WIOSCA 2013 - The 7th Annual Workshop on the Interaction between Operating System and Computer Architecture (WIOSCA)

Operating systems (OS) constitute a major software component and are essential to any computing system. Commercial and server workloads such as online transaction processing, database, file/e-mail servers involve significant OS-level activity. The interactions between OS and emerging architectures (e.g. homogeneous and heterogeneous chip multiprocessors, simultaneous multithreading systems) / technology (e.g. hardware-assisted virtualization) are projected to continuously increase. To optimize system performance/power/reliability/security, it is important to facilitate efficient interaction and cooperation between the two constantly evolving components - computer architecture and OS.
This workshop focuses on characterizing, modeling, and optimizing the interaction between OS and hardware in the light of emerging architecture paradigms, workloads, and computing technology. Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to:
Architectural support and mechanisms for OS functionality and services
OS support for emerging computer architectures
Architectural support for virtual machines and hypervisors
Implications of hardware virtualization and virtual machines on OS design
Frameworks and tools for full-system simulation
Techniques for mitigating the bottlenecks of OS execution
OS-aware microarchitecture (e.g. predictor, cache, and execution unit) design
Performance, power, dependability, and security in OS
Evaluation of the interactions and interference between OS and user applications
Workload variability issues full-system evaluation
Effect of OS mechanisms (e.g. scheduling, resource management) on emerging architectures
Characterization of OS activity in existing and emerging workloads
Leveraging OS to optimize reliability/thermal/power
Architecture and OS issues in data centers
Architecture and OS support for cloud computing
Implications of hardware virtualization and virtual machines on OS design
Hardware accelerators for important OS services (e.g., networking, data copying)
OS-intensive benchmark suites
Architecture/OS support for hardware accelerators (e.g., fixed functions, GPUs)
Furthermore, the workshop aims at providing a forum for researchers, engineers, and students from academia and industry to discuss their latest research in computer architecture and OS, to bring their ideas and research problems to the attention of others, and to obtain valuable and instant feedback from fellow researchers.