ECE 902: Special Topics in Computers

Fall Semester 2004

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Virtual Machines and Dynamic Binary Translation

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Table of Contents

• Instructor Information
• Course Information
• News
• Lecture Schedule
• Course Outline
• Readings
• Lecture Notes
  
• Project
• Miscellaneous Links
• FINAL
  

Instructor Information

Prof. James E. Smith

Office:         4621 Engineering Hall
Office hours:   3-4 PM, Tues., 2::30-3:00, 4:00-4:30 Thurs, or by appointment
Office phone:   265-5737
Email:          jes@ece.wisc.edu   be sure to put "902" in the subject line

Course Information

• Required Course Material

       J. E. Smith and Ravi Nair, Virtual Machine Architectures, Implementations and Applications, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2005 (alpha version)
      -- Chapter 1  available online; all other chapters available at Bob's Copy Shop

• Reference Course Material

1)  John L. Hennessy and David A. Patterson, Computer Architecture: A Quantitative
     Approach, 3rd Edition, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2002.
2) Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems, 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall, 2001.
 
• Project

The default project is to do some original work in a group of two or three students.  For example, a group could  implement some aspect of a virtual machine, or perhaps reverse-engineer an existing VM and provide a report on its operation.  Projects will include a written report. Alternatively,  a group of two could write a paper that surveys an area within virtual machine architectures.  There may be oral presentations, depending on time available.
 
• Examinations

The first midterm exam will be a take-home exam to be done the week of Oct. 25-29.
The final exam will be given during the scheduled period  2:45 PM,  Dec. 17.
 
• Grading

Midterm    25%
Project      40%
Final          35%

News

Tentative Lecture Schedule

Class will meet twice per week (as often as possible), on the following schedule.

Sept. 2                             Introduction
Sept. 14                           Real Machines
Sept. 16,21,23                 Emulation: Interpretation and Binary Translation
Sept. 28,30, Oct. 5,7       Process VMs
Oct. 12,14                       Dynamic Optimiization
Oct. 19,21, Nov. 2,4       High Level VMs
Nov. 9,11                        Co-Designed VMs
Nov. 11, 18,23                System VMs
Nov. 30, Dec. 2               Multiprocessor Systems
Dec. 9.14                         Emerging Applications

Tentative Course Outline

1. Introduction (1 lecture)
   Motivation
   VM types and applications
   Translation, Optimization, Replication
   Summary of key design issues
   Course Roadmap

2. Real Machines (1 lecture)
    Computer Architecture(s)
    Principal interfaces: ISA, ABI
    Overview main components of
       processor
       memory
       I/O architecture    
    Managing and protecting hardware resources

3. Emulation: Interpretation and Binary Translation (3 lectures)
    Decode-dispatch interpretation
    Threaded interpretation
    Translation chaining
    Design issues and alternatives
    Case Study: Shade

4. Process VMs (4 lectures)
      VM Integration
      Translation Cacheing
      Handling OS calls
      Case studies: FX!32, WABI

5. Dynamic  Optmization (2 lectures)
    Profiling
    Staged optimization
    Superblock optimization
    Precise trap implementation
    Case studies:  UQDBT,  HP Dynamo

6. High Level VMs (4 lectures)
     Modern VMs: network computing, object oritentation
     Sun Java
     Microsoft CLI
     Optimization
     Case Study: IBM Jikes

7. Co-Designed VMs (2 lectures)
    Concealed memory
    Microarchitecture
    Support for speculation
    Precise interrupts
    Case studies: IBM Daisy, Tranmeta Crusoe, IBM AS/400

8. System VMs (3 lectures)
   OS management and protection of resources
   Virtualizing memory, processor, I/O
   Instruction set virtualizability
   Hosted VMs
   Whole System VMs
   Case studies: IBM VM/370, Intel x86 VMware, SimOS

9. Multiprocessor Systems (2 lectures)
    Partitioning
    Hypervisors
    Memory consistency
    Case studies: IBM LPAR, Stanford DISCO

10. Emerging Applications (1 lecture)
    Environment migration
    Security
    The Grid

Readings

• J.E. Smith and Ravi Nair,  Chapter 1: "Introduction to Virtual Machines"
• R. J. Hookway, M. A. Herdeg, "Digital FX!32: Combining Emulation and Binary Translation," Digital Technical Journal, Jan. 1997, pp. 3-12.
• B. Cmelik and D. Keppel, "Shade: A Fast Instruction-Set Simulator for Execution Profiling," ACM Sigmetrics, May 1994, pp. 128-137
• P. Hohensee, et al., "Wabi Cpu Emulation", Hot Chips VIII.
• D. Ung and Cristina Cifuentes, "Optimising Hot Paths in a Dynamic Binary Translator," Second Workshop on Binary Translation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 19, 2000, ACM.
• V. Bala, E. Duesterwald, S. Banerjia, "Transparent Dynamic Optimization: The Design and Implementation of Dynamo," HP Laboratories Technical Report  HPL-1999-78, June 1999.
• B. C. Le, "An Out-of-Order Execution Technique for Runtime Binary Translators,"  Proc. 8th ASPLOS, 1998, pp. 151-158.
• J. Olin, "Inside the Java Virtual Machine", 1996
• M. Arnold et al., "Adaptive Optimization in the Jalapeno JVM", OOPSLA '00, Oct. 2000.
• K. Ebcioglu, et al., "Dynamic Binary Translation and Optimization," IEEE Transactions on Computers, June 2001, pp. 529-548.
• A. Klaiber, "The Technology Behind Crusoe Processors," Transmeta Technical Brief, 2000.
• R. Goldberg, "Formal Requirements for Virtualizable Third Generation Architectures," CACM,  July 1974, pp. 412-421.
• Anon. "VMware Virtual Platform Technology White Paper", VMware Corporation, 1999.
• M. Rosenblum, "VMware's Virtual Platform Technology,"  Stanford Computer Systems Seminar,  Jan. 12, 2000.
• J. Sugerman, et al., "Virtualizing I/O Devices on VMware Workstation's Hosted Virtual Machine Monitor," USENIX 2001.
• E. Bugnion, S. Devine and M. Rosenblum, "Disco: Running Commodity Operating Systems on Scalable Multiprocessors," Proc. of 16th Symposium on Operating Systems Principles, 1997.

Lecture Notes

• Introduction to Virtual Macines
• Real Machines
• Emulation
• Process Virtual Machines
• Dynamic Optimization
• HLL Virtual Machines
• Co-Designed Virtual Macines
• System Virtual Machines
• Multiprocessor Virtualization
• Emerging Applications
  

Project

• Dates

           Proposal due Oct. 14, 2004
           Status reports due Nov. 4 and Nov. 18, 2004
           Final report due Dec. 14, 2004

• Description

Miscellaneous Links

• bochs home page; an open source x86 emulator
• PIN binary instrumentation tool
• Dynamo/RIO home page  a tool for dynamic binary optimization
  
• Melinda Varian's homepage; a number of OS VM links, mostly IBM-related; lots of good historical information, written by people who were there.
• x86 instruction descriptions, in a reasonably easy-to-use online form (under "Instruction Set")
• IBM Daisy Project; information regarding the IBM Daisy VLIW system; and important co-designed VM.
• SimOS-related publications, SimOS is a full system simulator; touches on many VM issues