WO2009002756A2 - Leveraging transactional memory hardware to accelerate virtualization and emulation - Google Patents

Leveraging transactional memory hardware to accelerate virtualization and emulation Download PDF

Info

Publication number
WO2009002756A2
WO2009002756A2 PCT/US2008/067147 US2008067147W WO2009002756A2 WO 2009002756 A2 WO2009002756 A2 WO 2009002756A2 US 2008067147 W US2008067147 W US 2008067147W WO 2009002756 A2 WO2009002756 A2 WO 2009002756A2
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
transactional memory
memory hardware
hardware
emulation
changes
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/US2008/067147
Other languages
French (fr)
Other versions
WO2009002756A3 (en
Inventor
Martin Taillefer
Darek Mihocka
Bruno Silva
Original Assignee
Microsoft Corporation
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Microsoft Corporation filed Critical Microsoft Corporation
Priority to EP08771215A priority Critical patent/EP2176749A4/en
Priority to JP2010514969A priority patent/JP2010532054A/en
Priority to CN200880022112.XA priority patent/CN101689123B/en
Publication of WO2009002756A2 publication Critical patent/WO2009002756A2/en
Publication of WO2009002756A3 publication Critical patent/WO2009002756A3/en

Links

Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F9/00—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units
    • G06F9/06—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units using stored programs, i.e. using an internal store of processing equipment to receive or retain programs
    • G06F9/46—Multiprogramming arrangements
    • G06F9/466—Transaction processing
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F9/00—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units
    • G06F9/06—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units using stored programs, i.e. using an internal store of processing equipment to receive or retain programs
    • G06F9/44—Arrangements for executing specific programs
    • G06F9/455—Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
    • G06F9/45504—Abstract machines for programme code execution, e.g. Java virtual machine [JVM], interpreters, emulators
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F9/00—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units
    • G06F9/06—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units using stored programs, i.e. using an internal store of processing equipment to receive or retain programs
    • G06F9/44—Arrangements for executing specific programs
    • G06F9/455—Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
    • G06F9/45533—Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F2209/00—Indexing scheme relating to G06F9/00
    • G06F2209/52—Indexing scheme relating to G06F9/52
    • G06F2209/521—Atomic

