Gernot Heiser
Encyclopedia
Gernot Heiser is a Scientia Professor
and the John Lions
Chair for operating systems at the University of New South Wales
(UNSW). He is also leader of the Operating Systems research group (ERTOS) at NICTA. In 2006 he co-founded Open Kernel Labs
(OK Labs) to commercialise his L4 microkernel technology. After four years as the company's Chief Technology Officer he left in July 2010 but continues to serve on the Board of Directors
.
s and microkernel-based systems
as well as virtual machine
s, with a specific emphasis on performance
and reliability.
His group produced the Mungi single address space operating system
,
aimed at clusters of 64-bit computers, and
implementations of the L4 microkernel with very fast inter-process communication
.
His Gelato@UNSW team was a founding
member of the Gelato Federation
, and focused on performance and
scalability of Linux on Itanium. They established theoretical and
practical performance limits of message-passing IPC
on Itanium.
Since joining NICTA at its creation in 2002, his research shifted
away from high-end computing platforms towards embedded systems, with
the specific aim of improving security, safety and
reliability via the use of microkernel technology.
This led to the development of a new microkernel called
seL4, and its
formal verification,
claimed to be the first-ever complete proof of the functional
correctness of a general-purpose OS kernel.
His work on virtualization was motivated by the need to provide a
complete OS environment on his microkernels. His Wombat project
followed the approach taken with the
L4Linux project at
Dresden
, but was a
multi-architecture paravirtualized
Linux
running on x86, ARM
and MIPS
hardware. The Wombat work later formed the basis for the OKL4 hypervisor of his company Open Kernel Labs
.
The desire to reduce the engineering effort of paravirtualization
led to the development of
the soft layering approach of automated paravirtulization which
was demonstrated on x86 and Itanium
hardware.
His vNUMA work
demonstrated a hypervisor which presents a distributed system as a
shared-memory multiprocessor as a possible model for many-core chips
with large numbers of processor cores.
Device drivers are another focus of his work, including the first
demonstration of user-mode drivers with a performance overhead of less
than 10%,
an approach to driver development that eliminates the majority of
typical driver bugs by design,
device drivers produced from device test benches,
and a demonstration of the feasibility of the automatic generation of
device drivers from formal specifications.
Recent research also includes power management.
In the past he also worked on semiconductor
device simulation
,
where he pioneered the use of multi-dimensional modeling in the
optimisation of silicon
-based solar cells.
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
and the John Lions
John Lions
John Lions was an Australian computer scientist. He is best known as the author of Lions' Commentary on UNIX 6th Edition, with Source Code, commonly known as the Lions Book.-Early life:...
Chair for operating systems at the University of New South Wales
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
(UNSW). He is also leader of the Operating Systems research group (ERTOS) at NICTA. In 2006 he co-founded Open Kernel Labs
Open Kernel Labs
Open Kernel Labs is a privately owned company that develops microkernel-based hypervisors and operating systems for embedded systems. The company was founded in 2006 by Steve Subar and Gernot Heiser as a spinout from NICTA...
(OK Labs) to commercialise his L4 microkernel technology. After four years as the company's Chief Technology Officer he left in July 2010 but continues to serve on the Board of Directors
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
.
Research
Heiser's research focuses on microkernelMicrokernel
In computer science, a microkernel is the near-minimum amount of software that can provide the mechanisms needed to implement an operating system . These mechanisms include low-level address space management, thread management, and inter-process communication...
s and microkernel-based systems
as well as virtual machine
Virtual machine
A virtual machine is a "completely isolated guest operating system installation within a normal host operating system". Modern virtual machines are implemented with either software emulation or hardware virtualization or both together.-VM Definitions:A virtual machine is a software...
s, with a specific emphasis on performance
and reliability.
His group produced the Mungi single address space operating system
Single address space operating system
In computer science, a single address space operating system is a type of operating system with simple memory management which uses only one globally shared virtual address space.- List of SASOS Projects :...
,
aimed at clusters of 64-bit computers, and
implementations of the L4 microkernel with very fast inter-process communication
Inter-process communication
In computing, Inter-process communication is a set of methods for the exchange of data among multiple threads in one or more processes. Processes may be running on one or more computers connected by a network. IPC methods are divided into methods for message passing, synchronization, shared...
.
His Gelato@UNSW team was a founding
member of the Gelato Federation
Gelato Federation
The Gelato Federation is a "global technical community dedicated to advancing Linux on the Intel Itanium platform through collaboration, education, and leadership." Formed in 2001, membership includes more than seventy academic and research organizations around the world, including several that...
