Vmware, Inc.

Carnegie Mellon University

Zongwei Zhou

Pratap Subrahmanyam

Rajesh Venkatasubramanian

Xavier Deguillard

Virgil Dorin Gligor

Miao Yu

Techniques for using commit coalescing when performing micro-journal-based transaction logging are provided. In one embodiment a computer system can maintain, in a volatile memory, a globally ascending identifier, a first list of free micro-journals, and a second list of in-flight micro-journals. The computer system can further receive a transaction comprising a plurality of modifications to data or metadata stored in the byte-addressable persistent memory, select a micro-journal from the first list, obtain a lock on the globally ascending identifier, write a current value of the globally ascending identifier as a journal commit identifier into a header of the micro-journal, and write journal entries into the micro-journal corresponding to the plurality of modifications included in the transaction. The computer system can then commit the micro-journal to the byte-addressable persistent memory, increment the current value of the globally ascending identifier, and release the lock.

Commit coalescing for micro-journal based transaction logging

This invention provides a method for providing trusted display to security sensitive applications on untrusted computing platforms. This invention has a minimal trusted code base and maintains full compatibility with the computing platforms, including their software and hardware. The core of the invention is a GPU separation kernel that (1) defines different types of GPU objects, (2) mediates access to security-sensitive GPU objects, and (3) emulates accesses to security-sensitive GPU objects whenever required by computing platform compatibility.

Method and apparatus for trusted display on untrusted computing platforms to secure applications

This invention provides a method for providing trusted display to security sensitive applications on untrusted computing platforms. This invention has a minimal trusted code base and maintains full compatibility with the computing platforms, including their software and hardware. The core of our invention is a GPU separation kernel that (1) defines different types of GPU objects, (2) mediates access to security-sensitive GPU objects, and (3) emulates accesses to security-sensitive GPU objects whenever required by computing platform compatibility.

Techniques for using micro-journals to ensure crash consistency of a transactional application are provided. In one embodiment, a computer system can receive a transaction associated with the transactional application, where the transaction includes a plurality of modifications to data or metadata of the transactional application. The computer system can further select a free micro-journal from a pool of micro-journals, where the pool of micro-journals are stored in a byte-addressable persistent memory of the computer system, and where each micro-journal in the pool is configured to record journal entries for a single transaction at a time. The computer system can then write journal entries into the micro-journal corresponding to the plurality of modifications included in the transaction and commit the journal entries to the byte-addressable persistent memory.

Micro-journal based transaction logging

A computing platform for on-demand I/O channels, which enable secure application to dynamically connect to diverse peripheral devices of untrusted commodity OSes.

Method and apparatus for on-demand isolated I/O channels for secure applications

Techniques for efficiently swizzling pointers in persistent objects are provided. In one embodiment, a computer system can allocate slabs in a persistent heap, where the persistent heap resides on a byte-addressable persistent memory of the system, and where each slab is a continuous memory segment of the persistent heap that is configured to store instances of an object type used by an application. The system can further store associations between the slabs and their respective object types, and information indicating the locations of pointers in each object type. At the time of a system restart or crash recovery, the system can iterate through each slab and determine, based on the stored associations, the slab's object type. The system can then scan though the allocated objects in the slab and, if the system determines that the object includes any pointers based on the stored pointer location information, can swizzle each pointer.

Growing community of inventors

Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Zongwei Zhou