ITR: Interactions of Multithreaded Computing and Operating System Design

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

Proposal Number: 0085670 Title: Interactions of Multithreaded Computing and Operating System Design PIs: Henry M. Levy and Susan J. Eggers Abstract: Over the next decade, highly scalable computer systems consisting of hundreds or thousands of nodes will become necessary to meet the demands of emerging global applications, such as Web and database servers used for Internet commerce. These applications must be multithreaded to handle the thousands of simultaneous requests. One promising technology for this scalable server domain is the use of multithreaded processors; for example, Compaq has announced Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) support for its Alpha processor in the 2002/2003 time frame. Unfortunately, no research has been conducted on multithreading support for operating systems or on how to structure operating systems for multithreaded CPUs. Yet the OS may be crucial in this environment; e.g., measurements show that a loaded web server can spend 75% of its time in the OS. The proposed research will develop the software environment to complement the multithreaded hardware environment provided by SMT and other fine-grained parallel processors. The research sits squarely between architecture and operating systems, examining (1) the design and performance of multithreaded processors to support OS needs, and (2) the structure of operating systems in light of the capabilities of multithreaded processors. The research will focus on these questions in the domain of highly parallel, request-driven workloads, such as Web servers and database servers.