HW-EPOLL: Hardware-Assisted User Space Event Notification for Epoll Syscall

Lars Nolte, Tim Twardzik, Camille Jalier, Jiyuan Shi, Thomas Wild, Andreas Herkersdorf

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

In Linux, numerous applications use the epoll() kernel functionality as an efficient mechanism for being notified when one out of multiple events occurs. However, as epoll() can only notify of operating system mechanisms, a costly syscall is required for notifying about an event in user space. To mitigate this, we propose HW-EPOLL, which allows generating events purely in user space. In HW-EPOLL, the generated event is written into a kernel/user space shared data structure, and the notification of a sleeping thread about the occurred event is offloaded to a hardware unit. This results in a 90% CPU cycle reduction for user space event generation while still supporting multiple event sources.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationEmbedded Computer Systems
Subtitle of host publicationArchitectures, Modeling, and Simulation - 24th International Conference, SAMOS 2024, Proceedings
EditorsLuigi Carro, Francesco Regazzoni, Christian Pilato
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages93-107
Number of pages15
ISBN (Print)9783031783760
DOIs
StatePublished - 2025
Event24th International Conference on Embedded Computer Systems: Architectures, Modeling, and Simulation, SAMOS 2024 - Samos, Greece
Duration: 29 Jun 20244 Jul 2024

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume15226 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference24th International Conference on Embedded Computer Systems: Architectures, Modeling, and Simulation, SAMOS 2024
Country/TerritoryGreece
CitySamos
Period29/06/244/07/24

Keywords

  • Epoll
  • Event notification
  • Gem5
  • Linux

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