Administering registered virtual addresses in a hybrid computing environment including maintaining a watch list of currently registered virtual addresses by an operating system

• US 8,527,734 B2
• Filed: 01/23/2009
• Issued: 09/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Archer, Charles J., Ricard, Gary R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dudek, Jr., Edward
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHRZANOWSKI, MATTHEW R
• Application Number:
  US12/358,663
• Publication Number:
  US 20100191917A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,684 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 711/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0864 using pseudo-associative means, e.g. set-associative or hashing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/126 with special data handling, e.g. priority of data or instructions, handling errors or pinning

Abstract

Administering registered virtual addresses in a hybrid computing environment that includes a host computer and an accelerator, the accelerator architecture optimized, with respect to the host computer architecture, for speed of execution of a particular class of computing functions, the host computer and the accelerator adapted to one another for data communications by a system level message passing module, where administering registered virtual addresses includes maintaining, by an operating system, a watch list of ranges of currently registered virtual addresses; upon a change in physical to virtual address mappings of a particular range of virtual addresses falling within the ranges included in the watch list, notifying the system level message passing module by the operating system of the change; and updating, by the system level message passing module, a cache of ranges of currently registered virtual addresses to reflect the change in physical to virtual address mappings.

Claims

1. A method of administering registered virtual addresses in a hybrid computing environment, the hybrid computing environment comprising a host computer having a host computer architecture, an accelerator having an accelerator architecture, the accelerator architecture optimized, with respect to the host computer architecture, for speed of execution of a particular class of computing functions, the host computer and the accelerator coupled to one another for data communications by a system level message passing module, the method comprising:

maintaining, by an operating system, a watch list of ranges of currently registered virtual addresses;

upon a change in physical to virtual address mappings of a particular range of virtual addresses falling within the ranges of the currently registered virtual addresses included in the watch list, notifying the system level message passing module by the operating system of the change; and

in response to the operating system notifying the system level message passing module of the change, updating, by the system level message passing module, a cache of ranges of currently registered virtual addresses to reflect the change in physical to virtual address mappings, wherein updating the cache of ranges of currently registered virtual addresses to reflect the change further comprises;

evicting from the cache a previous entry for the particular range of virtual addresses including deregistering the particular range of virtual addresses; and

adding, to the cache, a new entry for the particular range of virtual addresses including registering again the particular range of virtual addresses.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the cache comprises entries associating a range of currently registered virtual addresses, a handle representing physical addresses mapped to the range of currently registered virtual addresses, and a counter.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein:

notifying the system level message passing module of the change further comprises providing, to the system level message passing module, a current handle representing the changed virtual to physical address mappings for the particular range of virtual addresses; and

updating the cache of ranges of currently registered virtual addresses to reflect the change further comprises removing from the cache a previous entry for the particular range of virtual addresses and adding, to the cache, a new entry for the particular range of virtual addresses including associating in the cache with the particular range of virtual addresses, the current handle.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein maintaining, by an operating system, a watch list of ranges of currently registered virtual addresses further comprises:

specifying in a page table for virtual memory management whether ranges of virtual addresses are currently registered.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the host computer and the accelerator are coupled to one another for data communications by two or more data communications fabrics of at least two different fabric types.

6. A hybrid computing environment for administering registered virtual addresses, the hybrid computing environment comprising a host computer having a host computer architecture, an accelerator having an accelerator architecture, the accelerator architecture optimized, with respect to the host computer architecture, for speed of execution of a particular class of computing functions, the host computer and the accelerator coupled to one another for data communications by a system level message passing module, the hybrid computing environment further comprising a computer processor, a computer memory operatively coupled to the computer processor, the computer memory having disposed within it computer program instructions capable of:

maintaining, by an operating system, a watch list of ranges of currently registered virtual addresses;

upon a change in physical to virtual address mappings of a particular range of virtual addresses falling within the ranges of the currently registered virtual addresses included in the watch list, notifying the system level message passing module by the operating system of the change; and

in response to the operating system notifying the system level message passing module of the change, updating, by the system level message passing module, a cache of ranges of currently registered virtual addresses to reflect the change in physical to virtual address mappings, wherein updating the cache of ranges of currently registered virtual addresses to reflect the change further comprises;

evicting from the cache a previous entry for the particular range of virtual addresses including deregistering the particular range of virtual addresses; and

adding, to the cache, a new entry for the particular range of virtual addresses including registering again the particular range of virtual addresses.

7. The hybrid computing environment of claim 6 wherein the cache comprises entries associating a range of currently registered virtual addresses, a handle representing physical addresses mapped to the range of currently registered virtual addresses, and a counter.

8. The hybrid computing environment of claim 6 wherein:

notifying the system level message passing module of the change further comprises providing, to the system level message passing module, a current handle representing the changed virtual to physical address mappings for the particular range of virtual addresses; and

updating the cache of ranges of currently registered virtual addresses to reflect the change further comprises removing from the cache a previous entry for the particular range of virtual addresses and adding, to the cache, a new entry for the particular range of virtual addresses including associating in the cache with the particular range of virtual addresses, the current handle.

9. The hybrid computing environment of claim 6 wherein maintaining, by an operating system, a watch list of ranges of currently registered virtual addresses further comprises:

specifying in a page table for virtual memory management whether ranges of virtual addresses are currently registered.

10. The hybrid computing environment of claim 6 wherein the host computer and the accelerator are coupled to one another for data communications by two or more data communications fabrics of at least two different fabric types.

11. A computer program product for administering registered virtual addresses in a hybrid computing environment, the hybrid computing environment comprising a host computer having a host computer architecture, an accelerator having an accelerator architecture, the accelerator architecture optimized, with respect to the host computer architecture, for speed of execution of a particular class of computing functions, the host computer and the accelerator coupled to one another for data communications by a system level message passing module, the computer program product disposed in a recordable computer readable medium, wherein the recordable computer readable medium is not a signal, the computer program product comprising computer program instructions when executed perform:

maintaining, by an operating system, a watch list of ranges of currently registered virtual addresses;

upon a change in physical to virtual address mappings of a particular range of virtual addresses falling within the ranges of the currently registered virtual addresses included in the watch list, notifying the system level message passing module by the operating system of the change; and

in response to the operating system notifying the system level message passing module of the change, updating, by the system level message passing module, a cache of ranges of currently registered virtual addresses to reflect the change in physical to virtual address mappings, wherein updating the cache of ranges of currently registered virtual addresses to reflect the change further comprises;

evicting from the cache a previous entry for the particular range of virtual addresses including deregistering the particular range of virtual addresses; and

adding, to the cache, a new entry for the particular range of virtual addresses including registering again the particular range of virtual addresses.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the cache comprises entries associating a range of currently registered virtual addresses, a handle representing physical addresses mapped to the range of currently registered virtual addresses, and a counter.

13. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein:

notifying the system level message passing module of the change further comprises providing, to the system level message passing module, a current handle representing the changed virtual to physical address mappings for the particular range of virtual addresses; and

updating the cache of ranges of currently registered virtual addresses to reflect the change further comprises removing from the cache a previous entry for the particular range of virtual addresses and adding, to the cache, a new entry for the particular range of virtual addresses including associating in the cache with the particular range of virtual addresses, the current handle.

14. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein maintaining, by an operating system, a watch list of ranges of currently registered virtual addresses further comprises:

specifying in a page table for virtual memory management whether ranges of virtual addresses are currently registered.

15. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the host computer and the accelerator are coupled to one another for data communications by two or more data communications fabrics of at least two different fabric types.