Skip to main content
USENIX
  • Conferences
  • Students
Sign in

connect with us


  •  Twitter
  •  Facebook
  •  LinkedIn
  •  Google+
  •  YouTube

twitter

Tweets by @usenix

usenix conference policies

  • Event Code of Conduct
  • Conference Network Policy
  • Statement on Environmental Responsibility Policy

You are here

Home ยป Experiences with Locking in a NUMA Multiprocessor Operating System Kernel
Tweet

connect with us

Experiences with Locking in a NUMA Multiprocessor Operating System Kernel

Authors: 

Ronald C. Unrau, Orran Krieger, Benjamin Gamsa, Michael Stumm, University of Toronto

Abstract: 

We describe the locking architecture of a new operating system, Hurricane, designed for large scale shared-memory multiprocessors. Many papers already describe kernel locking techniques, and some of the techniques we use have been previously described by others. However, our work is novel in the particular combination of techniques used, as well as several of the individual techniques themselves. Moreover, it is the way the techniques work together that is the source of our performance advantages and scalability. Briefly, we use:

  • a hybrid coarse-grain/fine-grain locking strategy that has the low latency and space overhead of a coarse-grain locking strategy while having the high concurrency of a fine-grain locking strategy;
  • replication of data structures to increase access bandwidth and improve concurrency;
  • a clustered kernel that bounds the number of processors that can compete for a lock so as to reduce second order effects such as memory and interconnect contention;
  • Distributed Locks to further reduce second order effects, with modifications that reduce the uncontended latency of these locks to close to that of spin locks.

Ronald C. Unrau, University of Toronto

Orran Krieger, University of Toronto

Benjamin Gamsa, University of Toronto

Michael Stumm, University of Toronto

BibTeX
@inproceedings {260139,
author = {Ronald C. Unrau and Orran Krieger and Benjamin Gamsa and Michael Stumm},
title = {Experiences with Locking in a {NUMA} Multiprocessor Operating System Kernel},
booktitle = {First Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI 94)},
year = {1994},
address = {Monterey, CA},
url = {https://www.usenix.org/conference/osdi-94/experiences-locking-numa-multiprocessor-operating-system-kernel},
publisher = {USENIX Association},
month = nov,
}
Download

Links

Paper: 
http://usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/osdi/full_papers/unrau.ps
  • Log in or    Register to post comments

© USENIX

  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us