Albert Meixner

Department of Computer Science
Duke University
Levine Science Research Center D311
Research Drive
Durham, NC 27708
Contact

Welcome

I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Computer Science at Duke University. My adviser is Dr. Daniel J. Sorin. I also hold a Master's degree in Computer Science from the Paris Lodron Universität in Salzburg, Austria, where I was working in the Ganesh research group under Dr. Andreas Uhl.

Research

My general field of research is computer architecture with a specialization in economical fault-tolerant architectures. In the past I have investigated low-cost options for self-checking memory systems in shared-memory multiprocessor systems and low-cost self-checking processor cores. The goal of this research was to find mechanisms which allow systems to detect both transient and permanent faults at runtime without significantly reducing performance or increasing hardware cost. More recently my research has shifted towards finding methods of keeping defective hardware functional by making the compiler aware of the defect and adding minimal amounts of redundancy to the processor core. In the future, I am planning to further research the role of the compiler in a low-cost fault-tolerant system and look at error detection on a system level scale.

I am also interested in computer architecture topics outside fault tolerance, most notably area-efficient core designs, support for asymmetric CMPs, and hardware support for higher level languages. Unfortunately my current time budget does not allow me to seriously pursue these interests.

Recent Publications

In computer architecture, unlike other fields of science, papers published at top conferences are generally considered more important than journal publications.

Albert Meixner and Daniel J. Sorin, "Detouring: Translating Software to Circumvent Hard Faults in Simple Cores", In Proceedings of the International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, June 2008 (bib) (pdf)

Albert Meixner and Daniel J. Sorin, "IOTA: Detecting Erroneous I/O Behavior via I/O Transaction Auditing", In Proceedings of the Workshop on Compiler and Architectural Techniques for Application Reliability and Security (CATARS), June 2008 (bib) (pdf)

Albert Meixner, Michael E. Bauer, and Daniel J. Sorin, "Argus: Low-Cost, Comprehensive Error Detection in Simple Cores", IEEE Micro: Micro's Top Picks from Computer Architecture Conferences, Vol. 28, 1, January/February 2008 (bib)

See all publications

Recent Talks

"Detouring: Translating Software to Circumvent Hard Faults in Simple Cores" presented at the International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, June 2008 in Anchorage, Alaska (ppt)

"IOTA: Detecting Erroneous I/O Behavior via I/O Transaction Auditing" presented at the Workshop on Compiler and Architectural Techniques for Application Reliability and Security (CATARS), June 2008 in Anchorage, Alaska (ppt)

"Argus: Low-Cost, Comprehensive Error Detection in Simple Cores" presented at the 40th Annual IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Microarchitecture, December 2007 in Chicago, Illinois (ppt)

See all talks

Professional

I have defended my PhD and will graduate on May 11th. I'll post details on my new job shortly.

Personal

This site is primarily a place to host my publications and I am not very fond of self-promotion, so don't expect much personal stuff to show up here. If you are really interested, though, feel free to have a look at my public photo gallery at Google's Picasaweb (mostly pictures of places I have been to recently) and my Facebook Profile (which I will start using eventually).