Abstract

Inter-process communication (ipc) has to be fast and effective, otherwise programmers will not use remote procedure calls (RPC), multithreading and multitasking adequately. Thus ipc performance is vital for modern operating systems, especially u-kernel based ones. Surprisingly, most u-kernels exhibit poor ipc performance, typically requiring 100us for a short message transfer on a modern processor, running with 50 MHz clock rate. In contrast, we achieve 5us; a twentyfold improvement. This paper describes the methods and principles used, starting from the architectural design and going down to the coding level. There is no single trick to obtaining this high performance; rather, a synergetic approach in design and implementation on all levels is needed. The methods and their synergy are illustrated by applying them to a concrete example, the L3 u-kernel (an industrial-quality operating system in daily use at several hundred sites). The main ideas are to guide the complete kernel des...

Citations

288	Why aren't operating systems getting faster as fast as hardware - Ousterhout - 1990
136	Performance of Firefly RPC - Schroeder, Burrows - 1990
51	JEWEL: Design and Implementation of a Distributed Measurement System - Lange, Kroeger, et al. - 1992
38	The Performance of Message-passing using Restricted Virtual Memory Remapping - Tzou, Anderson - 1991
31	A Persistent System in Real Use -- Experiences of the First 13 Years - Liedtke - 1993
11	Using Registers to Optimize CrossDomain Call Performance - Karger - 1989
3	Two years of experience with a -kernel based OS. Operating Systems Review - LIEDTKE, BARTLING, et al. - 1991
2	Thread Management and Communication Without Continuations - Fast - 1992
2	Clans & Chiefs. Proceedings 12. GI/ITGFachtagung Architektur von Rechensystemen - Liedtke - 1992
2	et al. The Amoeba Distributed Operating System: Selected Papers 1984--1987 - Mullender - 1987
1	Kar 89 - Clara - 1986
1	Two Years of Experience with a -Kernel Based OS.Operating Systems Review - Ruland - 1991
1	Mul 84] [Ous 90] [Ren 88] S.J. Mullender et al. The Amoeba Distributed Operating System: Selected Papers 1984{1987 - Augustin - 1993
1	Context Switching Algorithms for Sparc-like Processors. Arbeitspapiere der GMD - Lazy - 1993