Definitions

  • Emulation is a technique that involves providing the functionality of a central processing unit from software.
  • One advantage to emulation is that you can run software designed for a specific type of processor on any other type of processor.
  • Virtualization is a technique that provides the ability to partition hardware in a way that allows more than one operating system to run simultaneously. With virtualization, a physical central processing unit is partitioned into multiple contexts. Each context then takes turns running directly on the processor. Even though virtualization products are generally faster than emulation products, both types of products today suffer from several complications that limit the speed that can be achieved. As one example, dealing with concurrency during emulation requires additional synchronization which can slow down serial performance. As a second example, tracking self-modifying code under emulation usually incurs a substantial performance burden.
  • transactional memory hardware to accelerate virtualization or emulation.
  • One or more central processing units are provided with transactional memory hardware that is operable to accelerate virtualization.
  • the transactional memory hardware has a facility to maintain private state, a facility to render memory accesses from other central processing units visible to software, and support for atomic commit of the private state.
  • the transactional memory hardware can be used, for example, to facilitate emulation of precise exception semantics.
  • the private state is operable to enable an emulated state to remain inconsistent with an architectural state and only synchronized on certain boundaries.
  • An optimized sequence of instructions is executed using chunk-accurate simulation to try and achieve a same end effect as a slower instruction- accurate simulation, isolated in private state, which is only committed in case the entire chunk is successfully emulated.
  • state isolation can be facilitated by providing isolated private state on transactional memory hardware and storing the stack of a host that is performing emulation in the isolated private state.
  • self-modifying code can be detected using the transactional memory hardware. Memory accesses performed by a central processing unit can be monitored by software to detect that a guest being emulated has made a self modification to its own code sequence.
  • Transactional memory hardware can be used in one implementation to facilitate dispatch table updates in multithreaded environments by taking advantage of the atomic commit feature.
  • An emulator uses a dispatch table stored in main memory to convert a guest program counter into a host program counter.
  • the dispatch table is accessed to see if the dispatch table contains a particular host program counter for a particular guest program counter.
  • transactional memory hardware can be used to introduce a new mapping in the table.
  • code backpatching can be facilitated by providing transactional memory hardware that supports a facility to maintain private memory state and an atomic commit feature. Changes made to certain code are stored in the private state facility. Backpatching changes are enacted by attempting to commit all the changes to memory at once using the atomic commit feature.
  • An efficient call return cache can be provided in one implementation by using transactional memory hardware.
  • a call return cache stored in the private state facility captures a host address to return to after execution of a guest function completes.
  • a direct-lookup hardware-based hash table is used for the call return cache.
  • Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view of a computer system of one implementation.
  • Figure 2 is a diagrammatic view of a virtualization/emulation application of one implementation operating on the computer system of Figure 1.
  • Figure 3 is a process flow diagram for one implementation of the system of
  • Figure 1 illustrating the stages involved in using transactional memory hardware to facilitate emulation of precise exception semantics.
  • Figure 4 is a diagram for one implementation of the system of Figure 1 that illustrates running a chunk-accurate simulation.
  • Figure 5 is a diagram for one implementation of the system of Figure 1 that illustrates running an instruction-accurate simulation after a chunk-accurate simulation has raised an exception.
  • Figure 6 is a process flow diagram for one implementation of the system of Figure 1 illustrating the stages involved in using transactional memory hardware to facilitate state isolation.
  • Figure 7 is a process flow diagram for one implementation of the system of
  • Figure 1 that illustrates the stages involved in using transactional memory hardware to facilitate detection of self-modifying code under emulation.
  • Figure 8 is a process flow diagram for one implementation of the system of
  • Figure 1 that illustrates the stages involved in using transactional memory hardware to facilitate dispatch table updates in multithreaded environments.
  • Figure 9 is a process flow diagram for one implementation of the system of
  • FIG 1 that illustrates the stages involved in using transactional memory hardware to facilitate code backpatching in multithreaded environments.
  • Figure 10 is a process flow diagram for one implementation of the system of
  • FIG 1 that illustrates the stages involved in using transactional memory hardware to facilitate an efficient call return cache.
  • an exemplary computer system to use for implementing one or more parts of the system includes a computing device, such as computing device 100.
  • computing device 100 In its most basic configuration, computing device 100 typically includes at least one central processing unit 102 and memory 104.
  • Central processing unit(s) each have transactional memory hardware 119 that includes a facility to maintain private state 120, a facility to render memory accesses from other central processing units visible to software 124, and support for atomic commit of the private state 126.
  • the private state 120 is invisible to other central processing units until it is explicitly atomically committed by owning processing unit.
  • the private state 120 is also discardable. When the central processing discards the private state, its view of memory is reverted to the current architectural state.
  • the software visible memory accesses 124 allow software running on the central processing unit to detect that another central processing unit is accessing specific memory locations.
  • the atomic commit feature 126 allows the private state of the central processing unit to enter a main memory system atomically as a unit as part of an atomic commit.
  • memory 104 may be volatile (such as RAM), non- volatile (such as ROM, flash memory, etc.) or some combination of the two. This most basic configuration is illustrated in Figure 1 by dashed line 106.
  • device 100 may also have additional features/functionality.
  • device 100 may also include additional storage (removable and/or non-removable) including, but not limited to, magnetic or optical disks or tape.
  • additional storage is illustrated in Figure 1 by removable storage 108 and non- removable storage 110.
  • Computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data.
  • Memory 104, removable storage 108 and nonremovable storage 110 are all examples of computer storage media.
  • Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can accessed by device 100. Any such computer storage media may be part of device 100.
  • Computing device 100 includes one or more communication connections 114 that allow computing device 100 to communicate with other computers/applications 115. Device 100 may also have input device(s) 112 such as keyboard, mouse, pen, voice input device, touch input device, etc. Output device(s) 111 such as a display, speakers, printer, etc. may also be included.
