1989 Reports

Exploring "Multiple Worlds" in Parallel

Smith, Jonathan M.; Maguire, Gerald Q.

We examine computing alternative solutions to a problem in parallel to improve response time. Problems with exploring multiple alternatives in parallel include (1) side-effects and (2) combinatorial explosion in the amount of state which must be preserved. These are solved by process management and an application of "copy-on-write" virtual memory management. The side effects resulting from interprocess communication are handled by a specialized message layer which interacts with process management The effect is to create "Multiple Worlds", which are different due to the alternate solution methods. but internally self-consistent. We show how such a "Multiple Worlds" scheme can be used for several applications.