Optimizing Memory Virtualization through Hardware/Software Co-design

• Main Authors: Yuan-Cheng Lee, 李沅臻
• Other Authors: Chih-Wen Hsueh
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/ujxkag

博士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 資訊網路與多媒體研究所 === 105 === Virtualization is a technology enabling consolidation of multiple operating systems into a single physical machine. It originated from the need to create a multi-user time-sharing operating system based on multiple single-user operating systems. This long-lasting technology has evolved constantly. In addition to the popular applications for server-side virtualization, the advances of the capabilities of embedded processors make virtualization available on various systems much wider than before. The diversity of the target systems demands new design approaches considering the characteristics of the systems. In this dissertation, we propose the idea of optimizing virtualization environments through hardware/software co-design, and demonstrate the potential power of hardware/software co-design through the development of a new optimization technique for memory virtualization. Based on the existing studies, we recognize the memory subsystem as a major bottleneck of a virtualization environment. Therefore, we concentrate our efforts on optimizing memory virtualization for a specific type of virtualization environments as a working example. We first present a quantitative analysis of the impacts of memory virtualization. We then propose an optimized memory virtualization technique along with a comprehensive evaluation including the qualitative analysis with a formal proof and the quantitative analysis based on software emulation and hardware simulation. The results suggest the proposed technique outperforms the existing technique. The research points out hardware/software co-design is a promising direction for optimizing virtualization for the emerging applications.