  • computing device 100 includes virtualization/emulation application 200.
  • Virtualization/emulation application 200 will be described in further detail in Figure 2. [025] Turning now to Figure 2 with continued reference to Figure 1 , a virtualization/emulation application 200 operating on computing device 100 is illustrated.
  • Virtualization/emulation application 200 is one of the application programs that reside on computing device 100. However, it will be understood that virtualization/emulation application 200 can alternatively or additionally be embodied as computer-executable instructions on one or more computers and/or in different variations than shown on Figure 1.
  • Virtualization/emulation application 200 can be part of system memory 104, on other computers and/or applications 115, or other such variations as would occur to one in the computer software art.
  • Virtualization/emulation application 200 includes program logic 204, which is responsible for carrying out some or all of the techniques described herein.
  • Program logic 204 includes logic for using transactional memory hardware to accelerate virtualization or emulation 206 (as described below with respect to Figure 3); logic for using transactional memory hardware to facilitate emulation of precise exception semantics 208 (as described below with respect to Figures 3-5); logic for using transactional memory hardware to facilitate state isolation 210 (as described below with respect to Figure 6); logic for using transactional memory hardware to facilitate detection of self-modifying code 212 (as described below with respect to Figure 7); logic for using transactional memory hardware to facilitate dispatch table updates 214 (as described below with respect to Figure 8); logic for using transactional memory hardware to facilitate code backpatching 216 (as described below with respect to Figure 9); logic for using transactional memory hardware to facilitate an efficient call return cache 218 (as described below with respect to Figure 10); and other logic for operating the application 220.
  • program logic 204 is operable to be called programmatically from another program, such as using a single call to a procedure in program logic 204.
  • program logic 204 is operable to be called programmatically from another program, such as using a single call to a procedure in program logic 204.
  • the system runs the optimized sequence of instructions using a chunk-accurate simulation (stage 244). If no exception occurs (decision point 246), then the system is able to complete the simulation with generally better performance than would be possible using fully instruction- accurate simulation. However, if an exception occurs (decision point 246), then the pending writes to memory are discarded (stage 248).
  • the emulated processor state is rolled back to the last synchronization point (stage 250).
  • the particular code sequence is executed again conservatively using instruction-accurate simulation so that the right architectural state is present when the exception is encountered for the second time (stage 252). In one implementation, that architectural state is precisely the same as the real, non- virtual system being emulated would be in, which is important for correct system-level emulation. This process is illustrated in further detail in the diagrams of Figures 4 and 5. The process ends at end point 254.
  • Figure 4 is a diagram 270 for one implementation that illustrates running a chunk-accurate simulation.
  • the chunk-accurate simulation runs an optimized sequence of instructions to try and achieve the same end effect as the original sequence of guest instructions, but in a more optimized way than is possible using an instruction-accurate simulation.
  • the chunk-accurate simulation allows the emulated state to remain inconsistent with architectural state and only be synchronized on coarse boundaries, which is basically the starting point and the ending point of the simulation.
  • Figure 6 illustrates one implementation of the stages involved in using transactional memory hardware to facilitate state isolation.
  • the process begins at start point 310 with providing isolated private state on transactional memory hardware (stage 312).
  • the host doing the emulation stores its stack in the isolated private state (stage 314).
  • the isolated private state enables the host to keep the stack in a buffered mode, which allows the host to avoid expensive runtime checks.
  • the isolated private state is discardable.
  • FIG. 7 illustrates one implementation of the stages involved in using transactional memory hardware to facilitate detection of self-modifying code.
  • the process begins at start point 340 providing software-visible memory accesses using transactional memory hardware (stage 342).
  • the system monitors the memory accesses performed by a central processing unit to detect that the guest being emulated has modified its own code sequence (stage 344). Even memory accesses from a separate central processing unit can be detected.
  • the system then takes an appropriate action based on the detection (stage 346).
  • FIG. 8 illustrates one implementation of the stages involved in using transactional memory hardware to facilitate dispatch table updates in multithreaded environments.
  • the process begins at start point 370 with providing an atomic commit feature using transactional memory hardware (stage 372).
  • the system provides an emulator that uses a dispatch table stored in main memory to convert a guest program counter into a host program counter (stage 374).
  • the system accesses the dispatch table to see if it contains a host program counter for the given guest program counter (stage 376). If no host program counter is found, the system compiles the associated block of guest code (stage 378).
  • the update to the dispatch table is performed in private memory, and when the update is fully performed, it is atomically committed to main memory. Leveraging the atomic commit feature, the system updates the dispatch table in an atomic way with minimal overhead (stage 380). The process ends at end point 382.
  • Figure 9 illustrates one implementation of the stages involved in using transactional memory hardware to facilitate code backpatching in multithreaded environments.
  • the process begins at start point 400 with providing invisible private state and atomic commit facilities using transactional memory hardware (stage 402).
  • the system stores the changes to be made to code in the invisible private state (stage 404).
  • the changes to be made to the code can be received from one or more threads.
  • the backpatching changes are enacted by attempting to commit all the changes to memory at one time using atomic commit (stage 406). If another thread is trying to execute code that needs to be changed, commit will fail and the backpatching process re-executes by attempting to commit all the changes to memory atomically again (stage 408).
  • safe dynamic code modification is enabled in a multithreaded environment (stage 410).
  • the process ends at end point 412.
  • Figure 10 illustrates one implementation of the stages involved in using transactional memory hardware to facilitate an efficient call return cache.
  • the process begins at start point 430 with providing invisible and discardable private state using transactional memory hardware (stage 432).
  • the system provides a call return cache stored in the private state facility that captures the host address to return to after execution of the guest function completes (stage 434).
  • a direct- lookup hardware-based hash table is used for the call return cache (stage 436).
  • the call return cache supports more efficient lookups than normal lookups in a dispatch table.
  • the process ends at end point 438.

