69 lines
2.1 KiB
Plaintext
69 lines
2.1 KiB
Plaintext
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Future optimizations of Genode
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Norman Feske
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Abstract
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########
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This document outlines possible optimizations for Genode.
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In the first place, Genode was meant as a feasibility study.
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Therefore, optimizing performance and memory-consumption was
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not a primary goal of the experiment. However, there exist
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several ideas to improve these properties. These ideas are
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definitely not to be regarded as ToDo items. Each idea should
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only be conducted if it fixes a _real_ hotspot in the system
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that was found by quantitative analysis.
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Memory consumption
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##################
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Currently, we use an AVL-tree-based best-fit memory allocator
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('Allocator_avl') as Heap. Despite, this allocator was
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intended to be used only for the root allocator for physical
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memory inside Core, we use it as the basis for the current
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heap implementation. This way, we can reuse the code,
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reducing the overall code complexity.
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The AVL-tree-based allocator uses a meta-data entry of 32
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bytes per free or used memory block. This means that each
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memory allocation from the heap introduces a meta-data
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overhead of 32 up to 64 bytes. When allocating a lot of
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small objects, this overhead is very high.
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:Question:: Is this issue a real bottleneck?
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Possible improvements are:
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* Using slab allocators for known allocation sizes.
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Slab entries have a much smaller footprint.
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* Creating a list-based allocator implementation for
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the heap. This comes at the cost of additional
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code complexity.
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RPC Performance
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###############
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We use C++ streams for RPC communication and therefore,
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introduced run-time overhead for the dynamic marshaling.
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Using an IDL compiler would improve the RPC performance.
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Is the RPC performance a real performance problem? What
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is the profile of RPC usage? (Number of RPCs per second,
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Percentage of CPU time spent on RPCs, Secondary effects
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for RPCs such as cache and TLB pollution).
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Locking
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#######
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On L4v2-Genode, locking is implemented via yielding spin locks.
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We may consider a L4env-like lock implementation.
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Misc
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####
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Take a look at include/util/string.h and judge by yourself :-)
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