Bits and Bugs: A Scientific and Historical Review of Software Failures in Computational Science

259 Pages·2019·11.291 MB·English

by  Huckle, Thomas, Neckel, Tobias

Bits and Bugs
The SIAM series on Software, Environments, and Tools focuses on the practical implementation of
computational methods and the high performance aspects of scientific computation by emphasizing
in-demand software, computing environments, and tools for computing. Software technology development
issues such as current status, applications and algorithms, mathematical software, software tools, languages
and compilers, computing environments, and visualization are presented.
Editor-in-Chief
Jack J. Dongarra
University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Series Editors
Timothy A. Davis Laura Grigori Padma Raghavan
Texas A & M University INRIA Pennsylvania State University
James W. Demmel Michael A. Heroux Yves Robert
University of California, Sandia National Laboratories ENS Lyon
Berkeley
Software, Environments, and Tools
Thomas Huckle and Tobias Neckel, Bits and Bugs: A Scientific and Historical Review of Software Failures
in Computational Science
Thomas F. Coleman and Wei Xu, Automatic Differentiation in MATLAB Using ADMAT with Applications
Walter Gautschi, Orthogonal Polynomials in MATLAB: Exercises and Solutions
Daniel J. Bates, Jonathan D. Hauenstein, Andrew J. Sommese, and Charles W. Wampler, Numerically Solving
Polynomial Systems with Bertini
Uwe Naumann, The Art of Differentiating Computer Programs: An Introduction to Algorithmic Differentiation
C. T. Kelley, Implicit Filtering
Jeremy Kepner and John Gilbert, editors, Graph Algorithms in the Language of Linear Algebra
Jeremy Kepner, Parallel MATLAB for Multicore and Multinode Computers
Michael A. Heroux, Padma Raghavan, and Horst D. Simon, editors, Parallel Processing for Scientific Computing
Gérard Meurant, The Lanczos and Conjugate Gradient Algorithms: From Theory to Finite Precision Computations
Bo Einarsson, editor, Accuracy and Reliability in Scientific Computing
Michael W. Berry and Murray Browne, Understanding Search Engines: Mathematical Modeling and Text
Retrieval, Second Edition ´
Craig C. Douglas, Gundolf Haase, and Ulrich Langer, A Tutorial on Elliptic PDE Solvers and Their Parallelization
Louis Komzsik, The Lanczos Method: Evolution and Application
Bard Ermentrout, Simulating, Analyzing, and Animating Dynamical Systems: A Guide to XPPAUT for Researchers
and Students
V. A. Barker, L. S. Blackford, J. Dongarra, J. Du Croz, S. Hammarling, M. Marinova, J. Wasniewski, and
P. Yalamov, LAPACK95 Users’ Guide
Stefan Goedecker and Adolfy Hoisie, Performance Optimization of Numerically Intensive Codes
Zhaojun Bai, James Demmel, Jack Dongarra, Axel Ruhe, and Henk van der Vorst, Templates for the Solution
of Algebraic Eigenvalue Problems: A Practical Guide
Lloyd N. Trefethen, Spectral Methods in MATLAB
E. Anderson, Z. Bai, C. Bischof, S. Blackford, J. Demmel, J. Dongarra, J. Du Croz, A. Greenbaum, S. Hammarling,
A. McKenney, and D. Sorensen, LAPACK Users’ Guide, Third Edition
Michael W. Berry and Murray Browne, Understanding Search Engines: Mathematical Modeling and Text Retrieval
Jack J. Dongarra, Iain S. Duff, Danny C. Sorensen, and Henk A. van der Vorst, Numerical Linear Algebra
for High-Performance Computers
R. B. Lehoucq, D. C. Sorensen, and C. Yang, ARPACK Users’ Guide: Solution of Large-Scale Eigenvalue Problems
with Implicitly Restarted Arnoldi Methods
Randolph E. Bank, PLTMG: A Software Package for Solving Elliptic Partial Differential Equations, Users’ Guide 8.0
L. S. Blackford, J. Choi, A. Cleary, E. D’Azevedo, J. Demmel, I. Dhillon, J. Dongarra, S. Hammarling,
G. Henry, A. Petitet, K. Stanley, D. Walker, and R. C. Whaley, ScaLAPACK Users’ Guide
Greg Astfalk, editor, Applications on Advanced Architecture Computers
Roger W. Hockney, The Science of Computer Benchmarking
Françoise Chaitin-Chatelin and Valérie Frayssé, Lectures on Finite Precision Computations
Bits and Bugs
A Scientific and Historical Review
of Software Failures in Computational Science
Thomas Huckle
Technical University of Munich
Munich, Germany
Tobias Neckel
Technical University of Munich
Munich, Germany
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Philadelphia
Copyright © 2019 by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Huckle, Thomas, author. | Neckel, Tobias, author.
Title: Bits and bugs : a scientific and historical review of software
failures in computational science / Thomas Huckle, Technical University of
Munich, Munich, Germany, Tobias Neckel, Technical University of Munich,
Munich, Germany.
Description: Philadelphia, PA : Society for Industrial and Applied
