1993/01/01 by J. Bradley Chen, Brian N. Bershad · 7 citations
Computer Science · Engineering · #Advanced Data Storage Technologies #Computer science #Parallel Computing and Optimization Techniques #Radiation Effects in Electronics
paper · doi:10.1145/168619.168629
openalex publication_date 1993/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
In this paper we evaluate the memory system behavior of two distinctly different implementations of the UNIX operating system: DEC's Ultrix, a monolithic system, and Mach 3.0 with CMU's UNIX server, a microkernel-based system. In our evaluation we use combined system and user memory reference traces of thirteen industry-standard workloads. We show that the microkernel-based system executes substantially more non-idle system instructions for an equivalent workload than the monolithic system. Furthermore, the average instruction for programs running on Mach has a higher cost, in terms of memory cycles per instruction, than on Ultrix. In the context of our traces, we explore a number of popular assertions about the memory system behavior of modern operating systems, paying special attention to the effect that Mach's microkernel architecture has on system performance. Our results indicate that many, but not all of the assertions are true, and that a few, while true, have only negligible impact on real system performance.