Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Amitabh Srivastava

Andrew James Edwards

Hoi Huu Vo

Ken B Pierce

Ronnie Chaiken

Hon Keat W Chan

John A Lefor

Gideon Andreas Yuval

David Mitford Gillies

Jayaraman Thiagarajan

Gregory A Eigsti

Bruce M Kuramoto

Jiyang Liu

Programs are rarely self-contained in software environments. They depend on other programs or shared subsystems like language run time and operating system libraries for various functionalities. A change in one of the external subsystems may affect the program and one or more other external subsystems. A method or system collects and propagates information about dependency between logical abstractions within a binary file (e.g., basic block, procedure, etc.), dependency between binary files, and dependency between subsystems (e.g., programs, component libraries, system services, etc,) In one example, such dependency information is exposed to a tool (e.g., test tool, software development tool, etc.) via an application programming interface. A tool mines this information to manage testing, determine risks of change, or manage software development. The tool may also be integrated into the method or system.

Mining dependencies for testing and risk management

Each component binary in a heterogeneous program is translated from a platform-specific instruction set into a set of intermediate representation (IR) instructions that are platform-neutral. The IR instructions are grouped into IR code blocks, the IR code blocks into IR procedures, and the IR procedures into IR components to create an intermediate representation hierarchy for the program. An application program interface is provided that permits user access to the IR hierarchy for instrumentation, optimization, navigation, and manipulation of the IR hierarchy. The transformed IR hierarchy is then translated into platform-specific instructions and output as a modified binary. The user can designate a different platform for the output translation of a code block than the platform for which the code block was originally written. Prologue and epilog code is added to contiguous blocks that are translated into different architectures. The modified binary can be iterated through the translation and transformation process to produce multiple versions of the heterogeneous program.

Translation and transformation of heterogeneous programs

A computer system and method is provided for prioritizing software tests. Software tests are prioritized based on coverage indicators for the software tests and an indication of impacted areas of the software. Each of the coverage indicators indicates which portions of the software are executed for a respective one of the software tests. The portions of the software include at least one of a plurality of blocks. The indication of impacted areas of the software indicates ones of the plurality of blocks that are modified or new with respect to a previous version of the software. A prioritized list of software tests is output. The prioritized list includes at least one test sequence.

Method and apparatus for prioritizing software tests

An application program interface (API) into an hierarchical intermediate representation (IR) of a heterogeneous program enables the navigation and modification of the IR at all levels of the hierarchy. Additional functions provide information about the IR that can be employed by a user in understanding the logic flow of the program and by an output translator to convert the IR into blocks of platform-specific instructions for a new version of the heterogeneous program. The API functions are also utilized by pre-defined program tools to instrument and optimize the IR, and thus the heterogeneous program created from the IR.

Application program interface for transforming heterogeneous programs

An output translator provides for cross module representations of components within a heterogeneous program by translating modifying a platform-neutral intermediate representation (IR) of the program into platform-specific instructions for different architectures. The intermediate representation is hierarchy of base elements that correspond to instructions, code blocks, procedures and components within the program. Blocks of instructions that were originally written for one architecture can be translated from the intermediate representation into platform-specific instructions for a different architecture. The output translator provides any necessary code to interface contiguous code blocks that are emitted in different instruction sets.

Cross module representation of heterogeneous programs

Pre-defined performance tools enable instrumentation and optimization of a heterogeneous program by modifying a platform-neutral intermediate representation (IR) of the program. The intermediate representation is hierarchy of base elements that correspond to instructions, code blocks, procedures and components within the program. Each base element exports an application program interface that provides for navigation, querying and modification of the corresponding element in the hierarchy. An application program interface for the entire intermediate representation includes the application program interfaces for the individual elements along with additional functionality. A user can request instrumentation and optimization of any level of the intermediate representation hierarchy and the performance tools perform the required modifications to the intermediate representation. When a modification requires inserting instructions, the performance tools add prologue and epilog code to connect the inserted instructions with the original intermediate representation instructions. When the intermediate representation instructions are translated into platform-specific instructions and executed, the modifications made to the intermediate representation provide the instrumentation and/or optimization of the heterogeneous program.

Instrumentation and optimization tools for heterogeneous programs

A shared library optimization process relocates a code block in a platform-neutral intermediate representation (IR) of a library into the IR of another library. The shared library optimization process preserves the original control flow that passed through the relocated code block using forwarding pointers and address substitution. The shared library optimization process can also relocate code blocks from multiple shared libraries into an existing shared library, or from one shared library into an empty shared library. The shared libraries to be optimized are specified by a user, as is the type of optimization to be performed.

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Amitabh Srivastava