Download University of Tehran

Advanced
Operating Systems
Lecture 3: OS design
University of Tehran
Dept. of EE and Computer Engineering
By:
Dr. Nasser Yazdani
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Advanced Operating Systems
1
How to design an OS


Some general guides and experiences.
References


“Exokernel: An Operating System Architecture
for Application Level Resource Management”,
Dawson R., Engler M, Frans Kaashoek, et al.
“On Micro-Kernel Constructions“,
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Outline

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
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New applications/requirements
Organizing operating systems
Some microkernel examples
Object-oriented organizations


Spring
Organization for multiprocessors
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New vision

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Two important problems: location and scale.
Ubiquitous computing: tiny kernels of
functionality
Virtual Reality
Mobility
Intelligent devices
distributed computing" make networks appear
like disks, memory, or other nonnetworked
devices.
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What is the big deal?


Performance
Border crossings are expensive


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Change in locality
Copying between user and kernel buffers
Application requirements differ in terms of
resource management
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Operating System
Organization



What is the best way to design an
operating system?
Put another way, what are the important
software characteristics of an OS?
What should be in OS kernel or
application or partitioning.

Is there a minimal set for kernel?
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Important OS Software
Characteristics

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Correctness and simplicity
Power and completeness
Performance
Extensibility and portability

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Flexibility
Scalability
Suitability for distributed and parallel systems
Compatibility with existing systems
Security and fault tolerance
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Common OS Organizations

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Monolithic
Virtual machine
Structured design

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
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Layered designs
Object-Oriented
Microkernels
Trade off between generality and specialization
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Monolithic OS Design

Build OS as single combined module



Hopefully using data abstraction.
OS lives in its own, single address space
Examples
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DOS
early Unix systems
most VFS file systems
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Pros/Cons of Monolithic
OS Organization
+
+
+
–
–
–
–
Highly adaptable (at first . . .)
Little planning required
Potentially good performance
Hard to extend and change
Eventually becomes extremely complex
Eventually performance becomes poor
Highly prone to bugs
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Virtual Machine
Organizations


A base operating system provides
services in a very generic way
One or more other operating systems live
on top of the base system



Using the services it provides
To offer different views of system to users
Examples - IBM’s VM/370, the Java
interpreter
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Pros/Cons of Virtual
Machine Organizations
+
+
+
–
–
–
Allows multiple OS personalities on a
single machine
Good OS development environment
Can provide good portability of
applications
Significant performance problems
Especially if more than 2 layers
Lacking in flexibility
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Old idea

VM 370
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Virtualization for binary support for legacy apps
Why resurgence today?

Companies want a share of everybody’s pie

IBM zSeries “mainframes” support virtualization for
server consolidation

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Enables billing and performance isolation while hosting
several customers
Microsoft has announced virtualization plans to allow
easy upgrades and hosting Linux!
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Layered OS Design

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Design tiny innermost layer of software
Next layer out provides more functionality

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Using services provided by inner layer
Continue adding layers until all
functionality required has been provided
Examples
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Multics
Fluke
layered file systems and comm. protocols
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Pros/Cons of Layered
Organization
+
+
–
–
More structured and extensible
Easy model and development
Performance: Layer crossing can be
expensive
In some cases, unnecessary layers,
duplicated functionality.
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Two layer OS Designs

Only two OS layers
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Move certain functionality outside kernel
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Kernel OS services
Non-kernel OS services
file systems, libraries
Unlike virtual machines, kernel doesn’t
stand alone
Examples - Most modern Unix systems
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Pros/Cons of two layer OS
+
+
–
–
–
Many advantages of layering, without
disadvantage of too many layers
Easier to demonstrate correctness
Not as general as layering
Offers no organizing principle for other
parts of OS, user services
Kernels tend to grow to monoliths
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Object-Oriented OS
Design
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Design internals of OS as set of privileged
objects, using OO methods
Sometimes extended into application
space
Tends to lead to client/server style of
computing
Examples
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
Mach (internally)
Spring (totally)
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Object-Oriented
Organizations
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Object-oriented organization is
increasingly popular
Well suited to OS development, in some
ways
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OSes manage important data structures
OSes are modularizable
Strong interfaces are good in OSes
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Object-Orientation and
Extensibility
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One of the main advantages of objectoriented programming is extensibility
Operating systems increasingly need
extensibility
So, again, object-oriented techniques are
a good match for operating system
design
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How object-oriented should
an OS be?

