Autopoietic companions and correctness helpers

Abstract

Ultra large scale systems and multicore processors are part of the future-how are they related? ULS systems are almost impossible to build. Beyond human comprehension, such systems drive us crazy as many of our most treasured principles and aspirations turn out in them to be but tinfoil. Conventional wisdom tells us that multicore processor chips will save us from the apparent demise of Moore's Law, and going fast will be in again-if only we can figure out how to program parallel systems easily and well. But while we're in the mood to throw out established truths, why not throw out that one too? Instead of using all those cores to run programs fast, why not use them to keep our ultra large scale systems running in good health and correctly? Copyright 2008 ACM.