The most dreaded events in the computer world, besides viruses, are definitely bugs. Even you must be praying for no crashes or freezes every now and then, maybe while reading this article. Perhaps even more so as the intricacy of modern multi-core chips grows and (more) programs perform multiple tasks, sharing data at the same time. But researchers from the University of Michigan came up with a promising tool – a controller called Gadara – aimed at lifting this burden from our daily use of computers.

Most commonly, freeze bugs are the result of a process where various sections of a software get to wait on each other in infinite cycles as they need to access the same shared data. The experts’ plug-in controller that relies on the feedback received from the programs has sidestepped this issue by anticipating and eliminating the causes for the deadlock situation, using a blend of discrete control theory and compiler technology.

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