Many OSes have been built with objectoriented techniques
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E.g., Mach and Windows NT
But most of them leave object
orientation at the microkernel boundary

No attempt to force object orientation on
out-of-kernel modules
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Pros/Cons of Object
Oriented OS Organization
Offers organizational model for entire
system
+ Easily divides system into pieces
+ Good hooks for security
– Can be a limiting model
– Must watch for performance problems
Not widely used yet
+
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Microkernel OS Design
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Like kernels, only less number of abstractions exported
(threads, address space, communication channel)
Try to include only small set of required services in the
microkernel
Moves even more out of innermost OS part
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Like parts of VM, IPC, paging, etc.
System services (e.g. VM manager) implemented as
servers on top
High comm overhead between services implemented at
user level and microkernel limits extensibility in practice
Examples - Mach, Amoeba, Plan 9, Windows NT,
Chorus, Spring, etc.
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Pros/Cons of Microkernel
Organization
+
+
+
–
–
–
Those of kernels, plus:
Minimizes code for most important OS
services
Offers model for entire system
Microkernels tend to grow into kernels
Requires very careful initial design
choices
Serious danger of bad performance
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Organizing the Total
System
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In microkernel organizations, much of
the OS is outside the microkernel
But that doesn’t answer the question of
how the system as a whole gets
organized
How do you fit together the components
to build an integrated system? While
maintaining all the advantages of the
microkernel
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Some Important
Microkernel Designs
Micro-ness is in the eye of the beholder
 Spin
 X-kernel
 Exokernel
 Mach
 Spring
 Amoeba
 Plan 9
 Windows NT
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Mach
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Mach didn’t start life as a microkernel
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Object-oriented internally
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Became one in Mach 3.0
Doesn’t force OO at higher levels
Microkernel focus is on communications
facilities
Much concern with parallel/distributed
systems
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Mach Model
User
processes
Software
emulation 4.3BSD SysV HP/UX other
emul. emul. emul. emul.
layer
Microkernel
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User
space
Kernel
space
28
What’s In the Mach
Microkernel?
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Tasks & Threads
Ports and Port Sets
Messages
Memory Objects
Device Support
Multiprocessor/Distributed Support
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Kernel
User space
Mach Task Model
Address
space
Process
Thread
Process
port
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Bootstrap
port
Exception Registered
port
ports
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Mach Ports
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Basic Mach object reference mechanism
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Kernel-protected communication channel
Tasks communicate by sending messages
to ports
Threads in receiving tasks pull messages
off a queue
Ports are location independent
Port queues protected by kernel;
bounded
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Port Rights
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mechanism by which tasks control who
may talk to their ports
Kernel prevents messages being set to a
port unless the sender has its port rights
Port rights also control which single task
receives on a port
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Port Sets
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A group of ports sharing a common
message queue
A thread can receive messages from a
port set
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Thus servicing multiple ports
Messages are tagged with the actual port
A port can be a member of at most one
port set
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Mach Messages
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Typed collection of data objects
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Unlimited size
Sent to particular port
May contain actual data or pointer to data
Port rights may be passed in a message
Kernel inspects messages for particular
data types (like port rights)
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Mach Memory Objects
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A source of memory accessible by tasks
May be managed by user-mode external
memory manager
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a file managed by a file server
Accessed by messages through a port
Kernel manages physical memory as
cache of contents of memory objects
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Mach Device Support
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Devices represented by ports
Messages control the device and its data
transfer
Actual device driver outside the kernel in
an external object
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Mach Multiprocessor and
DS Support

Messages and ports can extend across
processor/machine boundaries
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Location transparent entities
Kernel manages distributed hardware
Per-processor data structures, but also
structures shared across the processors
Intermachine messages handled by a
server that knows about network details
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Mach’s NetMsgServer
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User-level capability-based networking
daemon
Handles naming and transport for
messages
Provides world-wide name service for
ports
Messages sent to off-node ports go
through this server
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NetMsgServer in Action
User space
User space
User process
User process
NetMsgServer
NetMsgServer
Kernel space
Kernel space
Sender
Receiver
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Mach and User Interfaces
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Mach was built for the UNIX community
UNIX programs don’t know about ports,
messages, threads, and tasks
How do UNIX programs run under Mach?
Mach typically runs a user-level server
that offers UNIX emulation
Either provides UNIX system call
semantics internally or translates it to
Mach primitives
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Windows NT
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More layered than some microkernel
designs
NT Microkernel provides base services
Executive builds on base services via
modules to provide user-level services
User-level services used by


