CS 856
Hot Topics in Computer Architecture
and Operating Systems
Fall 1999
Time: 2-3:15
Day: Tues/Thurs
Location: D 222

Jack Stankovic

This course is a seminar that will cover leading edge topics in computer architecture and operating systems with the stronger emphasis being on operating systems. One key theme for the course is the notion of reconfigurable HW/OS. Since the first microkernel appeared, there has been support for Application Specific Operating Systems (ASOS). ASOS represent a form of reconfiguration and many research projects have attempted to refine this concept to provide lower cost and higher performance. With embedded systems becoming more prevalent, there is another impetus for reconfigurability. In this course we will be interested in reconfigurability from design time to runtime. We will also be interested in exploiting new hardware features that allow very dynamic re-initializing of FPGAs (i.e., reconfigurability of HW on-the-fly) and the impact of such HW on the OS.

Prerequisites Students should have taken both CS 656 and CS 654. Students need to be familiar with microkernels such as the Spin kernel and the Exokernel which are covered in CS 656. For exceptions to prerequisites approval of the instructor is necessary and extra readings on the Spin and Exokernel papers (at a minimum) will be required.

Course Requirements All students will present one or more papers and complete a final project. The presentations must follow guidelines which will be distributed. Presentations will be graded. Participation in class discussion will also be part of the grade. Final projects can be a team project or individual projects. Hands-on experience with a component based toolbox is planned.

Course Reading

1.

Short Theme papers to set stage for the course.

• Real-Time Operating Systems Go Modular, P. Varhol, Computer Design, 1998.
• Static and Dynamic Configurable Systems, E Sanchez, et. al., IEEE Transactions on Computers, Vol. 48, No. 6, 1999, first 2 pages only.

2.

Hot Topics in Computer Architecture (1 week - we will formally present 2(a) and 2(c)).

(a)

The Alpha 21264 Microprocessor, R. E. Kessler, IEEE Micro, Mar/Apr 1999.

(b)

IBM's S/390 G5 Processor, T. Slegel, et. al., IEEE Micro, Mar/Apr 1999 (read only).

(c)

AMD 3DNow! Technology: Architecture and Implementations, S. Oberman, et. al., IEEE Micro, Mar/Apr 1999.

(d)

A Design Analysis of a Hybrid Technology Multi-Threaded Architecture for Petaflops Scale Computation, T. Sterling and L. Bergman, ICS '99, June 1999 (read only).

3.

Reconfigurable Hardware (3 weeks)

(a)

Field-Programmable Gate Arrays, S. Brown, et.al., Chapters 1 and 2, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, 1992.

(b)

Field-programmable Gate Arrays, Pierre Marchal, CACM, Vol. 42, No. 4, April 1999 (read only).

(c)

Splash 2: FPGAs in a Custom Computing Machine, D. Buell, J. Arnold, and W. Kleinfelder, IEEE Computer Society Press, 1996, Chapters 2,3,5.

(d)

A Configurable Computing Approach Towards Real-Time Target Tracking, B. Pudipeddi, et. al., TR (read only).

(e)

DISC: The dynamic instruction set computer, M Wirthlin and B. Hutchings, TR, BYU.

(f)

Xtensa processor generator - a brief note (read only).

(g)

The Nano Processor: a Low Resource Reconfigurable Processor, M. Wirthlin, et. al., IEEE Workshop on FPGAs for Custom Computing Machines, April 1994.

(h)

Evolvable Hardware Chips for Industrial Applications, T. Higuchi and N. Kajihara, CACM, Vol. 42, No. 4, April 1999 (read only).

(i)

Run-Time Reconfiguration: A Method for Enhancing the Functional Density of SRAM-bases FPGAs, J. Eldredge and B. Hutchings, Kluwer.

(j)

Architectures and Compilers to Support Reconfigurable Computing, J. Cardoso and M. Vestias, Crossroads, ACM.

(k)

A Java Development and Runtime Environment for Reconfigurable Computing, D. Davis, M. Barr, T. Bennett, S. Edwards, J. Harris, I. Miller, and C. Schanck, from the WEB (read only).

4.

Reconfigurable OS (5 weeks)

(a)

The Flux OSKit: A Substrate for Kernel and Language Research, B. Ford, et. al., Proceedings of the 16th ACM SOSP, Oct. 1997.

(b)

MMlite: A Highly Componentized Systems Architecture, J. Helander and PE A. Forin, Eight ACM SIGOPS European Workshop, Sept. 1998.

(c)

icWorkshop from Integrated Chipware (read only).

(d)

The PURE Family of Object-oriented Operating Systems for Deeply Embedded Systems, D. Beuche, et. al., May 1999.

(e)

Tailor Made Operating Systems for Embedded Parallel Applications, A. Frohlich and W. Schroder-Preikschat, 13th Int. Parallel Processing Symp., 1999 (read only).

(f)

Pebble: A Component-Based Operating System for Embedded Applications, J. Bruno, et. al., Proc. of the Embedded Systems Workshop, March 1999.

(g)

eCOS - Embedded Cygnus Operating Systems, Technical White Paper, from web site, www.cygnus.com/ecos.

(h)

Choices, Frameworks and Refinement, R. Campbell, N. Islam, and P. Madany, TR.

(i)

2K: A Reflective, Component-Based Operating System for Rapidly Changing Environments, F. Kon, et. al., ECOOP'98 Workshop on Reflective Object-Oriented Programming and Systems, Brussels, Belgium. July 1998.

(j)

Automatic Configuration in the 2K Operating System, F. Kon, D. Caralho, and R. Campbell, 2nd ECOOP Workshop on Object-Orientation and Operating Systems, 1999.

(k)

Coyote: A System for Constructing Fine-Grain Configurable Communication Services, N. Bhatti, M. Hiltunen, R. Schlichting, and W. Chiu, ACM Trans. on Computer Systems, Vol. 16, No. 4, Nov. 1998.

(l)

The Vino project

• An Introduction to the Architecture of the VINO Kernel, M. Seltzer, et.al., 1994.
• Structuring the Kernel as a Toolkit of Extensible, Reusable Components, C. Small and M. Seltzer, IWOOOS '95.
• Self-Monitoring and Self-Adapting Operating Systems, M. Seltzer and C. Small, Proc of the 6th Workshop on Hot Topics in OS.

(m)

JBed Whitepaper: Component Software and Real-Time Computing, Oberon Microsystems, Sept. 1998.

(n)

Jbed Real-Time Operating System, Oberon Microsystems, Sept. 1998.

5.

Support for Reconfigurability (3 weeks)

(a)

Creating Reference Architectures: An Example from Avionics, D. Batory, L. Coglianese, M. Goodwin, and S. Shafer, Software Reusability, 1995.

(b)

Intelligent Components and Software Generators, D. Batory, TR.

(c)

Open Implementation Design Guidelines, G. Kiczales, et. al., ACM, 1997.

(d)

Aspect Oriented Programming, G. Kiczales, et. al., Proc of the European Conference on Object Oriented Programming, June 1997 (read only).

(e)

The Jini Architecture for Network Centric Computing, J. Waldo, CACM, July 1999.

(f)

The Jini Specification, K. Arnold, et. al., Addison-Wesley Lomgman, Reading Mass., 1999 (reference only).

6.

Other Hot Topics in OS (1 week)

(a)

Inside the JavaOS Operating System, T. Saulpaugh and C. Mirho, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 1999 (handout must be constructed from the text).