New Mechanism for Fast System Calls

Abstract

System calls have no place on the fast path of microsecond-scale systems. However, kernel bypass prevents the OS from controlling and supervising access to the hardware. In this paper we introduce the fastcall space, a new layer in the traditional OS architecture, that hosts fastcalls. A fastcall implements the fast path of a traditional kernel operation and can stay on the fast path, because the transition to the fastcall space is $\approx\times 15$ faster than to the kernel space. This way the OS does not give up the control over device access, whereas the applications maintain their performance.