privileged subsystems (parts of OS)
true user programs
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Windows NT Diagram
User
Processes
Protected
Subsystems
Win32
POSIX
Executive
Microkernel
User
Mode
Kernel
Mode
Hardware
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NT Microkernel
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Thread scheduling
Process switching
Exception and interrupt handling
Multiprocessor synchronization
Only NT part not preemptible or pageable
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All other NT components runs in threads
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NT Executive
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Higher level services than microkernel
Runs in kernel mode
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but separate from the microkernel itself
ease of change and expansion
Built of independent modules

all preemptible and pageable
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NT Executive Modules
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Object manager
Security reference monitor
Process manager
Local procedure call facility (a la RPC)
Virtual memory manager
I/O manager
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Typical Activity in NT
Win32
Protected
Subsystem
Client
Process
Executive
Kernel
Hardware
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More On Microkernels

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Microkernels were the research
architecture of the 80s
But few commercial systems of the 90s
really use microkernels
To some extent, “microkernel” is now a
dirty word in OS design
Why?
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Main Issue

What should be in the Kernel?


Different designs give different answers.
How to implement the system efficiently?


Some people think Micro kernel is slow
Micro kernel construction paper argue other
way.
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Exokernel


Traditional operating systems fix the interface
and implementation of OS abstractions.
Abstractions must be overly general to work
with diverse application needs.
Apache
FIXED
SQL Server
Abstractions
Interface
Traditional OS
Hardware
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The Issues

Performance
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
Flexibility



Denies applications the advantages of domainspecific optimizations
Restricts the flexibility of application builders
Difficult or impossible to implement own resource
management abstractions.
Functionality

Discourages changes to the implementations of
existing abstractions since it is used by different
applications
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Performance





Example: A DB can have predictable data access
patterns, that doesn't fit with OS LRU page
replacement, causing bad performance.
Cao et al. Found that application-controlled file
caching can reduce running time by as much as
45%.
There is no single way to abstract physical
resources or to implement an abstraction that is
best for all applications.
OS is forced to make trade-offs
Performance improvements of application-specific
policies could be substantial
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The Solution

Separate protection from management

Allow user level to manage resources


Application libraries implement OS abstractions
Exokernel exports resources



Low level interface
Protects, does not manage
Expose hardware
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Exokernel Philosophy
Applications know better than Operating
Systems what the goal of their resource
management decisions should be
Applications should be given as much control
as possible over those decisions
Implementation view
HW
Exokernel
Frame Buffer | TLB | Network | Memory | Disk
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Example
Exokernel – Application level resource management
Apache
SQL Server
Library OS
Chosen from available
Abstractions
Interface
Library OS
Customized for SQLServer
Abstractions
Interface
Exokernel
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Hardware
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Implementation Overview
Library O.S.
HW

Exokernel
Frame Buffer | TLB | Network | Memory | Disk
Library O.S., which uses the low-level
exokernel interface to implement higher-level
abstractions.
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Implementation Overview
HW

Application
Application
Library O.S.
Library O.S.
Exokernel
Frame Buffer | TLB | Network | Memory | Disk
Applications link to library kernel, leveraging
their higher-level abstractions.
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End-to-End Argument



“if something has to be done by the user
program itself, it is wasteful to do it in a
lower level as well.”
Why should the OS do anything that the
user program can do itself?
In other words - all an OS should do is
securely allocate resources.
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Exokernel design
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Exokernel tasks




Track ownership
Guard all resources through bind points
Revoke access to resources
Abort
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Design principle




Expose
Expose
Expose
Expose
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hardware (securely)
allocation
names
revocation
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60
Secure binding



Decouples authorization from use
Allows kernel to protect resource without
understanding their semantics
Example: TLB entry



Virtual to physical mapping performed in the library
(above exokernel)
Binding loaded into the kernel; used multiple times
Example: packet filter


Predicates loaded into the kernel
Checked on each packet arrival
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Implementing secure
bindings

Hardware mechanisms



Software caching


Capability for physical pages of a file
Frame buffer regions (SGI)
Exokernel large software TLB overlaying the
hardware TLB
Downloading code into kernel

Avoid expensive boundary crossings
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Examples of secure
binding

Physical memory allocation (hardware supported
binding)



Library allocates physical page
Exokernel records the allocator and the permissions and
returns a “capability” – an encrypted cypher
Every access to this page by the library requires this
capability
Page fault:
•Kernel fields it
•Kicks it up to the library
•Library allocated a page – gets an encrypted capability
•Library calls the kernel to enter a particular translation into the TLB
by presenting the capability
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
Download code into kernel to establish secure
binding




