Debugging heterogeneous distributed systems using event-based models of behavior
ACM Transactions on Computer Systems (TOCS)
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MANDELBROT SETS DELIGHT THOUSANDS OF SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN READERS AND MULTITUDES OF COMPUTER HACKERS THAT ENJOY THE SCENIC BEAUTY CREATING BY THE BORING REGULARITY OF A SIMPLE ALGORITHM. A PROGRAM THAT CREATES MANDELBROT SETS USING A PARALLEL ALGORITHM WAS DEVELOPED TO EXERCISE THE PARALLELISM OF THE SEQUENT SYMMETRY MULTIPROCESSOR AND THE DISPLAY CAPABIL- ITIES OF THE DEC VAX STATION II/GPX. THE PROGRAM WAS CONVERTED TO BE USED AS A CANONICAL EXAMPLE OF AN EVENT GENERATOR FOR EVENT BASED BEHAVIORAL ABSTRACTION TOOLSET TESTS. THE PRO- GRAM WAS A FINE PROGRAM THAT DUE TO A PARTICULAR FEATURE OF ITS OUTPUT DISPLAY THE MANDELBROT SET RESULTS. AN ATTEMPT TO REMEDY THAT PERFORMANCE PROBLEM INVOVLED REMOVAL OF THE EFFECTS OF A SINGLE PROCEDURE CALL, THAT RESULTED IN CONSISTENT BUT NOT DETERMINATE FAILURE OF THE MANDELBROT SET GENERATOR PROGRAM. THIS PAPER IS A DETAILED REPORT OF THE EFFORT REQUIRED TO ISOLATE AND EXPLAIN THE ERROR USING ONLY THE EVENT BASED BEHAVIOR ABSTRACTION TOOLSET AS THE INVESTIGATIVE TOOL.