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HermitCore: A Unikernel for Extreme Scale Computing

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📜 Abstract

We expect that the size and the complexity of future supercomputers will increase on their path to exascale systems and beyond. Therefore, system software has to adapt to the complexity of these systems for a simplification of the development of scalable applications. In this paper, we present a unikernel operating system design for HPC. It extends the multi-kernel approach while providing better programmability and scalability for hierarchical systems, such as HLRS’ Hazel Hen, which base on multiple cluster-on-a-chip processors. We prove the scalability of the design via micro benchmarks by taking the example of HermitCore—our prototype implementation of the new design.

✨ Summary

The paper introduced HermitCore, a unikernel design for high-performance computing that combines unikernel and multi-kernel concepts. Its design isolates computation from a conventional Linux system, supports execution on bare metal or within virtual machines, uses a hierarchical organization aligned with NUMA hardware, and targets reduced operating-system overhead and noise. The authors evaluated the prototype with microbenchmarks addressing system-call costs, operating-system interference, OpenMP overhead, and inter-kernel communication.

Subsequent work developed the same research line in two directions. A 2017 paper by the same authors studied HermitCore as a low-noise unikernel for extreme-scale systems. The project was later rewritten in Rust as RustyHermit, with the project documentation explicitly identifying HermitCore as its starting point. HermitCore also served as the basis for HermiTux, which extended the design toward binary compatibility with unmodified Linux applications. (hermit-os.org)

The project subsequently evolved into the Hermit operating-system project, which continues to target scalable and predictable runtimes for high-performance and cloud computing. In the sources reviewed, the documented influence is primarily on subsequent unikernel and operating-system research; no specific commercial deployment attributable to this paper was identified. (hermitcore.org)