No more blue screens or installing security updates may appear in the future, but Microsoft researchers say they have found a way to produce bug free software. "Program Verification is the last 40 or 50 years the holy grail in computing," said Bryan Parno, a researcher at Microsoft who has published a paper about the project (pdf).
The researchers warn that they are still far away from a world where large computer programs, such as operating systems, bug-free to be built. Recent developments, however, have made it possible for smaller-scale write software which can be mathematically proven that no errors are present so that the program freezes or contains vulnerabilities.
"These tools finally reach the point in this way so that developers can program software," says Jay Lorch, another researcher who works on the project. This involves improved hardware and faster algorithms. At this time, according to the researchers, it is still too expensive and impractical for example, to develop an operating system in this way, since these types of systems contain millions of lines of code that are often based on earlier work.
Initially, therefore, is especially given to systems where safety and reliability are very important. Also, the researchers focus on systems that communicate only with other computers, since they are more predictable. "People are very complicated, so specifying how a man with a program handles is very complex," said Lorch.
"If we are successful, people will look back over 10 to 15 years and say they can not believe that it has been programmed in this way. It is compared with doctors who operate without anesthetics or sterilized equipment," Parno adds. The project, known as the Iron Fleet bears, this week will be presented at the 25th ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles.
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