5.4 KiB
5.4 KiB
- Plan
Plan
This document outlines the proposed PhD research plan for the forthcoming academic year, building upon the outcomes and insights gained during the preceding year.
Current experiments:
- FAT allocator with huge pages.
- FAT allocator to bypass TLB.
- Allocator evaluation based on stripping instruction calls for larger allocators.
Experiment cancelled:
- Uni-Kernel Development: Work scaled down to fit within the allocated PhD timeframe and introduced an extension of the FAT allocator as the third experiment.
Link to the Previous PhD Plan
Summary of the Previous Plan
Phase 1: FAT-Pointer Mechanism (July–September 2024)
1st to 15th July 2024
- Investigated causes of L1 TLB misses associated with contiguous memory allocation.
- Executed performance benchmarking using COZ on selected C programs.
- Ported the kernel module to support SnMalloc, the default allocator in CheriBSD.
15th to 30th July 2024
- Conducted benchmarking using the SPEC and XSBench suites.
- Performed comparative analysis with both baseline and modified SnMalloc implementations.
August 2024
- Initiated drafting of a paper for submission to EuroSys, focusing on the FAT-Pointer memory allocator.
September 2024
- Compiled and structured thesis chapter related to the FAT-Pointer architecture.
- Finalised and submitted the EuroSys paper.
Phase 2: RISC-V Integration (October 2024 – May 2025)
October to December 2024
- Modified the Bluespec implementation to enable TLB bypass in the memory access pipeline.
- Configured the experimental platform and evaluation toolchain.
January to February 2025
- Undertook experimental evaluation of the FAT-Pointer system on RISC-V (Toooba).
- Commenced drafting of a technical paper for ISMM based on RISC-V integration results.
March to May 2025
- Addressed outstanding tasks and technical backlog.
- Continued development of the corresponding thesis chapter.
Phase 3: Uni-Kernel Deployment (May 2025 – September 2026)
May to December 2025
- Ported the memory allocator to a CHERI-enabled Uni-Kernel environment.
- Designed and implemented a unified memory allocator to support both kernel and user-level allocations.
- Initiated drafting of a manuscript targeted at OSDI.
January to September 2026
- Finalised documentation and submission of the PhD thesis.
- Submitted third research paper based on extended evaluation.
Current Research Plan
This section outlines a comprehensive timeline of research activities and academic milestones undertaken between June 2025 and September 2026 as part of the PhD focused on the CHERI Toooba architecture. It includes the refactoring of BlueSpec SystemVerilog modules and the development of a bare-metal C benchmark suite. The work involves in-depth debugging of the Toooba memory subsystem, the design and evaluation of in-depth analyses of the FAT allocator and performance analysis at the instruction level. Alongside these technical efforts, the timeline reflects the structured drafting of academic publications and the ongoing development of the PhD thesis leading to the final submission of the dissertation.
June to July 2025
- Refactored BlueSpec SystemVerilog (BSV) modules within the CHERI Toooba architecture.
- Set up a bare-metal C benchmark suite for execution on the Bluespec simulation platform.
- Incorporated supervisory team feedback into revisions of the EuroSys paper.
- Undertook formal progression review requirements.
- Submitted EuroSys manuscript to the CHERI research team at the University of Glasgow for preliminary feedback.
July to August 2025
- Engaged in extensive debugging of the Toooba memory pipeline, specifically targeting the TLB bypass path.
- Finalised and validated the C benchmark suite for Toooba evaluation.
- Began technical documentation of the Toooba workflow, to support a second publication.
- Concluded revisions to the EuroSys paper by the end of July.
August to September 2025
- Continued debugging efforts within the Toooba memory subsystem.
- Drafted the abstract, introduction, and methodology sections of the second research paper.
- Aimed to generate preliminary experimental results for inclusion in the evaluation.
September to October 2025
- Published the EuroSys paper detailing the FAT-Pointer allocator.
- Commenced benchmarking of the Toooba design.
- Simultaneously drafted the evaluation and analysis sections of the second manuscript.
October to November 2025
- Initiated third experimental phase, aimed at deeper evaluation of prior experiments.
- Modified memory allocators (TcMalloc and Mesh) to remove reliance on `mmap`.
November to December 2025
- Finalised second paper for peer review.
- Stripped away huge-page-specific optimisations from JeMalloc, TcMalloc, and Mesh.
- Analysed instruction-level reductions and performance implications.
- Commenced drafting of the third research paper, building on contributions from the EuroSys paper.
December 2025 to January 2026
- Conducted evaluation and profiling for the third paper.
- Commenced thesis chapter write-up for Experiments 1 and 2.
January to September 2026
- Continued thesis development and refinement across all experimental chapters.
- Finalised and submitted third paper for peer review.
- Prepared complete PhD dissertation for submission.