基于NVRAM的高性能软件栈关键技术研究

Current memory hierarchy remains unchanged for decades, which is becoming the bottleneck of modern computer systems. The emerging of the new NVRAM (Non-volatile Random Access Memory) will lead to huge changes in computer architecture and bring impacts to the upper software systems. It raises a big challenge: how to manage this new type of memory and what interface to provide to the upper applications to use it...Facing the challenge, this project aims to propose a memory management system based on NVRAM that offers efficient support and interface to upper applications. Previous studies provided memory management and non-volatile programming support but they are all trapped by poor performance. In order to break the performance bottleneck, this project aims to conduct research on (1) runtime guided efficient page management, (2) efficient transactional memory system based on hardware transactional memory, and (3) efficient data consistency based on virtualization hardware. The result of this project will be a high efficient prototype system that offers support for upper applications to use NVRAM and manage their data consistently in NVRAM, which will enables futures high performance applications to make the best of NVRAM.

现有的存储层次已经被沿用了几十年了，其逐渐成为计算机系统的瓶颈。非易失存储器件（NVRAM）这一新型存储器件的出现将为底层架构带来重大革新，并广泛影响着上层软件系统。如何用好管理好NVRAM这种新型存储器件，并向上层应用提供易用高效的编程接口和模型，是未来计算机系统急需应对的挑战。..本课题面向新型非易失存储器件（NVRAM），研究在系统软件层的存储管理，向上层应用提供通用高效的使用NVRAM的接口和支持，克服已有工作中针对NVRAM物理页面管理的低效以及非易失编程系统开销大等性能瓶颈。重点研究基于运行时指导的混合页面管理和调度、基于硬件事务化的高效事务化执行、基于硬件虚拟化的高效非易失数据更新等关键技术，最终形成的系统能够有效支持上层应用直接申请和使用NVRAM，在NVRAM上组织非易失数据并进行高效一致性更新，为未来各项应用特别是高性能应用使用NVRAM提供支撑。

本课题面向新型非易失存储器件（NVRAM），研究在系统软件层的存储管理，向上层应用提供通用高效的使用NVRAM的接口和支持，研究并提出了面向NVRAM的高效存储管理、面向NVRAM的事务化、面向NVRAM的访存监控和数据一致性更新等技术，形成了一套支撑应用程序分配和使用NVRAM的高效的接口和原型系统，能够有效支持上层应用直接申请和使用NVRAM，在NVRAM上组织非易失数据并进行高效一致性更新，为未来各项应用特别是高性能应用使用NVRAM提供支撑。