Packet filter for demultiplexing network packets
How to ensure authenticity?
Only trusted servers (library OS) can download code
into the kernel
Other use of downloaded code


Execute code on behalf of an app that is not
currently scheduled
E.g. application handler for garbage collection could
be installed in the kernel
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Visible resource
revocation

Most resources are visibly revoked


E.g. processor; physical page
Library can then perform necessary action
before relinquishing the resource


E.g. needed state saving for a processor
E.g. update of page table
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Abort protocol


Repossession exception passed to the
library OS
Repossession vector


Gives info to the library OS as to what was
repossessed so that corrective action can be
taken
Library OS can seed the vector to enable
exokernel to autosave (e.g. disk blocks to
which a physical page being repossessed
should be written to)
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Aegis – an exokernel
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Secure Bindings

Secure Binding – a protection mechanism
that decouples authorization from actual
use of a resource

Allows the kernel to protect resources
without having to understand them
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Aegis – processor time
slice




Linear vector of time slots
Round robin
An application can mark its “position” in the
vector for scheduling
Timer interrupt



Beginning and end of time slices
Control transferred to library specified handler for
actual saving/restoring
Time to save/restore is bounded

Penalty? loss of a time slice next time!
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Aegis – processor
environments

Exception context


Interrupt context


External: e,g. timer
Protected entry context


Program generated
Cross domain calls
Addressing context

Guaranteed mappings implemented by software TLB
mimicking the library OS page table
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Aegis performance
pointer Arithmetic
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Protected page
71
Aegis - Address translation

On TLB miss





Kernel installs hardware from software TLB
for guaranteed mappings
Otherwise application handler called
Application establishes mapping
TLB entry with associated capability
presented to the kernel
Kernel installs and resumes execution of the
application
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ExOS – library OS
IPC abstraction
 VM
 Remote communication using ASH
(application specific safe handlers) using
message.
Takeaway:
significant performance improvement
possible compared to a monolithic
implementation

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Library operating systems



Use the low level exokernel interface
Higher level abstractions
Special purpose implementations
An application can choose the library which
best suits its needs, or even build its own.
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74
Exokernel vs. Microkernel


A micro-kernel provides abstractions to
the hardware such as files, sockets,
graphics etc.
An exokernel provides almost raw access
to the hardware.
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Design Challenge
How can an Exokernel allow libOSes to freely
manage physical resources while protecting
them from each other?

Track ownership of resources



Secure bindings – libOS can securely bind to machine
resources
Guard all resource usage
Revoke access to resources
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76
Secure Bindings

Exokernel allows libOSes to bind
resources using secure bindings



Multiplex resources securely
Protection for mutually distrusted apps
Efficient
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Conclusion



An Exokernel securely multiplexes
available hardware raw hardware among
applications
Application level library operating systems
implement higher-level traditional OS
abstractions
LibOSes can specialize an implementation
to suit a particular application
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Conclusion

The lower the level of a primitive…
…the more efficiently it can be implemented
… the more latitude it gives to higher level
abstractions

So, separate management from protection
and…
…implement protection at a low level (exokernel)
… implement management at a higher level (libOS)
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Microkernel Construction

Most Microkernels do not perform well



Is it inherent in the approach or
Implementation?
IPC, microkernel bottleneck, can
implemented an order of magnitude faster.



Not supervise memory
Minimal address space management, grant, map,
flush.
Fast kernel-User Switch, usually 20-30 us but 3 in
L3 implementation
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Micro Kernel construction

Microkernel should provide minimal
abstractions



Address space, threads, IPC
Abstractions machine independent but
implementation hardware dependent for
performance
Myths about inefficiency of micro-kernel
stem from inefficient implementation and
NOT from microkernel approach
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What abstractions?

Determining criterion:


Hardware and microkernel should be trusted
but applications are not



Functionality not performance
Hardware provides page-based virtual memory
Kernel builds on this to provide protection for
services above and outside the microkernel
Principles of independence and integrity


Subsystems independent of one another
Integrity of channels between subsystems protected
from other subsystems
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Microkernel Concepts

Hardware provides address space



mapping from virtual page to a physical page
implemented by page tables and TLB
Microkernel concept of address spaces

Hides the hardware address spaces and provides an
abstraction that supports




Grant?
Map?
Flush?
These primitives allows building a hierarchy of
protected address spaces
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Address spaces
Page table
A1, P1
Phy. Mem
R
A2, P2
V2, NIL
R
V1, R
Mem. Manger, process
(P1, v1)
(P1, v1)
map
A2, P2
V2, R
A3, P3
V3, R
R
(P2, v2)
(P3, v3)
(P1, v1)
flush
R
A3, P3
V3, NIL
(P2, v2)
(P1, v1)
grant
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
Power and flexibility of address spaces





