Trustworthy Systems

Optimising L4 on Blackfin 533/537: An investigation into a high performance L4 microkernel without virtual memory

Authors

Clarence Dang

    School of Computer Science and Engineering
    UNSW,
    Sydney 2052, Australia

Abstract

Title: Optimising L4 on Blackfin 533/537: an investigation into a high performance L4 microkernel without virtual memory Author: Clarence Dang School of Computer Science and Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia, clarenced@cse.unsw.edu.au Abstract: The L4 microkernel is used as the basis for several operating systems but was built on the assumption of virtual memory. This thesis examines general design issues for constructing a high performance port of L4 without virtual memory but with memory protection. It also aims to provide a concrete implementation by porting L4 to the Blackfin processor. The results of our research were found to be general, and not just Blackfin-specific. Therefore, we enable L4 to support an additional category of processors - those without virtual memory. Our L4 implementation on Blackfin verifies the validity of the design. While it outperforms ucLinux, at least on context switching time, there is still much work to be done before it is deployable.

BibTeX Entry

  @mastersthesis{Dang:be,
    address          = {Sydney, Australia},
    author           = {Clarence Dang},
    keywords         = {public, L4, Blackfin, virtual memory, protected kernel addressing},
    month            = oct,
    paperUrl         = {https://trustworthy.systems/publications/theses_public/06/Dang%3Abe.pdf},
    school           = {School of Computer Science and Engineering},
    title            = {Optimising {L4} on {Blackfin} 533/537: an investigation into a high performance {L4} microkernel
                        without virtual memory},
    year             = {2006}
  }

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