Adding Smp Support To Fastpaths In An L4 Microkernel

Fastpaths are a method of optimization which relies on treating the most commonly executed cases of certain functions in a privileged manner, such that behaviour is not modified, but execution time is reduced. Fastpaths play an important role on improving paravirtualization performance offered by an L4 microkernel. In this article we redesign two existing fastpaths in an L4 microkernel for the purpose of adding SMP support. We then put these fastpaths through a series of regression and performance tests to determine if the design is correct and what performance benefits we can expect by using them on a multiprocessor system.