practice talk
by James Davis 26 Apr '18

26 Apr '18

Hi folks, Tomorrow one of Dr. Xian's students will be practicing an ISCA presentation on us from 3:30-4:00 PM. *Even if you aren't planning on reading the papers, you should still come from 3:30 - 4:00 to support your colleague!* Please arrive early so we can get started on time. *Talk details* *Title:* Nonblocking Memory Refresh *Abstract: * Since its inception half a century ago, DRAM has required dynamic/active refresh operations that block read requests and decrease performance. We propose refreshing DRAM in the background without stalling read accesses to refreshing memory blocks, similar to the static/background refresh in SRAM. Our proposed Nonblocking Refresh works by refreshing a portion of the data in a memory block at a time and uses redundant data, such as Reed-Solomon codes, in the block to compute the block’s refreshing/unreadable data to satisfy read requests. For proof of concept, we apply Nonblocking Refresh to server memory systems, where every memory block already contains redundant data to provide hardware failure protection. In this context, Nonblocking Refresh can utilize server memory system’s existing per-block redundant data in the common-case when there are no hardware faults to correct, without requiring any dedicated redundant data of its own. Our evaluations show that on average across five server memory systems with different redundancy and failure protection strengths, Nonblocking Refresh improves performance by 16.2% and 30.3% for 16gb and 32gb DRAM chips, respectively. Best, Jamie -- Jamie Davis PhD student, Computer Science, 2015-? Virginia Tech http://people.cs.vt.edu/~davisjam/

1 0

[Sysreading] SRG for 4/27: Evolutionary algorithms and software engineering
by James Davis 22 Apr '18

22 Apr '18

Hi all, This week we'll be interrupting the scheduled EuroSys/ASPLOS readings to do something completely different. Eric and I enjoyed a Morning Paper about digital evolution. I thought it would be fun to read that, along with a more formal description of evolutionary algorithms used in software engineering research and development. Sign up for paper(s) here <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jzQ-w54OoiLBIuGGchK8uxU62ZvAOODxxVn…> . *Logistics* "The usual": KW2 2225, Friday, 27 April, 3:30 - 5:00 PM Cheerio, Jamie -- Jamie Davis PhD student, Computer Science, 2015-? Virginia Tech http://people.cs.vt.edu/~davisjam/

1 0

[Sysreading] SRG for 4/20: Abbreviated reading group (at NDBS!)
by James Davis 19 Apr '18

19 Apr '18

Hi all, After some discussion we decided to move on from EuroSys'18 to ASPLOS'18. This week we're doing 1 ASPLOS paper on non-volatile memory. In the past we've read some of the more fundamental works on Non-Volatile Memory. This week's paper is* Espresso: Brewing Java For More Non-Volatility <https://arxiv.org/pdf/1710.09968.pdf>*, and discusses how to incorporate NVM technology into the JVM. There's also an interesting-sounding talk in Goodwin Hall from 4-5PM, by Paul Laughton. See attachment for details. To accommodate people interested in attending both, we will be meeting at *3:15 PM* at *Next Door Bake Shop* <https://www.google.com/maps/place/Next+Door+Bake+Shop/@37.233522,-80.424719…> (very close to Goodwin Hall), and stopping at *4:00 PM*. *Logistics* Friday, 20 April, 3:15-4:00 PM, at *Next Door Bake Shop* Please RSVP so I can snag enough chairs at NDBS. Cheers, Jamie -- Jamie Davis PhD student, Computer Science, 2015-? Virginia Tech http://people.cs.vt.edu/~davisjam/

1 0

[Sysreading] Fwd: FW: Did you know a VT Grad Developed Apple DOS - see upcoming seminar
by Daphne Yao 12 Apr '18