Initial memory manager for address space A0
appears by magic (outside the kernel) and
encompasses the physical memory
Allow creation of stackable memory managers (all
outside the kernel)
Pagers can be part of a memory manager or
outside the memory manager
All address space changes (map, grant, flush)
orchestrated via kernel for protection
Device driver can be implemented as a special
memory manager outside the kernel as well
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PT
M2, A2, P2
Map/grant
M1, A1, P1
PT
PT
M0, A0, P0
Microkernel
processor
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Threads and IPC

Executes in an address space


PC, SP, processor registers, and state info (such as
address space)
IPC is cross address space communication

Supported by the microkernel




Classic method is message passing between threads via the
kernel
Sender sends info; receiver decides if it wants to
receive it, and if so where
Address space operations such as map, grant, flush
need IPC
Higher level communication (e.g. RPC) built on top
of basic IPC
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
Interrupts?



Each hardware device is a thread from kernel’s perspective
Interrupt is a null message from a hardware thread to the
software thread
Kernel transforms hardware interrupt into a message




Does not know or care about the semantics of the interrupt
Device specific interrupt handling outside the kernel
Clearing hardware state (if privileged) then carried out by the
kernel upon driver thread’s next IPC
TLB handler?


In theory software TLB handler can be outside the microkernel
In practice first level TLB handler inside the microkernel or in
hardware
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Unique IDs

Kernel provides uid over space and time
for


Threads
IPC channels
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Breaking some performance
myths




Kernel user switches
Address space switches
Thread switches and IPC
Memory effects
Base system:
486 (50 MHz) – 20 ns cycle time
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Kernel-user switches

Machine instruction for entering and exiting


107 cycles
Mach measures 900 cycles for kernel-user switch


Empirical proof


Why?
L3 kernel ~ 123 cycles (accounting for some TLB, cache
misses)
Where did the remaining 800 cycles go in MACH?

Kernel overhead (construction of the kernel, and inherent in
the approach)
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Address space switches

Primer on TLBs

AS tagged TLB (MIPS R4000) vs untagged TLB
(486)


Instruction and data caches


Untagged TLB requires flush on AS switch
Usually physically tagged in most modern
processors so TLB flush has no effect
Address space switch

Complete reload of Pentium TLB ~ 864 cycles
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
Do we need a TLB flush always?



Implementation issue of “protection domains”
SPIN implements protection domains as Modula
names within a single hardware address space
Liedtke suggests similar approach in the
microkernel in an architecture-specific manner


PowerPC: use segment registers => no flush
Pentium or 486: share the linear hardware address
space among several user address spaces => no flush

There are some caveats in terms of size of user space and how
many can be “packed” in a 2**32 global space
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
Upshot?


Address space switching among medium or small
protection domains can ALWAYS be made efficient
by careful construction of the microkernel
Large address spaces switches are going to be
expensive ALWAYS due to cache effects and TLB
effects, so switching cost is not the most critical
issue
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Thread switches and IPC
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Segment switch (instead of AS switch) makes cross domain calls cheap
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Memory Effects – System
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Capacity induced MCPI
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Portability Vs.
Performance

Microkernel on top of abstract hardware
while portable



Cannot exploit hardware features
Cannot take precautions to avoid
performance problems specific to an arch
Incurs performance penalty due to abstract
layer
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Examples of nonportability

Same processor family

Use address space switch implementation


TLB flush method preferable for 486
Segment register switch preferable for Pentium
=> 50% change of microkernel!

IPC implementation


Details of the cache layout (associativity) requires different
handling of IPC buffers in 486 and Pentium
Incompatible processors

Exokernel on R4000 (tagged TLB) Vs. 486 (untagged
TLB)
=> Microkernels are inherently non-portable
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Summary



Minimal set of abstractions in microkernel
Microkernels are processor specific (at
least in implementation) and non-portable
Right abstractions and processor-specific
implementation leads to efficient
processor-independent abstractions at
higher layers
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Next Lecture

Process and Thread



“Cooperative Task Management Without Manual
Stack Management”, by Atul Adya, et.al.
“Capriccio: Scalable Threads for Internet
Services”, by Ron Von Behrn, et. al.
“The Performance Implication of Thread
Management Alternative for Shared-Memory
Multiprocessors”, Thomas E. Anderson, et.al.
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