Hotplugging cores

Summary:

Provide support for a dynamically variable number of cores in a running OS

Motivation:

There are increasing reasons for dynamically varying the number of cores running in an OS: power management, partial failure, etc.

This project will look at the OS design issues to support a variable number of cores in the context of the Barrelfish OS. Barrelfish's structure as a multikernel, structured as a distributed system, makes this somewhat more tractable than a monolithic system like Linux, but many issues remain to be resolved.

Goals:

1. Demonstrate the mechanism of dynamic processor hotplugging on Barrelfish, and examine the OS design choices this requires.
2. Examine and evaluate the power benefits of shutting down cores or packages in a modern multiprocessor machine.
3. Devise and measure policies for shutting down, and bringing back up, processor cores according to system load.

Background:

C, OS kernels, x86 hardware

Contact:

Prof. Timothy Roscoe