Dynamic security domain scaling on embedded symmetric multiprocessors

Abstract

We propose a method for dynamic security-domain scaling on SMPs that offers both highly scalable performance and high security for future high-end embedded systems. Its most important feature is its highly efficient use of processor resources, accomplished by dynamically changing the number of processors within a security-domain (i.e., dynamically yielding processors to other security-domains) in response to application load requirements. Two new technologies make this scaling possible without any virtualization software: (1) self-transition management and (2) unified virtual address mapping. Evaluations show that this domain control provides highly scalable performance and incurs almost no performance overhead in security-domains. The increase in OSs in binary code size is less than 1.5%, and the time required for individual state transitions is on the order of a single millisecond. This scaling is the first in the world to make possible the dynamic changing of the number of processors within a security-domain on an ARM SMP. © 2009 ACM.