, and focused on performance and
scalability of Linux on Itanium. They established theoretical and
practical performance limits of message-passing IPC
Inter-process communication
In computing, Inter-process communication is a set of methods for the exchange of data among multiple threads in one or more processes. Processes may be running on one or more computers connected by a network. IPC methods are divided into methods for message passing, synchronization, shared...
on Itanium.
Since joining NICTA at its creation in 2002, his research shifted
away from high-end computing platforms towards embedded systems, with
the specific aim of improving security, safety and
reliability via the use of microkernel technology.
This led to the development of a new microkernel called
seL4, and its
formal verification,
claimed to be the first-ever complete proof of the functional
correctness of a general-purpose OS kernel.
His work on virtualization was motivated by the need to provide a
complete OS environment on his microkernels. His Wombat project
followed the approach taken with the
L4Linux project at
Dresden
Dresden University of Technology
The Technische Universität Dresden is the largest institute of higher education in the city of Dresden, the largest university in Saxony and one of the 10 largest universities in Germany with 36,066 students...
, but was a
multi-architecture paravirtualized
Paravirtualization
In computing, paravirtualization is a virtualization technique that presents a software interface to virtual machines that is similar but not identical to that of the underlying hardware....
Linux
running on x86, ARM
ARM architecture
ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...
and MIPS
MIPS architecture
MIPS is a reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by MIPS Technologies . The early MIPS architectures were 32-bit, and later versions were 64-bit...
hardware. The Wombat work later formed the basis for the OKL4 hypervisor of his company Open Kernel Labs
Open Kernel Labs
Open Kernel Labs is a privately owned company that develops microkernel-based hypervisors and operating systems for embedded systems. The company was founded in 2006 by Steve Subar and Gernot Heiser as a spinout from NICTA...
.
The desire to reduce the engineering effort of paravirtualization
led to the development of
the soft layering approach of automated paravirtulization which
was demonstrated on x86 and Itanium
Itanium
Itanium is a family of 64-bit Intel microprocessors that implement the Intel Itanium architecture . Intel markets the processors for enterprise servers and high-performance computing systems...
hardware.
His vNUMA work
demonstrated a hypervisor which presents a distributed system as a
shared-memory multiprocessor as a possible model for many-core chips
with large numbers of processor cores.
Device drivers are another focus of his work, including the first
demonstration of user-mode drivers with a performance overhead of less
than 10%,
an approach to driver development that eliminates the majority of
typical driver bugs by design,
device drivers produced from device test benches,
and a demonstration of the feasibility of the automatic generation of
device drivers from formal specifications.
Recent research also includes power management.
In the past he also worked on semiconductor
Semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to electron flow intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. This means a conductivity roughly in the range of 103 to 10−8 siemens per centimeter...
device simulation
Simulation
Simulation is the imitation of some real thing available, state of affairs, or process. The act of simulating something generally entails representing certain key characteristics or behaviours of a selected physical or abstract system....
,
where he pioneered the use of multi-dimensional modeling in the
optimisation of silicon
Silicon
Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. A tetravalent metalloid, it is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon, the nonmetal directly above it in the periodic table, but more reactive than germanium, the metalloid directly below it in the table...
-based solar cells.
Operating-System Projects
- seL4 3rd-generation microkernel
- L4.verified formal verification of seL4
- Dingo and Termite frameworks for reliable device drivers
- Koala framework for OS-level energy management
- vNUMA, a hypervisor providing shared virtual memory on a cluster
- Mungi and Iguana single address space operating systemSingle address space operating systemIn computer science, a single address space operating system is a type of operating system with simple memory management which uses only one globally shared virtual address space.- List of SASOS Projects :...
s - Wombat portable LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
on L4 microkernel - Gelato@UNSW performance and scalability of LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
on ItaniumItaniumItanium is a family of 64-bit Intel microprocessors that implement the Intel Itanium architecture . Intel markets the processors for enterprise servers and high-performance computing systems... - L4/MIPS 64-bit L4 microkernel on MIPS architecture
Awards
- Scientia Professor of the University of New South WalesUniversity of New South WalesThe University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
- 2010 Innovation Hero of the Warren Centre at the University of SydneyUniversity of SydneyThe University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
- NSW Scientist of the Year 2009 Category Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Sciences
- Best Paper at the 22nd ACM SIGOPS Symposium on Operating Systems Principles, 2009
- Best Paper at the 13th IEEE Asia-Pacific Computer Systems Architecture Conference, 2008
- Best Student Paper at the 2005 USENIX Annual Technical Conference