Landscapes

  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Software Systems (AREA)
  • Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Memory System Of A Hierarchy Structure (AREA)
  • Debugging And Monitoring (AREA)

Abstract

Various technologies and techniques are disclosed for using transactional memory hardware to accelerate virtualization or emulation. A central processing unit is provided with the transactional memory hardware. Code backpatching can be facilitated by providing transactional memory hardware that supports a facility to maintain private memory state and an atomic commit feature. Changes made to certain code are stored in the private state facility. Backpatching changes are enacted by attempting to commit all the changes to memory at once using the atomic commit feature. An efficient call return stack can be provided by using transactional memory hardware. A call return cache stored in the private state facility captures a host address to return to after execution of a guest function completes. A direct-lookup hardware-based hash table is used for the call return cache.

Description

LEVERAGING TRANSACTIONAL MEMORY HARDWARE TO ACCELERATE VIRTUALIZATION AND EMULATION
BACKGROUND
[001] Emulation is a technique that involves providing the functionality of a central processing unit from software. One advantage to emulation is that you can run software designed for a specific type of processor on any other type of processor. Virtualization is a technique that provides the ability to partition hardware in a way that allows more than one operating system to run simultaneously. With virtualization, a physical central processing unit is partitioned into multiple contexts. Each context then takes turns running directly on the processor. Even though virtualization products are generally faster than emulation products, both types of products today suffer from several complications that limit the speed that can be achieved. As one example, dealing with concurrency during emulation requires additional synchronization which can slow down serial performance. As a second example, tracking self-modifying code under emulation usually incurs a substantial performance burden.
SUMMARY
[002] Various technologies and techniques are disclosed for using transactional memory hardware to accelerate virtualization or emulation. One or more central processing units are provided with transactional memory hardware that is operable to accelerate virtualization. The transactional memory hardware has a facility to maintain private state, a facility to render memory accesses from other central processing units visible to software, and support for atomic commit of the private state. [003] In one implementation, the transactional memory hardware can be used, for example, to facilitate emulation of precise exception semantics. The private state is operable to enable an emulated state to remain inconsistent with an architectural state and only synchronized on certain boundaries. An optimized sequence of instructions is executed using chunk-accurate simulation to try and achieve a same end effect as a slower instruction- accurate simulation, isolated in private state, which is only committed in case the entire chunk is successfully emulated. [004] In another implementation, state isolation can be facilitated by providing isolated private state on transactional memory hardware and storing the stack of a host that is performing emulation in the isolated private state. [005] In yet another implementation, self-modifying code can be detected using the transactional memory hardware. Memory accesses performed by a central processing unit can be monitored by software to detect that a guest being emulated has made a self modification to its own code sequence. [006] Transactional memory hardware can be used in one implementation to facilitate dispatch table updates in multithreaded environments by taking advantage of the atomic commit feature. An emulator is provided that uses a dispatch table stored in main memory to convert a guest program counter into a host program counter. The dispatch table is accessed to see if the dispatch table contains a particular host program counter for a particular guest program counter. When a host program counter is not found, transactional memory hardware can be used to introduce a new mapping in the table.
[007] In yet another implementation, code backpatching can be facilitated by providing transactional memory hardware that supports a facility to maintain private memory state and an atomic commit feature. Changes made to certain code are stored in the private state facility. Backpatching changes are enacted by attempting to commit all the changes to memory at once using the atomic commit feature.
[008] An efficient call return cache can be provided in one implementation by using transactional memory hardware. A call return cache stored in the private state facility captures a host address to return to after execution of a guest function completes. A direct-lookup hardware-based hash table is used for the call return cache.
[009] This Summary was provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[010] Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view of a computer system of one implementation.
[Oil] Figure 2 is a diagrammatic view of a virtualization/emulation application of one implementation operating on the computer system of Figure 1.
[012] Figure 3 is a process flow diagram for one implementation of the system of
Figure 1 illustrating the stages involved in using transactional memory hardware to facilitate emulation of precise exception semantics.
[013] Figure 4 is a diagram for one implementation of the system of Figure 1 that illustrates running a chunk-accurate simulation.
[014] Figure 5 is a diagram for one implementation of the system of Figure 1 that illustrates running an instruction-accurate simulation after a chunk-accurate simulation has raised an exception.
[015] Figure 6 is a process flow diagram for one implementation of the system of Figure 1 illustrating the stages involved in using transactional memory hardware to facilitate state isolation.
[016] Figure 7 is a process flow diagram for one implementation of the system of
Figure 1 that illustrates the stages involved in using transactional memory hardware to facilitate detection of self-modifying code under emulation. [017] Figure 8 is a process flow diagram for one implementation of the system of
Figure 1 that illustrates the stages involved in using transactional memory hardware to facilitate dispatch table updates in multithreaded environments.
[018] Figure 9 is a process flow diagram for one implementation of the system of
Figure 1 that illustrates the stages involved in using transactional memory hardware to facilitate code backpatching in multithreaded environments.
[019] Figure 10 is a process flow diagram for one implementation of the system of
Figure 1 that illustrates the stages involved in using transactional memory hardware to facilitate an efficient call return cache.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION [020] The technologies and techniques herein may be described in the general context as a virtualization or emulation system, but the technologies and techniques also serve other purposes in addition to these. In another implementation, the system may include one or more central processors that use transactional memory hardware to accelerate virtualization and/or emulation. [021] As shown in Figure 1, an exemplary computer system to use for implementing one or more parts of the system includes a computing device, such as computing device 100. In its most basic configuration, computing device 100 typically includes at least one central processing unit 102 and memory 104. Central processing unit(s) each have transactional memory hardware 119 that includes a facility to maintain private state 120, a facility to render memory accesses from other central processing units visible to software 124, and support for atomic commit of the private state 126. The private state 120 is invisible to other central processing units until it is explicitly atomically committed by owning processing unit. The private state 120 is also discardable. When the central processing discards the private state, its view of memory is reverted to the current architectural state. The software visible memory accesses 124 allow software running on the central processing unit to detect that another central processing unit is accessing specific memory locations. The atomic commit feature 126 allows the private state of the central processing unit to enter a main memory system atomically as a unit as part of an atomic commit. These transactional memory hardware features are used in various scenarios for enhancing virtualization and/or emulation, as described in further detail herein.
[022] Depending on the exact configuration and type of computing device, memory 104 may be volatile (such as RAM), non- volatile (such as ROM, flash memory, etc.) or some combination of the two. This most basic configuration is illustrated in Figure 1 by dashed line 106.