12 Apr '18

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Crawford, Barbara <bcrawfrd(a)vt.edu> Date: Thu, Apr 12, 2018 at 1:01 PM Subject: FW: Did you know a VT Grad Developed Apple DOS - see upcoming seminar To: coefaculty-g(a)vt.edu <coefaculty-g(a)vt.edu>, coestaff-g(a)vt.edu < coestaff-g(a)vt.edu> TO: COE Faculty and Staff Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering *Bradley Distinguished Lecture* *A Techman’s adventures in Silicon Valley:Creating Apple DOS 3.1, Atari Basic, Digital Cameras and more* *Paul Laughton* Notable Virginia Tech Alumni Paul Laughton: Author of Apple DOS 3.1, Atari DOS, Atari Basic, and BASIC! for Android *Date/Time: *Friday April 20, 2018 at 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM *Location*: 190 Goodwin Hall (Quillen Family Auditorium) *WebEx:* https://virginiatech.webex.com/virginiatech/j.php?MTID=m59badc7d875048d3f10… Paul Laughton, a Techman, followed his passion to a programming career that spanned from mainframes to micros, including the early days of Apple, working on a $13,000 contract to develop Apple DOS, writing Atari Basic, meeting his future wife at the Homebrew Computer Club, hanging out with Jobs and Woz, and writing books on Atari DOS and Atari BASIC. He eventually wound up as the project manager of some of the first consumer digital cameras at Logitech and Kodak. Paul is now a docent at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, using his spare time to write and maintain the BASIC! For Android application. By 1978 Paul Laughton had been involved in a number of projects writing code for Johns Hopkins, IBM and others. Steve Wozniak had just completed the electrical design and testing of a relatively inexpensive hard drive in 1976-77 but did not have the software to run it in production. *As then-Shepardson employee Paul Laughton remembers it, Wozniak came by one day saying Apple had a disk drive, but no DOS, and was wondering what to do. "I said, 'I know about operating systems.' And so he said, 'Cool, let's have you do it.'"** This important step for the Apple dynasty was dependent upon one of the many contributors to the evolution of technology. As is evidenced by Paul’s contributions throughout his career, it takes many hardworking and creative persons to *Invent the Future*. Paul celebrated 50 years as a VT alum by visiting campus in the Fall of 2017 at the Old Guard Reunion. We would like to invite all those who knew Paul as an AFROTC student or a science and engineering practitioner to join us for his distinguished seminar talk. Those interested in where technology has come from and where it is going will be very interested in this talk. See **CNET April 3, 2013* *Joseph G. Tront* Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering 359 Durham Hall Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA 24061-0111 Voice: 540-231-5067 Fax: 540-231-3362 -- Best, Daphne

1 0

[Sysreading] Sysreading for 4/13: EuroSys'18 #3
by James Davis 12 Apr '18

12 Apr '18

Hi all, Sorry for the (very!) late announcement. *Paper* This week's SRG will discuss Microsoft's perspective on microservices. The paper is Service Fabric: A Distributed Platform for Building Microservices in the Cloud <http://dprg.cs.uiuc.edu/docs/servicefabric_eurosys2018/SFEurosys2018.pdf> from UIUC and Microsoft, and has about 20 authors. *Logistics* The usual: Friday 13 April, 3:30-5:00 PM, KW2 2225. Cheers, Jamie -- Jamie Davis PhD student, Computer Science, 2015-? Virginia Tech http://people.cs.vt.edu/~davisjam/

1 0

[Sysreading] SRG for 4/6: EuroSys'18 #2
by James Davis 02 Apr '18

02 Apr '18

Hi all, *Topic* Continuing our theme from last week, this week we're doing more papers from EuroSys'18. This week we have: - A Scalable Ordering Primitive For Multicore Machines <http://www.ssrg.ece.vt.edu/papers/2018_eurosys_a-scalable-ordering.pdf> - Delta Pointers: Buffer Overflow Checks Without the Check <https://www.cs.vu.nl/~herbertb/download/papers/delta-pointers_eurosys18.pdf> See here <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cbkAyY_HoWPJY0FezX8db0licEzXU4j7tFm…> for signups. *Logistics* The usual: 3:30-5:00 PM, Friday 4/6, KW2 2225 -- Jamie Davis PhD student, Computer Science, 2015-? Virginia Tech http://people.cs.vt.edu/~davisjam/

1 0