Memory Safety Simplifies Microprocessor Design

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Contemporary microprocessor designs are based on pervasively shared mutable state. This introduces numerous vulnerabilities that have been exploited to violate the security of our computing platforms. Mechanisms to mitigate these hazards, such as Memory Management Units (MMUs), increase the complexity and power-consumption of CPUs. The movement to multicore processors amplifies the problem and adds more […]

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Computer Security Breaches Are Preventable

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Security system breaches resulting in exposure of large quantities of sensitive information have become increasingly common. As data-hungry enterprises aggregate larger and larger caches of sensitive information, the damage from the inevitable breaches becomes more significant and far-reaching. Is there something fundamentally wrong with the design of our security systems? Can these risks be mitigated? […]

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Futures and Capabilities

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In the Actor Model, concurrency is the default. Sequencing must by arranged explicitly. An important case of sequencing occurs when there is a data dependency between different parts of a system. One part produces a value that another part needs to perform its function. One mechanism for sequencing data-dependent operations is to create a Future. […]

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