Groundwork for the Development of Testing Plans for Concurrent Software

Abstract

While multi-threading has become commonplace in many application domains (e.g., embedded systems, digital signal processing (DSP), networks, IP services, and graphics), multi-threaded code often requires complex co-ordination of threads.   As a result, multi-threaded implementations are prone to subtle bugs that are difficult and time-consuming to locate.   Moreover, current testing techniques that address multi-threading are generally costly while their effectiveness is unknown.    The development of cost-effective testing plans requires an in-depth study of the nature, frequency, and cost of concurrency errors in the context of real-world applications.  The full paper will lay the groundwork for such a study, with the purpose of informing the creation of a parametric cost model for testing multi-threaded software.  The current version of the paper provides motivation for the study, an outline of the full paper, and a bibliography of related papers.