Virtualization of system resources is a central objective for operating systems as it provides the means to share exclusive resources. Virtualizing whole physical machines takes the approach a step further and has become the core technology behind Cloud services. It facilitates a better usage of hardware resources, delivers an unmatched degree of flexibility in the assignment of resources, while preserving a strong isolation of services. However, virtualization also delivers the means to test and monitor software in different computing environments as the whole software stack (applications, operating system, drivers, etc.) and to some degree the properties of the executing (virtual) machine can easily and quickly be changed.

Whenever a more detailed insight into the execution is needed (beyond what virtualization can provide) or whenever applications and operating systems should be evaluated on future hardware platforms (e.g., kilo-core processors), full system simulation comes into play. Its ability to deliver a completely custom and fully transparent execution environment makes it a strong foundation for performance evaluation and actively drives the development of optimized and future proof application- and operating system designs.

In this seminar, the participants will research and present current topics from the following areas:

+ Cross-architectural  System Simulation

+ Simulation of Many-Core Systems

+ Performance Optimizations for Full System Simulation

+ Virtualization Technologies and Hypervisors

+ System Emulation Layers

For the seminar, each participant will prepare a report (6 pages) and a short talk (15 min) about an individually assigned topic. The grade will be based on the quality of the report, the proficiency of the talk, and the liveliness of the participant’s participation in discussing the other talks

Das erste Treffen wird am Donnerstag, den 18.04.2013 um 13:00 (Mittagspause) in Raum 148 in Gebäude 50.34 stattfinden. Dort werden wir die Themen verteilen sowie den Modus des Seminars festlegen (Blockseminar vs. Wöchentliches Seminar, Termin(e), etc.).