[023] Additionally, device 100 may also have additional features/functionality. For example, device 100 may also include additional storage (removable and/or non-removable) including, but not limited to, magnetic or optical disks or tape. Such additional storage is illustrated in Figure 1 by removable storage 108 and non- removable storage 110. Computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Memory 104, removable storage 108 and nonremovable storage 110 are all examples of computer storage media. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can accessed by device 100. Any such computer storage media may be part of device 100. [024] Computing device 100 includes one or more communication connections 114 that allow computing device 100 to communicate with other computers/applications 115. Device 100 may also have input device(s) 112 such as keyboard, mouse, pen, voice input device, touch input device, etc. Output device(s) 111 such as a display, speakers, printer, etc. may also be included. These devices are well known in the art and need not be discussed at length here. In one implementation, computing device 100 includes virtualization/emulation application 200. Virtualization/emulation application 200 will be described in further detail in Figure 2. [025] Turning now to Figure 2 with continued reference to Figure 1 , a virtualization/emulation application 200 operating on computing device 100 is illustrated. Virtualization/emulation application 200 is one of the application programs that reside on computing device 100. However, it will be understood that virtualization/emulation application 200 can alternatively or additionally be embodied as computer-executable instructions on one or more computers and/or in different variations than shown on Figure 1. Alternatively or additionally, one or more parts of virtualization/emulation application 200 can be part of system memory 104, on other computers and/or applications 115, or other such variations as would occur to one in the computer software art. [026] Virtualization/emulation application 200 includes program logic 204, which is responsible for carrying out some or all of the techniques described herein. Program logic 204 includes logic for using transactional memory hardware to accelerate virtualization or emulation 206 (as described below with respect to Figure 3); logic for using transactional memory hardware to facilitate emulation of precise exception semantics 208 (as described below with respect to Figures 3-5); logic for using transactional memory hardware to facilitate state isolation 210 (as described below with respect to Figure 6); logic for using transactional memory hardware to facilitate detection of self-modifying code 212 (as described below with respect to Figure 7); logic for using transactional memory hardware to facilitate dispatch table updates 214 (as described below with respect to Figure 8); logic for using transactional memory hardware to facilitate code backpatching 216 (as described below with respect to Figure 9); logic for using transactional memory hardware to facilitate an efficient call return cache 218 (as described below with respect to Figure 10); and other logic for operating the application 220. In one implementation, program logic 204 is operable to be called programmatically from another program, such as using a single call to a procedure in program logic 204. [027] Turning now to Figures 3-10 with continued reference to Figures 1-2, the stages for implementing one or more implementations of virtualization/emulation application 200 are described in further detail. In some implementations, the processes of Figures 3-10 are at least partially implemented in the operating logic of computing device 100. Figure 3 illustrates one implementation of the stages involved in using transactional memory hardware to facilitate emulation of precise exception semantics. The process begins at start point 240 with using invisible and discardable private state in the transactional memory hardware to enable the emulated state to remain inconsistent with architectural state and only synchronized on coarse boundaries (stage 242). The system runs the optimized sequence of instructions using a chunk-accurate simulation (stage 244). If no exception occurs (decision point 246), then the system is able to complete the simulation with generally better performance than would be possible using fully instruction- accurate simulation. However, if an exception occurs (decision point 246), then the pending writes to memory are discarded (stage 248). The emulated processor state is rolled back to the last synchronization point (stage 250). The particular code sequence is executed again conservatively using instruction-accurate simulation so that the right architectural state is present when the exception is encountered for the second time (stage 252). In one implementation, that architectural state is precisely the same as the real, non- virtual system being emulated would be in, which is important for correct system-level emulation. This process is illustrated in further detail in the diagrams of Figures 4 and 5. The process ends at end point 254.
[028] Turning now to Figures 4 and 5, the use of transactional memory hardware to facilitate emulation of precise exceptions semantics in emulated environments is illustrated in further detail. Figure 4 is a diagram 270 for one implementation that illustrates running a chunk-accurate simulation. The chunk-accurate simulation runs an optimized sequence of instructions to try and achieve the same end effect as the original sequence of guest instructions, but in a more optimized way than is possible using an instruction-accurate simulation. The chunk-accurate simulation allows the emulated state to remain inconsistent with architectural state and only be synchronized on coarse boundaries, which is basically the starting point and the ending point of the simulation. If an exception is encountered at any point during the chunk-accurate simulation, then the instruction-accurate simulation illustrated on the diagram 290 of Figure 5 is executed. The instruction-accurate simulation runs the code sequence conservatively to ensure that the right architectural state is present when the exception is encountered for the second time. [029] Figure 6 illustrates one implementation of the stages involved in using transactional memory hardware to facilitate state isolation. The process begins at start point 310 with providing isolated private state on transactional memory hardware (stage 312). In an emulated environment, the host doing the emulation stores its stack in the isolated private state (stage 314). The isolated private state enables the host to keep the stack in a buffered mode, which allows the host to avoid expensive runtime checks. The isolated private state is discardable. This means that when the central processing unit discards the private state, its view of memory is reverted to the current architectural state. The guest being emulated does not have access to the isolated private state (stage 316). The process ends at end point 318. [030] Figure 7 illustrates one implementation of the stages involved in using transactional memory hardware to facilitate detection of self-modifying code. The process begins at start point 340 providing software-visible memory accesses using transactional memory hardware (stage 342). The system monitors the memory accesses performed by a central processing unit to detect that the guest being emulated has modified its own code sequence (stage 344). Even memory accesses from a separate central processing unit can be detected. The system then takes an appropriate action based on the detection (stage 346). A few non-limiting examples of such appropriate actions can include recompiling the code sequence to incorporate the self modification made by the guest, raising an exception, and/or stopping execution. Another non-limiting example of an appropriate action can include switching to an interpretation of machine instructions (as opposed to compilation) for just the part of the code that is self-modifying. In one implementation, this approach would be slower than compilation, but very accurate and would work exactly as the self-modifying code was intended to. Other appropriate actions are also possible. The process ends at end point 348. [031] Figure 8 illustrates one implementation of the stages involved in using transactional memory hardware to facilitate dispatch table updates in multithreaded environments. The process begins at start point 370 with providing an atomic commit feature using transactional memory hardware (stage 372). The system provides an emulator that uses a dispatch table stored in main memory to convert a guest program counter into a host program counter (stage 374). The system accesses the dispatch table to see if it contains a host program counter for the given guest program counter (stage 376). If no host program counter is found, the system compiles the associated block of guest code (stage 378). The update to the dispatch table is performed in private memory, and when the update is fully performed, it is atomically committed to main memory. Leveraging the atomic commit feature, the system updates the dispatch table in an atomic way with minimal overhead (stage 380). The process ends at end point 382. [032] Figure 9 illustrates one implementation of the stages involved in using transactional memory hardware to facilitate code backpatching in multithreaded environments. The process begins at start point 400 with providing invisible private state and atomic commit facilities using transactional memory hardware (stage 402). The system stores the changes to be made to code in the invisible private state (stage 404). The changes to be made to the code can be received from one or more threads. The backpatching changes are enacted by attempting to commit all the changes to memory at one time using atomic commit (stage 406). If another thread is trying to execute code that needs to be changed, commit will fail and the backpatching process re-executes by attempting to commit all the changes to memory atomically again (stage 408). By using such backpatching process with transactional memory functionality, safe dynamic code modification is enabled in a multithreaded environment (stage 410). The process ends at end point 412. [033] Figure 10 illustrates one implementation of the stages involved in using transactional memory hardware to facilitate an efficient call return cache. The process begins at start point 430 with providing invisible and discardable private state using transactional memory hardware (stage 432). The system provides a call return cache stored in the private state facility that captures the host address to return to after execution of the guest function completes (stage 434). A direct- lookup hardware-based hash table is used for the call return cache (stage 436). In one implementation, the call return cache supports more efficient lookups than normal lookups in a dispatch table. The process ends at end point 438.
[034] Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims. All equivalents, changes, and modifications that come within the spirit of the implementations as described herein and/or by the following claims are desired to be protected. [035] For example, a person of ordinary skill in the computer software art will recognize that the examples discussed herein could be organized differently on one or more computers to include fewer or additional options or features than as portrayed in the examples.

