COMP 790: Lab 5: Final Project

Project proposals due Friday, March 21, 2017, 11:59 PM
Demos in class April 26.
Code/write-up due Friday, April 28, 2017, 11:59 PM

Introduction

In this lab you will do an open-ended final project. You have two broad choices for the final project. (1) The default option is for you to add a significant piece of functionality to the JOS VMM, as described below. (2) Another option is to build something that is independent of JOS. The three requirements for this second option are as follows. The project must (a) have a significant implementation component, specified by deliverables (b) concern operating systems and (c) be challenging and potentially research-worthy. For all projects, you must write a proposal that is accepted by the course staff.

Lab Requirements

Here is a list of possible tasks for a final project. Some are small enough that multiple options should be combined, especially if you have a larger group. You are most welcome to come up with other ideas. The actual project is up to you. Please pick something manageable. It is far better to complete your project to spec than it is to take on something too big and not have anything to show for it except excellent intentions (also true in the real world).

• The JOS VMM currently only runs on one CPU. Incorportate SMP support (some code already in JOS baseline repository).
• Port the JOS VMM to work on AMD SVM (the rough equivalent of Intel's VMX).
• Implement support for an IOMMU to allow the guest to directly access hardware.
• Incorporate APICv support into JOS VMM
• Use a binary translator, like QEMU, to support trap-and-emulate semantics on an x86 CPU without VMX or SVM support.
• Port the JOS network driver (from lab6) to work on the JOS VMM

The work of students that do a particularly good project may be incorporated into future assignments (a good way to get your name on the credits page!).

In the interest of making other useful research infrastructure, any non-trivial improvement to the lguest refernence implementation would also be a good course project, including:

• Support for VMX or SVM
• Support for other architectures, including 64-bit x86 (I don't think this was ever completed)
• Support for multi-processors

For those students interested in systems research, you are welcome to use a virtualization-relevant project as your course project, or talk to me about some projects I am interested in. If you think you might want to pursue one of these, please send me a quick email and we can discuss during office hours.

The project you choose must have a significant virtualization component. For example, you shouldn't simply port a user-level application that requires little or no kernel modification. You should email a proposal to the instructor by the deadline given above. The proposal must include: (1) The names of your group members; (2) What you want to do; and (3) What you are expecting to present (a list of deliverables). Please keep it short (no more than several paragraphs).

This ends the lab. You may use the git repository to commit source for your final project and email the instructor with instructions how to get your source code.

Congratulations on having completed all of the COMP 790 labs! We are looking forward to seeing your projects!

Last updated: 2017-03-05 20:54:49 -0500 [validate xhtml]