User-level DMA without operating system kernel modification

Abstract

Direct Memory Access (DMA) is frequently used to transfer data between the main memory of a host computer and the interconnection network, in order to free the host processor from the burden of the transfer. DMA operations are traditionally initiated by the operating system kernel, mainly to prevent one application from tampering with another applications' data. Recent architecture trends suggest that interconnection networks get faster, while operating systems get slower (compared to processor speeds). These trends imply that the initiation of a DMA operation becomes slower (due to operating system involvement), while the DMA data transfer itself becomes faster with time. Soon, the operating system overhead associated with starting a DMA will be larger than the data transfer itself, esp. for small data transfers. This paper proposes several algorithms that allow user-level applications to start DMA operating without the involvement of the operating system. Our algorithms allow user applications to have direct (but controlled) access to the DMA engine registers. Overhead user-level DMA is achieved without compromising protection, and without requiring changes to the underlying operating system kernel. Using our proposed algorithms, a DMA operation can be initiated in 2 to 5 assembly instructions. By comparison, operating system-based initiation of DMA requires thousands of assembly instructions.