Claims

What is claimed is:
1. A method for using transactional memory hardware to facilitate code backpatching comprising the steps of: storing changes to be made to certain code in a private state facility of transactional memory hardware on a central processing unit (404); and enacting backpatching changes by attempting to commit all the changes to memory at once using an atomic commit feature of the transactional memory hardware (406).
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: if another thread is trying to execute the certain code that needs to be changed, the attempt to commit the changes will fail (408).
3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: again attempting to commit all the changes to memory at once using the atomic commit feature (408).
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the changes to be made to certain code were received from different threads (404).
5. The method of claim 1, wherein by using the atomic commit feature to enact backpatching changes, dynamic code modification is enabled in a multithreaded environment (410).
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the dynamic code modification is performed safely (410).
7. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform the steps recited in claim 1 (200).
8. A system comprising: a central processing unit, the central processing unit comprising transactional memory hardware with a facility to maintain private state for accelerating emulation (102); a call return cache stored in the private state facility that is operable to capture a host address to return to after execution of a guest function completes (434); and a direct-lookup hardware-based hash table that is operable to be used for the call return cache (436).
9. The system of claim 8, wherein the call return cache supports more efficient lookups than normal lookups in a dispatch table (438).
10. A method for accelerating emulation using transactional memory hardware comprising the steps of: accessing a central processing unit with transactional memory hardware that is operable to accelerate emulation (206); using the transactional memory hardware to accelerate emulation of precise exception semantics for emulated programs (208); and using the transactional memory hardware to accelerate state isolation for emulated programs (210).
11. The method of claim 10, further comprising: using the transactional memory hardware to facilitate detection of self- modifying code for emulated programs (212).
12. The method of claim 10, further comprising: using the transactional memory hardware to facilitate dispatch table updates for emulated programs (214).
13. The method of claim 10, further comprising: using the transactional memory hardware to facilitate code backpatching for emulated programs (216).
14. The method of claim 10, further comprising: using the transactional memory hardware to facilitate an efficient call return cache used by emulated programs (218).
15. The method of claim 10, wherein the transactional memory hardware supports a facility to maintain private state (120).
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the private state is invisible to other central processing units (242).
17. The method of claim 15, wherein the private state is discardable (242).
18. The method of claim 10, wherein the transactional memory hardware enables software to monitor memory accesses performed by other central processing units (344).
19. The method of claim 10, wherein the transactional memory hardware supports an atomic commit feature (372).
20. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform the steps recited in claim 10 (200).
PCT/US2008/067147 2007-06-27 2008-06-16 Leveraging transactional memory hardware to accelerate virtualization and emulation WO2009002756A2 (en)

