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(2005)Conference PaperThis paper presents a configuration memory architecture that offers fast FPGA reconfiguration. The underlying principle behind the design is the use of fine-grained partial reconfiguration that allows significant configuration re-use while switching from one circuit to another. The proposed configuration memory works by reading on-chip configuration data into a buffer, modifying them based on the externally supplied data and writing them back to their original registers. A prototype implementation of the proposed design in a 90nm cell library indicates that the new memory adds less than 1% area to a commercially available FPGA implemented using the same library. The proposed design reduces the reconfiguration time for a wide set of benchmark circuits by 63%. However, power consumption during reconfiguration increases by a factor of 2.5 because the read-modify-write strategy results in more switching in the memory array.
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(2005)Conference PaperThis paper presents an investigation and design of an enhanced on-chip configuration memory system that can reduce the time to (re)configure an FPGA. The proposed system accepts configuration data in a compressed form and performs decompression internally, The resulting FPCA can be (re)configured in time proportional to the size of the compressed bit-stream. The compression technique exploits the redundancy present in typical configuration data. An analysis of configurations corresponding to a set of benchmark circuits reveals that data that controls the same types of configurable elements have a common byte that occurs at a significantly higher frequency. This common byte is simply broadcast to all instances of that element. This step is followed by byte updates if required. The new configuration system has modest hardware requirements and was observed to reduce reconfiguration time for the benchmark set by two-thirds on average.
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(2005)Conference PaperHard, machine-supported formal verification of software is at a turning point. Recent years have seen theorem proving tools maturing with a number of successful, real-life applications. At the same time, small high-performance OS kernels, which can drastically reduce the size of the trusted computing base, have become more popular. We argue that the combination of those two trends makes it feasible, and desirable, to formally verify production-quality operating systems -- now.
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(2005)Conference PaperShared memory systems, such as SMP and ccNUMA topologies, simplify programming and administration. On the other hand, clusters of individual workstations are commonly used due to cost and scalability considerations. We have developed a virtual-machine-based solution, dubbed vNUMA, that seeks to provide a NUMA-like environment on a commodity cluster, with a single operating system instance and transparent shared memory. In this paper we present the design of vNUMA and some preliminary evaluation.
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(2005)Conference PaperItanium is a fairly new and rather unusual architecture. Its defining feature is explicitly-parallel instruction-set computing (EPIC), which moves the onus for exploiting instruction-level parallelism (ILP) from the hardware to the code generator. Itanium theoretically supports high degrees of ILP, but in practice these are hard to achieve, as present compilers are often not up to the task. This is much more a problem for systems than for application code, as compiler writers' efforts tend to be focused on SPEC benchmarks, which are not representative of operating systems code. As a result, good OS performance on Itanium is a serious challenge, but the potential rewards are high. EPIC is not the only interesting and novel feature of Itanium. Others include an unusual MMU, a huge register set, and tricky virtualisation issues. We present a number of the challenges posed by the architecture, and show how they can be overcome by clever design and implementation.
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(2005)Conference PaperDynamic update is a mechanism that allows software updates and patches to be applied to a running system without loss of service or down-time. Operating systems would benefit from dynamic update, but place unique demands on any implementation of such features. These demands stem from the event-driven nature of operating systems, from their restricted run-time execution environment, and from their role in simultaneously servicing multiple clients. We have implemented a dynamic update mechanism in the K42 research operating system, and tested it using previous modifications of the system by kernel developers. Our system supports updates changing both kernel code and data structures. In this paper we identify requirements needed to provide a dynamically updatable operating system, describe our implementation, and present our experiences in designing and using the dynamic update mechanism. We also discuss its applicability to other operating systems.
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(2005)Journal ArticleSoftware architecture evaluation involves evaluating different architecture design alternatives against multiple quality-attributes. These attributes typically have intrinsic conflicts and must be considered simultaneously in order to reach a final design decision. AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process), an important decision making technique, has been leveraged to resolve such conflicts. AHP can help provide an overall ranking of design alternatives. However it lacks the capability to explicitly identify the exact tradeoffs being made and the relative size of these tradeoffs. Moreover, the ranking produced can be sensitive such that the smallest change in intermediate priority weights can alter the final order of design alternatives. In this paper, we propose several in-depth analysis techniques applicable to AHP to identify critical tradeoffs and sensitive points in the decision process. We apply our method to an example of a real-world distributed architecture presented in the literature. The results are promising in that they make important decision consequences explicit in terms of key design tradeoffs and the architecture`s capability to handle future quality attribute changes. These expose critical decisions which are otherwise too subtle to be detected in standard AHP results.
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(2005)Conference PaperIn UNSW a cross-discipline Fellowship in Innovating Teaching and Educational Technology (ITET) sought to build communities of practice that would transform the University’s learning and teaching practices and systems. One cohort of 21 ITET Fellows provided cognitive maps of their strategies for using educational technology as they entered the programme. Analysis of the maps showed that academic discipline affects both the way that educational technology is perceived and the resulting strategies for its use. There are implications for educational support staff, in that their own professional knowledge and values may clash with those of the teachers they are working with. There are also implications at institutional level, in that the optimum mix of central and discipline-based support may vary across institutions and from one institution to another.