Inter-kernel Communication between Multiple Kernels on Multicore Machines

Abstract

We propose a new inter-kernel communication mechanism for multicore architectures in order to communicate with multiple kernels within a single machine. Using this mechanism, multiple kernels share I/O devices, such as network and disk devices. The mechanism has been integrated into another mechanism called SHIMOS that partitions the CPUs, the memory, and I/O devices. Multiple Linux kernels on multicore architectures have been realized using the integrated SHIMOS mechanism. Several sets of benchmark results demonstrate that SHIMOS is faster than modern virtual machines. For system calls, SHIMOS achieves about seven times faster than the Xen virtual machine. When two Linux compilation jobs run on two Linux kernels, SHIMOS is 1.35 and 1.005 times faster than Xen and the native single Linux, respectively.