Mathematics, [2019] | Series: Software, environments, and tools ; 29 |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018045526 (print) | LCCN 2018051491 (ebook) | ISBN
9781611975567 | ISBN 9781611975550
Subjects: LCSH: Software failures--History. | Debugging in computer
science--History.
Classification: LCC QA76.76.F34 (ebook) | LCC QA76.76.F34 H83 2019 (print) |
DDC 004.2/409--dc23
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Contents
ListofExcursions ix
Preface xi
0.1 BackgroundofThisBook. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
0.2 Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
1 Introduction 1
1.1 FocusofThisBook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 StructureofThisBook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 ClassificationofBugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2 MachineNumbers,Precision,andRoundingErrors 9
2.1 TheFailureoftheAriane5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2 Y2KandDataFormats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.3 VancouverStockExchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.4 ThePatriotMissileDefenseIncident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3 MathematicalModelingandDiscretization 51
3.1 LossoftheGasRigSleipnerA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.2 LondonMillenniumBridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
3.3 WeatherPrediction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
3.4 MathematicalFinance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
4 DesignofControlSystems 103
4.1 Fly-by-Wire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
4.2 AutomotiveBugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
5 SynchronizationandScheduling 125
5.1 SpaceShuttle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
5.2 MarsPathfinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
6 Software-HardwareInterplay 145
6.1 ThePentiumDivisionBug . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
6.2 MarsRoverSpiritFlashMemoryProblem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
7 Complexity 171
7.1 Therac-25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
7.2 DenverAirport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
7.3 StrategicDefenseInitiative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
vii
viii Contents
8 Appendix 219
8.1 UrbanLegendsandOtherStories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
8.2 MATLABExamplePrograms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
8.3 Pentium Bug: Original Email of T. Nicely to Several Individuals and
Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Index 247
List of Excursions
Excursion1: MachineNumbersforIntegers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Excursion2: MachineNumbersforRealNumbers: Floating-PointFormat . . . . 13
Excursion3: TransformingMachineNumberFormats: Casts . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Excursion4: ExceptionHandlingandProtectionofOperations . . . . . . . . . . 14
Excursion5: RoundingtoMachineNumbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Excursion6: Complexity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Excursion7: ModelingandSimulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Excursion8: FiniteElementMethod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Excursion9: Interpolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Excursion10: Extrapolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Excursion11: ConditioningandConditionNumber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Excursion12: ConditioningandChaos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Excursion13: DataAssimilation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Excursion14: PriorityandSemaphoresinConcurrentComputing . . . . . . . . 137
Excursion15: Carry-SaveAdder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Excursion16:ReplacingSubtractionbyAddition:One’sComplementandTwo’s
Complement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Excursion17: RestoringDivisionforIntegers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Excursion18: NonrestoringDivisionforIntegers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Excursion19: Radix4SRTDivision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Excursion20: Radix4SRTwithCarry-SaveAdderonPentium . . . . . . . . . . 153
Excursion21: BasicAspectsofRadiationTherapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Excursion22: ConcurrentComputingandRaceConditions . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Excursion23: Complexity—PartII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Excursion24: TheTravelingSalesmanProblem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
ix