Patents by Inventor Christopher William Dern

Christopher William Dern has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Concurrency test effectiveness via mutation testing and dynamic lock elision
    Patent number: 8276021
    Abstract: One embodiment described herein is directed to a method practiced in a computing environment. The method includes acts for determining test suite effectiveness for testing for concurrency problems and/or product faults. The method includes identifying a plurality of synchronization primitives in a section of implementation source code. One or more of the synchronization primitives are iteratively modified and a same test suite is run for each iteration. For each iteration, a determination is made whether or not the test suite returns an error as a result of modifying one or more synchronization primitives. When the test suite does not return an error, the method includes providing to a user an indication which indicates at least one of a test adequacy hole for the test suite; an implementation source code fault; or an equivalent mutant of the implementation source code.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 25, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Christopher William Dern, Roy Patrick Tan, Shaun Emory Miller
  • Transactional memory compatibility management
    Patent number: 8266604
    Abstract: Transactional memory compatibility type attributes are associated with intermediate language code to specify, for example, that intermediate language code must be run within a transaction, or must not be run within a transaction, or may be run within a transaction. Attributes are automatically produced while generating intermediate language code from annotated source code. Default rules also generate attributes. Tools use attributes to statically or dynamically check for incompatibility between intermediate language code and a transactional memory implementation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Dana Groff, Yosseff Levanoni, Stephen Toub, Michael McKenzie Magruder, Weirong Zhu, Timothy Lawrence Harris, Christopher William Dern, John Joseph Duffy, David Detlefs, Martin Abadi, Sukhdeep Singh Sodhi, Lingli Zhang, Alexander Dadiomov, Vinod Grover
  • CONCURRENCY TEST EFFICTIVENESS VIA MUTATION TESTING AND DYNAMIC LOCK ELISION
    Publication number: 20110154121
    Abstract: One embodiment described herein is directed to a method practiced in a computing environment. The method includes acts for determining test suite effectiveness for testing for concurrency problems and/or product faults. The method includes identifying a plurality of synchronization primitives in a section of implementation source code. One or more of the synchronization primitives are iteratively modified and a same test suite is run for each iteration. For each iteration, a determination is made whether or not the test suite returns an error as a result of modifying one or more synchronization primitives. When the test suite does not return an error, the method includes providing to a user an indication which indicates at least one of a test adequacy hole for the test suite; an implementation source code fault; or an equivalent mutant of the implementation source code.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 18, 2009
    Publication date: June 23, 2011
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Christopher William Dern, Roy Patrick Tan, Shaun Emory Miller
  • TRANSACTIONAL MEMORY COMPATIBILITY MANAGEMENT
    Publication number: 20100191930
    Abstract: Transactional memory compatibility type attributes are associated with intermediate language code to specify, for example, that intermediate language code must be run within a transaction, or must not be run within a transaction, or may be run within a transaction. Attributes are automatically produced while generating intermediate language code from annotated source code. Default rules also generate attributes. Tools use attributes to statically or dynamically check for incompatibility between intermediate language code and a transactional memory implementation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 26, 2009
    Publication date: July 29, 2010
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Dana Groff, Yosseff Levanoni, Stephen Toub, Michael McKenzie Magruder, Weirong Zhu, Timothy Lawrence Harris, Christopher William Dern, John Joseph Duffy, David Detlefs, Martin Abadi, Sukhdeep Singh Sodhi, Lingli Zhang, Alexander Dadiomov, Vinod Grover