Project Details
Projekt
Memento: Energy-Efficient Memory Placement
Subject Area
Security and Dependability, Operating-, Communication- and Distributed Systems
Term
since 2022
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 502228341
The ongoing development of byte-addressable non-volatile main memory (NVM), high bandwidth memory (HBM) and Compute Express Link (CXL) has recently established several memory technologies and new high-speed links between computer memories as serious alternatives to conventional memory technologies and interconnects. For the first time, system architectures can be realised that use heterogeneous memory types within a computer system. This opens up new opportunities to specifically improve non-functional system properties such as power consumption, energy requirements and CO2 footprint in addition to system performance. However, in order to achieve these goals, the system software and programming models at the software level must catch up and be adapted. The Memento project has set itself the goal of advancing the current state of research in this area by expanding the memory allocation strategies of the operating system with regard to new, heterogenous memory technologies and interconnects in order to meet the new requirements of the hardware in the system software as well. In its continuation, the project pursues the Memory Governor approach and extends it on the basis of the results achieved in the first project phase. The focus here is on extending the central component, the Memory Governor: to improve the mapping of applications with different memory access patterns, Memento is designing and developing a software-based gearbox that makes application-specific system settings at runtime depending on the memory allocations made by the Memory Governor. In particular, the dynamic tracing of memory access patterns at runtime must be accompanied by a low additional load on the computer system, thus minimising overhead and avoiding the implicit generation of background noise in the operating system. To this end, Memento is developing a hardware-supported assistance unit for the traceability of memory accesses. Orthogonal to these functional extensions in the project, the second project phase will focus on the extension of the Memento Memory Governor for the targeted reduction of the CO2 footprint, which enable energy-efficient memory placement decisions. The extensions potentially introduce vulnerabilities in the system software, as the close integration of applications and the operating system means that the behaviour of the operating system is specifically influenced by userspace processes. To counteract this, Memento provides an operating system-based protection concept that proactively mitigates potential attack vectors. A comprehensive before-and-after comparison evaluates the project results with available and newly released storage technologies (e.g. CXL) and compares them with traditional systems.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
Subproject of
SPP 2377:
Disruptive Main-Memory Technologies
