Automatic Generation of Simulators for Processors Enhanced for Security in Virtualization

All new computer architectures need to be performance evaluated for acceptance and simulation is the most widely used method for evaluation of new processor designs. Sharing resources with virtualization raised many security concerns, leading to the development of processors that are enhanced for se...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Swapneel C. Mhatre, Priya Chandran
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10840183/
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1832590316542099456
author Swapneel C. Mhatre
Priya Chandran
author_facet Swapneel C. Mhatre
Priya Chandran
author_sort Swapneel C. Mhatre
collection DOAJ
description All new computer architectures need to be performance evaluated for acceptance and simulation is the most widely used method for evaluation of new processor designs. Sharing resources with virtualization raised many security concerns, leading to the development of processors that are enhanced for security in virtualization. The simulators for processors enhanced for security in virtualization need to perform simulation of hypervisor instructions, simulation of security in virtualization, and simulation of new instructions. However, a simulator with all of these three features is not found in the literature. Hence, this paper proposes an approach for the simulation of processors enhanced for security in virtualization that provides all these three features. For user convenience, the simulators are generated automatically from the target processor specifications using a simulator generator. The paper also proposes an approach for simulating a new pipeline with a designer-specified number of stages with automatic detection of pipeline hazards and automatic stalling or flushing of the pipeline on detection of hazards. To demonstrate the use of the simulator generator and the generated simulator, three case studies are considered - simulation of RISC-V with HyperWall, simulation of RISC-V with bit-serial dot-product unit, and simulation of RISC-V with Galois Field arithmetic extension. The paper concludes that the proposed approaches help in accurately simulating the overhead due to security in virtualization and also in providing flexibility to the designer to simulate the desired processor configurations.
format Article
id doaj-art-37e612d7f5494d0d8b790652fe216818
institution Kabale University
issn 2169-3536
language English
publishDate 2025-01-01
publisher IEEE
record_format Article
series IEEE Access
spelling doaj-art-37e612d7f5494d0d8b790652fe2168182025-01-24T00:01:18ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362025-01-0113119301194310.1109/ACCESS.2025.352966710840183Automatic Generation of Simulators for Processors Enhanced for Security in VirtualizationSwapneel C. Mhatre0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7809-3660Priya Chandran1Department of Computer Science and Engineering, National Institute of Technology Calicut, Kozhikode, Kerala, IndiaDepartment of Computer Science and Engineering, National Institute of Technology Calicut, Kozhikode, Kerala, IndiaAll new computer architectures need to be performance evaluated for acceptance and simulation is the most widely used method for evaluation of new processor designs. Sharing resources with virtualization raised many security concerns, leading to the development of processors that are enhanced for security in virtualization. The simulators for processors enhanced for security in virtualization need to perform simulation of hypervisor instructions, simulation of security in virtualization, and simulation of new instructions. However, a simulator with all of these three features is not found in the literature. Hence, this paper proposes an approach for the simulation of processors enhanced for security in virtualization that provides all these three features. For user convenience, the simulators are generated automatically from the target processor specifications using a simulator generator. The paper also proposes an approach for simulating a new pipeline with a designer-specified number of stages with automatic detection of pipeline hazards and automatic stalling or flushing of the pipeline on detection of hazards. To demonstrate the use of the simulator generator and the generated simulator, three case studies are considered - simulation of RISC-V with HyperWall, simulation of RISC-V with bit-serial dot-product unit, and simulation of RISC-V with Galois Field arithmetic extension. The paper concludes that the proposed approaches help in accurately simulating the overhead due to security in virtualization and also in providing flexibility to the designer to simulate the desired processor configurations.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10840183/Compilercomputer architecturehypervisoroperating systemsecurity in virtualizationsimulation
spellingShingle Swapneel C. Mhatre
Priya Chandran
Automatic Generation of Simulators for Processors Enhanced for Security in Virtualization
IEEE Access
Compiler
computer architecture
hypervisor
operating system
security in virtualization
simulation
title Automatic Generation of Simulators for Processors Enhanced for Security in Virtualization
title_full Automatic Generation of Simulators for Processors Enhanced for Security in Virtualization
title_fullStr Automatic Generation of Simulators for Processors Enhanced for Security in Virtualization
title_full_unstemmed Automatic Generation of Simulators for Processors Enhanced for Security in Virtualization
title_short Automatic Generation of Simulators for Processors Enhanced for Security in Virtualization
title_sort automatic generation of simulators for processors enhanced for security in virtualization
topic Compiler
computer architecture
hypervisor
operating system
security in virtualization
simulation
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10840183/
work_keys_str_mv AT swapneelcmhatre automaticgenerationofsimulatorsforprocessorsenhancedforsecurityinvirtualization
AT priyachandran automaticgenerationofsimulatorsforprocessorsenhancedforsecurityinvirtualization