OS Support for Adaptive Components in Self-aware Systems

Abstract

The current pace of innovation in computing makes it difficult to assume a fixed set of requirements for the whole life span of a system. Aggressive technology scaling also imposes additional constraints to modern hardware platforms. An answer to this question are self-aware systems, which are capable of autonomously sensing and actuating upon themselves to cope with varying requirements. In this paper, we discuss the design and implementation of adaptive components in this scenario from the perspective of the OS. Components can exist in multiple avors that can by dynamically chosen according to current demands. The proposed framework supports this variability for components while preserving their interface contracts, even if avors exist in different domains (software, hardware, remote). The synthesis process delivers tailored wrapper for components according to their avors. Besides reconfiguration, we also support adaptations through dynamic power management and task remapping. The framework also supports component designers in terms of sensing via an event-based mechanism. The framework is validated through a case with three adaptive components in a telecommunication switch (AES, ADPCM, and DTMF) with little overhead both in terms of execution time and memory/silicon consumption.