Discipline: Computer Sciences and Information Management
Subcategory: Computer Science & Information Systems
Ian Goetting - New Mexico State University
The Operating System Friendly Architecture (OSFA) is a new type of computer architecture that emphasizes hardware-level security and superior performance over conventional architectures via heavy use of caching. Many operating systems today do not take advantage of the underlying architecture when they are designed, often because operating system development is kept separate from architecture development. This can be considered a missed opportunity, as a more operating system friendly computer architecture would be able to provide an extra layer of computer security as well as reduce operating system code complexity by relegating some of the operating system’s tasks to the hardware. The OSFA aims to be this type of architecture by introducing cache banks as part of its general design. These banks serve as a type of L0 cache, and are used to optimize CPU memory accesses by rapidly swapping data in and out of memory while the execution pipeline is running. Additionally, each of these cache banks feature permission bits located within each cache line, that are used to lock out particular sections of memory at the hardware level and prevent malicious programs from gaining access.
There currently exists no software-based architectural simulator that can accurately model the OSFA. As a result, several simulators were examined in this study to determine which ones would be suitable candidates for modeling the OSFA on. The criteria used for determining simulator eligibility for this study were: The extent to which the simulator can be modified, whether the simulator supports full system simulation, the quality of statistical output the simulator provides, and the learning curve required to extend the existing simulator into an OSFA simulator. Of the simulators that were examined, it was discovered that gem5 under the ARM ISA as well as rv8 are the best, currently available, simulators that the OSFA can be developed for. Gem5 provides superior statistical output than what rv8 currently provides, but at the cost of a higher learning curve for the programmer in addition to a more complex code base. Future research and work centered on modeling the OSFA on one of these simulators should carefully consider the benefits and drawbacks of each one before deciding which one to use for development.
References:
P. Jungwirth et al. OS Friendly Microprocessor Architecture. April 2017. http://www.arl.army.mil/arlreports/2017/ARLSR-0370.pdf
gem5 Official Site http://gem5.org/Main Page
rv8 simulator Official Site https://rv8.io/
spike simulator https://riscv.org/software-tools/risc-v-isa-simulator/
A. H. Badawy et al, ‘Secure Computing Architecture: A Direction for the Future – The OS Friendly Microprocessor Architecture’, HPEC, September 2017, Boston, MA, USA.
P. Jungwirth et al, and Abdel-Hameed Badawy, ‘Rootkits and the OS Friendly Microprocessor Architecture’, SPIE, Anaheim,CA, April 2017.
Not SubmittedFunder Acknowledgement(s): Acknowledgements would like to be made to the NSF for funding the REU program that facilitated this research.
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Abdel-Hameed Badawy, badawy@nmsu.edu
Role: I was the primary investigator in determining simulator eligibility for modeling the OSFA. I installed, worked with, and modified several publicly available simulators that include spike, gem5, and rv8. In addition, I kept close contact with several of the maintainers of these simulators, via email exchange, to ask specific questions regarding the simulator and what it can provide.