METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR RECONSTRUCTING THE STATE OF A COMPUTATION

Methods and systems for running and checkpointing parallel and distributed applications which does not require modification to the programs used in the system nor changes to the underlying operating system. One embodiment of the invention includes the following general steps: (1) starting an application on a parallel processing system; (2) controlling processes for the application, including recording of commands and responses; (3) controlling a commit protocol; (4) detecting failures of the application; (5) continuing execution of the application from the most recently committed transaction after "replaying" the recorded commands and responses. A second embodiment comprises the following general steps: (1) starting an application on a parallel processing system; (2) controlling processes for the application, including recurrent recording of the memory image of a driver program that controls the application; (3) controlling a commit protocol; (4) detecting failures of the application; (5) continuing execution of the application from the most recently committed transaction after "restoring" the recorded memory image of the driver program.