Shadow Kernels: A General Mechanism For Kernel Specialization in Existing Operating Systems
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Authors
Chick, Oliver RA
Carata, Lucian
Snee, James
Balakrishnan, Nikilesh
Sohan, Ripduman
Publication Date
2015Journal Title
APSys
ISSN
0163-5980
Publisher
ACM
Language
English
Type
Conference Object
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Chick, O. R., Carata, L., Snee, J., Balakrishnan, N., & Sohan, R. (2015). Shadow Kernels: A General Mechanism For Kernel Specialization in Existing Operating Systems. APSys https://doi.org/10.1145/2797022.2797027
Abstract
Existing operating systems share a common kernel text section amongst all processes. It is not possible to perform kernel specialization or tuning such that different applications execute text optimized for their kernel use despite the benefits of kernel specialization for performance guided optimization, exokernels, kernel fastpaths, and cheaper hardware access. Current specialization primitives involve system wide changes to kernel text, which can have adverse effects on other processes sharing the kernel due to the global side-effects. We present shadow kernels: a primitive that allows multiple kernel text sections to coexist in a contemporary operating system. By remapping kernel virtual memory on a context-switch, or for individual system calls, we specialize the kernel on a fine-grained basis. Our implementation of shadow kernels uses the Xen hypervisor so can be applied to any operating system that runs on Xen.
Sponsorship
This work was principally supported by internal funds from the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge; and also by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [grant number EP/K503009/1].
Funder references
EPSRC (EP/K503009/1)
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/2797022.2797027
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/248815