HermitCore: A Unikernel for Extreme Scale Computing

We expect that the size and the complexity of future supercomputers will increase on their path to exascale systems and beyond. Therefore, system software has to adapt to the complexity of these systems for a simplification of the development of scalable applications. In this paper, we present a unikernel operating system design for HPC. It extends the multi-kernel approach while providing better programmability and scalability for hierarchical systems, such as HLRS' Hazel Hen, which base on multiple cluster-on-a-chip processors. We prove the scalability of the design via micro benchmarks by taking the example of HermitCore---our prototype implementation of the new design.