The Demikernel is a library operating system architecture designed for use with kernel-bypass I/O devices. The Demikernel architecture offers a uniform system call API across kernel-bypass technologies (e.g., RDMA, DPDK) and OS functionality (e.g., a user-level networking stack for DPDK). Demeter OS is our first Demikernel OS, currently in the prototype stage.

To read more about the motivation behind the Demikernel, check out this blog post.

To get details about the system, read our HotOS paper.

Application wanting to use the Demikernel/Demeter OS should include header files from include/dmtr. Most of the Demeter libOS code is contained in src/c++/libos. Example applications that work with the Demikernel API are in src/c++/apps/ and submodules/redis-*/.

• include/dmtr/ - Demikernel/Demeter header files
• scripts/ - scripts for using the Demikernel/Demeter OS
  • build/ - build scripts
  • cmake/ - cmake build scripts
  • run/ - scripts for running experiments
  • setup/ - scripts for setting up environment to use the Demikernel
• src/c++/ - most of the Demikernel/Demeter libOS code
  • apps/ - C++ Demikernel example apps
    • echo/ - A simple multi-client echo server
  • latency/ - performance measurement code for measuring latencies of various components
  • libos/ - All Demikernel/Demeter libOS components
    • common/ - code common to all libOSes regardless of kernel-bypass device. Implements functionality across queues.
    • lwip/ - simple DPDK libOS based on the lwIP stack.
    • posix/ - libOS without kernel-bypass using the POSIX API and the Linux kernel for I/O
    • rdma/ - RDMA libOS using two-sided operations to implements Demikernel queues
    • rdmacm-common/
    • spdk - simple libOS that implements a single log file on a SPDK drive. (untested)
• submodules - Demikernel/Demeter external dependencies and example applications
  • Heap-Layers/ - needed by Hoard
  • Hoard/ - unmodified Hoard memory allocator
  • HoardRdma - modified version of Hoard that registers all of the heap for RDMA access
  • dpdk/ - version of DPDK used for Demikernel/Demeter
  • redis-lwip - modified Redis to work with the Demikernel interfaces, set up to compile with lwIP libOS
  • redis-posix - modified Redis to work with the Demikernel interfaces, set up to compile with POSIX libOS
  • redis-rdma - modified Redis to work with the Demikernel interfaces, set up to compile with RDMA libOS
  • redis-vanilla - unmodified version of Redis
  • spdk - version of SPDK used for spdk libOS
  • tapir-lwip - version of TAPIR modified to run with Demikernel syscall API, set up to compile with lwIP libOS
  • tapir-posix - version of TAPIR modified to run with Demikernel syscall API, set up to compile with POSIX libOS
  • tapir-rdma - version of TAPIR modified to run with Demikernel syscall API, set up to compile with RDMA libOS

Refer to syscall documentation API.md

See BUILDING.md for build instructions.

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact [email protected] with any additional questions or comments.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for details regarding how to contribute to Demikernel.

The Demikernel is prototype code. As such, we provide no guarantees that it will work and you are assuming any risks with using the code. We welcome comments and feedback. Please send any questions or comments to [email protected]. By sending feedback, you are consenting to your feedback being used in the further development of this project.