Priority Applications (3)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP08771215A EP2176749A4 (en) 2007-06-27 2008-06-16 Leveraging transactional memory hardware to accelerate virtualization and emulation
JP2010514969A JP2010532054A (en) 2007-06-27 2008-06-16 Utilizing transactional memory hardware to facilitate virtualization and emulation
CN200880022112.XA CN101689123B (en) 2007-06-27 2008-06-16 Leveraging transactional memory hardware to accelerate virtualization and emulation

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US11/823,236 US8176253B2 (en) 2007-06-27 2007-06-27 Leveraging transactional memory hardware to accelerate virtualization and emulation
US11/823,236 2007-06-27

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
WO2009002756A2 true WO2009002756A2 (en) 2008-12-31
WO2009002756A3 WO2009002756A3 (en) 2009-05-14

Family

ID=40162122

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
PCT/US2008/067147 WO2009002756A2 (en) 2007-06-27 2008-06-16 Leveraging transactional memory hardware to accelerate virtualization and emulation

Country Status (6)

Country Link
US (1) US8176253B2 (en)
EP (1) EP2176749A4 (en)
JP (1) JP2010532054A (en)
CN (1) CN101689123B (en)
TW (1) TWI471803B (en)
WO (1) WO2009002756A2 (en)

Families Citing this family (15)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US8266387B2 (en) * 2007-06-27 2012-09-11 Microsoft Corporation Leveraging transactional memory hardware to accelerate virtualization emulation
US9043553B2 (en) 2007-06-27 2015-05-26 Microsoft Technology Licensing, Llc Leveraging transactional memory hardware to accelerate virtualization and emulation
US8161247B2 (en) * 2009-06-26 2012-04-17 Microsoft Corporation Wait loss synchronization
US8370577B2 (en) 2009-06-26 2013-02-05 Microsoft Corporation Metaphysically addressed cache metadata
US8250331B2 (en) 2009-06-26 2012-08-21 Microsoft Corporation Operating system virtual memory management for hardware transactional memory
US8489864B2 (en) 2009-06-26 2013-07-16 Microsoft Corporation Performing escape actions in transactions
US8356166B2 (en) * 2009-06-26 2013-01-15 Microsoft Corporation Minimizing code duplication in an unbounded transactional memory system by using mode agnostic transactional read and write barriers
US8812796B2 (en) 2009-06-26 2014-08-19 Microsoft Corporation Private memory regions and coherence optimizations
US8229907B2 (en) * 2009-06-30 2012-07-24 Microsoft Corporation Hardware accelerated transactional memory system with open nested transactions
US8402218B2 (en) * 2009-12-15 2013-03-19 Microsoft Corporation Efficient garbage collection and exception handling in a hardware accelerated transactional memory system
US8533440B2 (en) * 2009-12-15 2013-09-10 Microsoft Corporation Accelerating parallel transactions using cache resident transactions
US9092253B2 (en) * 2009-12-15 2015-07-28 Microsoft Technology Licensing, Llc Instrumentation of hardware assisted transactional memory system
US8539465B2 (en) 2009-12-15 2013-09-17 Microsoft Corporation Accelerating unbounded memory transactions using nested cache resident transactions
RU2514142C1 (en) * 2012-12-25 2014-04-27 Закрытое акционерное общество "Лаборатория Касперского" Method for enhancement of operational efficiency of hardware acceleration of application emulation
US10831489B2 (en) * 2018-08-23 2020-11-10 International Business Machines Corporation Mechanism for completing atomic instructions in a microprocessor

