How Microsoft Research banished the BSOD

I don't care how uncool Microsoft is perceived to be, Microsoft Research would be my dream job over any other tech company. It's like being a researcher at a top university without having to beg for grants every year.

Re: How Microsoft Research banished the BSOD

#5

Post by alecco » Sat, Jun 19, 2010, 12:11 AM UTC

Non sequitur.

  1- Guy proves 4 Colour Theorem with software, and mathematically proves
     the software with another program (or something like that, it isn't
     completely clear.)
  2- Most BSODs caused by 3rd party drivers.
  3- Make software to test those drivers before shipping.
  4- BSODs mostly gone!

The article's title promised an explanation but instead they gave a flawed story. It seems on one hand they dumbed down the article, but on the other hand they kept some of the fancy sounding concepts. It would be forgivable if it weren't a tech-oriented publication. "Deep into technology."

Re: How Microsoft Research banished the BSOD

#6

Post by InclinedPlane » Sat, Jun 19, 2010, 12:37 AM UTC

alecco wrote: post #5

Non sequitur. 1- Guy proves 4 Colour Theorem with software, and mathematically proves the software with another program (or something like that, it isn't completely clear.) 2- Most BSODs caused by 3rd party drivers. 3- Make software to test those drivers before shipping. 4- BSODs mostly gone! The article's title promised an explanation but instead they gave a flawed story. It seems on one hand they dumbed down the ar…

Yeah... It's a shame that tech and science journalism is typically so shoddy.

It isn't because of merely better testing that Windows 7 / Vista are much more stable than previous versions of Windows, there are fundamental architectural changes. On modern versions of Windows if even your video driver crashes it will be restarted and instead of a BSOD you'll just get a system tray notification.

Re: How Microsoft Research banished the BSOD

#7

Post by flubba » Sat, Jun 19, 2010, 12:40 AM UTC

Very interesting work with the Four Color Theorum, but the BSOD isn't exactly "banished", at least for me.

Re: How Microsoft Research banished the BSOD

#8

Post by ComputerGuru » Sat, Jun 19, 2010, 12:44 AM UTC

alecco wrote: post #5

Non sequitur. 1- Guy proves 4 Colour Theorem with software, and mathematically proves the software with another program (or something like that, it isn't completely clear.) 2- Most BSODs caused by 3rd party drivers. 3- Make software to test those drivers before shipping. 4- BSODs mostly gone! The article's title promised an explanation but instead they gave a flawed story. It seems on one hand they dumbed down the ar…

I assume that the same technique that he used to prove the 4 color theorem can be directly applied to testing drivers (some sort of approach to addressing the halting problem???) and therefore makes it easier to spot leaks and bugs?

Re: How Microsoft Research banished the BSOD

#9

Post by neilc » Sat, Jun 19, 2010, 12:45 AM UTC

alecco wrote: post #5

Non sequitur. 1- Guy proves 4 Colour Theorem with software, and mathematically proves the software with another program (or something like that, it isn't completely clear.) 2- Most BSODs caused by 3rd party drivers. 3- Make software to test those drivers before shipping. 4- BSODs mostly gone! The article's title promised an explanation but instead they gave a flawed story. It seems on one hand they dumbed down the ar…

Well, no, they do say a little more than that:

"... the techniques that George used to prove that his computer based proof was correct happens to have direct application to a set of tools that we give to people that build PC peripherals..."

I know MS uses Prefast (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms933794.aspx) to improve driver quality. I'm not sure what other verification/analysis techniques they use, but it's not too surprising that a technique developed for efficient automated theorem proving would be applicable to efficient software verification.

To say that doing this is solely responsible for "banishing the BSOD" is irresponsible and misinformed in a few different ways, of course.

Re: How Microsoft Research banished the BSOD

#10

Post by ComputerGuru » Sat, Jun 19, 2010, 12:45 AM UTC

InclinedPlane wrote: post #6

alecco wrote: post #5

Non sequitur. 1- Guy proves 4 Colour Theorem with software, and mathematically proves the software with another program (or something like that, it isn't completely clear.) 2- Most BSODs caused by 3rd party drivers. 3- Make software to test those drivers before shipping. 4- BSODs mostly gone! The article's title promised an explanation but instead they gave a flawed story. It seems on one hand they dumbed down the ar…

Yeah... It's a shame that tech and science journalism is typically so shoddy. It isn't because of merely better testing that Windows 7 / Vista are much more stable than previous versions of Windows, there are fundamental architectural changes. On modern versions of Windows if even your video driver crashes it will be restarted and instead of a BSOD you'll just get a system tray notification.

Usually. But have the driver crash several times in the space of 3-5 minutes and you'll get a BSOD.