Back to the Core-Memory Age: Running Operating Systems in NVRAM only

Rabenstein J, Nguyen DT, Giersch O, Eichler C, Hönig T, Nolte J, Schröder-Preikschat W (2023)

Publication Language: English

Publication Type: Conference contribution, Conference Contribution

Publication year: 2023

Publisher: Springer, Cham

Series: Architecture of Computing Systems. ARCS 2023.

Book Volume: 13949

Pages Range: 153–167

Conference Proceedings Title: Lecture Notes in Computer Science

Event location: Athen GR

ISBN: 978-3-031-42784-8

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-42785-5_11

Abstract

The classic core memory was completely non-volatile and thus kept at least part of the operating system persistently in main memory, even over power cycles. Nowadays we can repeat this approach with NVRAM, but with terabytes of main memory on a completely different scale and with parts of the operating-system state stored in volatile CPU caches. In this paper, we discuss our experiences of running large modern operating systems including their applications entirely in NVRAM. We adapted stock Linux and FreeBSD kernels to work exclusively with NVRAM by hiding all DRAM from the kernels at boot time to establish a realistic performance baseline without changing anything else. Following this entirely NVRAM-agnostic approach, we could observe an effective performance penalty of a factor of about four, but only negligible increases in whole-system power draw. For our system with two CPU sockets and 56 cores total, we also observed a reduction in power draw in several scenarios. Due to prolonged execution times, the energy consumption increased as well for these measured workloads. While this might be discouraging at first sight, this result was achieved without any performance tuning as to the specific characteristics of today’s NVRAM technology. Therefore, we are also discussing means to mitigate the observed shortcomings by integrating NVRAM appropriately into the memory hierarchy of future robust persistent systems.

Authors with CRIS profile

Jonas Rabenstein Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4 (Verteilte Systeme und Betriebssysteme) Dustin Tien Nguyen Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4 (Systemsoftware) Wolfgang Schröder-Preikschat Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4 (Verteilte Systeme und Betriebssysteme)

Related research project(s)

Power-fail aware byte-addressable virtual non-volatile memory (PAVE) SPP 2377: Disruptive Memory Technologies April 5, 2021 - May 14, 2026 Non-volatility in energy-aware operating systems (NEON) Jan. 1, 2022 - Jan. 1, 2025

Involved external institutions

Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) DE Germany (DE) Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Rabenstein, J., Nguyen, D.T., Giersch, O., Eichler, C., Hönig, T., Nolte, J., & Schröder-Preikschat, W. (2023). Back to the Core-Memory Age: Running Operating Systems in NVRAM only. In Georgios Goumas, Sven Tomforde, Jürgen Brehm, Stefan Wildermann, Thilo Pionteck (Eds.), Lecture Notes in Computer Science (pp. 153–167). Athen, GR: Springer, Cham.

MLA:

Rabenstein, Jonas, et al. "Back to the Core-Memory Age: Running Operating Systems in NVRAM only." Proceedings of the Architecture of Computing Systems. ARCS 2023, Athen Ed. Georgios Goumas, Sven Tomforde, Jürgen Brehm, Stefan Wildermann, Thilo Pionteck, Springer, Cham, 2023. 153–167.

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