Family Cites Families (32)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5428761A (en) 1992-03-12 1995-06-27 Digital Equipment Corporation System for achieving atomic non-sequential multi-word operations in shared memory
US5832205A (en) 1996-08-20 1998-11-03 Transmeta Corporation Memory controller for a microprocessor for detecting a failure of speculation on the physical nature of a component being addressed
AU734115B2 (en) 1997-05-08 2001-06-07 Nvidia Corporation Hardware accelerator for an object-oriented programming language
US5940838A (en) 1997-07-11 1999-08-17 International Business Machines Corporation Parallel file system and method anticipating cache usage patterns
US6360231B1 (en) 1999-02-26 2002-03-19 Hewlett-Packard Company Transactional memory for distributed shared memory multi-processor computer systems
US7058932B1 (en) 1999-04-19 2006-06-06 Unisys Corporation System, computer program product, and methods for emulation of computer programs
US20010047473A1 (en) 2000-02-03 2001-11-29 Realtime Data, Llc Systems and methods for computer initialization
AU2001255456A1 (en) 2000-04-18 2001-10-30 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Concurrent shared object implemented using a linked-list with amortized node allocation
US7620731B1 (en) 2001-02-21 2009-11-17 Microsoft Corporation Isolated persistent storage
US6775727B2 (en) 2001-06-23 2004-08-10 Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. System and method for controlling bus arbitration during cache memory burst cycles
US7254597B2 (en) 2002-01-11 2007-08-07 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Lock-free implementation of dynamic-sized shared data structure
US7281017B2 (en) 2002-06-21 2007-10-09 Sumisho Computer Systems Corporation Views for software atomization
US7328316B2 (en) 2002-07-16 2008-02-05 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Software transactional memory for dynamically sizable shared data structures
US7020746B2 (en) * 2003-01-28 2006-03-28 Microsoft Corporation Method and system for an atomically updated, central cache memory
US6938130B2 (en) * 2003-02-13 2005-08-30 Sun Microsystems Inc. Method and apparatus for delaying interfering accesses from other threads during transactional program execution
US7089374B2 (en) * 2003-02-13 2006-08-08 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Selectively unmarking load-marked cache lines during transactional program execution
US7376949B2 (en) 2003-10-01 2008-05-20 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Resource allocation and protection in a multi-virtual environment
US20050086446A1 (en) 2003-10-04 2005-04-21 Mckenney Paul E. Utilizing software locking approach to execute code upon failure of hardware transactional approach
US7526616B2 (en) 2004-03-22 2009-04-28 International Business Machines Corporation Method and apparatus for prefetching data from a data structure
US7617438B2 (en) 2004-04-15 2009-11-10 International Business Machines Corporation Method and apparatus for supporting checksum offload in partitioned data processing systems
US7856537B2 (en) 2004-09-30 2010-12-21 Intel Corporation Hybrid hardware and software implementation of transactional memory access
US7885921B2 (en) * 2004-11-18 2011-02-08 International Business Machines Corporation Managing atomic updates on metadata tracks in a storage system
US7984248B2 (en) 2004-12-29 2011-07-19 Intel Corporation Transaction based shared data operations in a multiprocessor environment
US7444276B2 (en) 2005-09-28 2008-10-28 Liga Systems, Inc. Hardware acceleration system for logic simulation using shift register as local cache
US7809903B2 (en) * 2005-12-15 2010-10-05 Intel Corporation Coordinating access to memory locations for hardware transactional memory transactions and software transactional memory transactions
US7899661B2 (en) 2006-02-16 2011-03-01 Synopsys, Inc. Run-time switching for simulation with dynamic run-time accuracy adjustment
US7930695B2 (en) * 2006-04-06 2011-04-19 Oracle America, Inc. Method and apparatus for synchronizing threads on a processor that supports transactional memory
US7617421B2 (en) * 2006-07-27 2009-11-10 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Method and apparatus for reporting failure conditions during transactional execution
US7865885B2 (en) * 2006-09-27 2011-01-04 Intel Corporation Using transactional memory for precise exception handling in aggressive dynamic binary optimizations
US8522223B2 (en) * 2006-11-22 2013-08-27 Intel Corporation Automatic function call in multithreaded application
US9043553B2 (en) 2007-06-27 2015-05-26 Microsoft Technology Licensing, Llc Leveraging transactional memory hardware to accelerate virtualization and emulation
US8266387B2 (en) 2007-06-27 2012-09-11 Microsoft Corporation Leveraging transactional memory hardware to accelerate virtualization emulation

Non-Patent Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Title
See references of EP2176749A4 *

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
TW200907811A (en) 2009-02-16
EP2176749A4 (en) 2013-03-13
CN101689123B (en) 2013-06-12
CN101689123A (en) 2010-03-31
WO2009002756A3 (en) 2009-05-14
JP2010532054A (en) 2010-09-30
TWI471803B (en) 2015-02-01
US20090006751A1 (en) 2009-01-01
US8176253B2 (en) 2012-05-08
EP2176749A2 (en) 2010-04-21

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
US8266387B2 (en) Leveraging transactional memory hardware to accelerate virtualization emulation
US8176253B2 (en) Leveraging transactional memory hardware to accelerate virtualization and emulation
US9043553B2 (en) Leveraging transactional memory hardware to accelerate virtualization and emulation
US8078854B2 (en) Using register rename maps to facilitate precise exception semantics
US9513959B2 (en) Contention management for a hardware transactional memory
US8959277B2 (en) Facilitating gated stores without data bypass
US20100153776A1 (en) Using safepoints to provide precise exception semantics for a virtual machine
US20110029821A1 (en) Method and system for recording a selected computer process for subsequent replay
US20140164722A1 (en) Method for saving virtual machine state to a checkpoint file
JP2017503277A (en) Method and apparatus for maintaining data for online analytical processing in a database system
US10228942B2 (en) Instruction sampling within transactions
US9311260B2 (en) Context preservation during thread level speculative execution
JP6634083B2 (en) System error handling in data processing equipment
US9348620B2 (en) Using hardware transactional memory for implementation of queue operations
KR102597201B1 (en) Transaction Nesting Depth Test Command
Aksenov et al. Execution of nvram programs with persistent stack
GB2533604A (en) Instruction sampling within transactions

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
WWE Wipo information: entry into national phase

Ref document number: 200880022112.X

Country of ref document: CN

121 Ep: the epo has been informed by wipo that ep was designated in this application

Ref document number: 08771215

Country of ref document: EP

Kind code of ref document: A2

WWE Wipo information: entry into national phase

Ref document number: 2010514969

Country of ref document: JP

NENP Non-entry into the national phase

Ref country code: DE

WWE Wipo information: entry into national phase

Ref document number: 2008771215

Country of ref document: EP