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Barkhausen Institut

Composability Hardware and Software

Can we improve the security of IoT systems while also enabling a modular design?

Traditional multiprocessor architectures allow a modular system design and an easy integration of different components into one system. However, hardware components are not isolated from each other and therefore can communicate with all other components, utilize I/O interfaces, and access each memory. Hence, malicious components may compromise the whole system. In order to mitigate these security risks, the goal of the research topic is to deploy a componentized, microkernel-based operating system with a tile-based hardware architecture and communication control. A component-based system design follows the isolation-by-default concept and thus improves both security and reusability.

The presented hardware architecture consists of multiple heterogeneous tiles which are connected by a network-on-chip. Each tile may include processing cores, accelerators, or application-specialized hardware, but can also interface to I/O peripherals or off-chip memory. The isolation between tiles is enforced by Trusted Communication Units (TCUs) which set up dedicated communication channels. Only the kernel running on a selected tile is privileged to configure the communication channels between tiles.

Publications

Mattis Hasler, RoadRunner: A Modularized Hardware Design Management and EDA Tool Runner, Second Workshop on Open-Source Computer Architecture Research (OSCAR), 2023

@conference{
rr_hasler23,
title = "RoadRunner: A Modularized Hardware Design Management and EDA Tool Runner",
author = "Mattis Hasler",
year = "2023",
booktitle = "Second Workshop on Open-Source Computer Architecture Research (OSCAR)",
month = "June",
year = "2023"
}
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Michael Roitzsch, Till Miemietz, Christian von Elm, Nils Asmussen, Software-Defined CPU Modes, 19th Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating Systems (HotOS), 2023, Download PDF

@inproceedings{
Roitzsch: SDCPUModes,
title = "Software-Defined CPU Modes",
author = "Michael Roitzsch, Till Miemietz, Christian von Elm, Nils Asmussen",
year = "2023",
booktitle = "19th Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating Systems (HotOS)",
address = "Providence, RI, USA",
month = "June",
publisher = "ACM",
url = "https://doi.org/10.1145/3593856.3595894"
}
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Carsten Weinhold, Nils Asmussen, Diana Göhringer, Michael Roitzsch, Towards Modular Trusted Execution Environments, 6th Workshop on System Software for Trusted Execution (SysTEX), 2023, Download PDF

@inproceedings{
Weinhold:ModularTEEs,
title = "Towards Modular Trusted Execution Environments",
author = "Carsten Weinhold, Nils Asmussen, Diana Göhringer, Michael Roitzsch",
year = "2023",
booktitle = "6th Workshop on System Software for Trusted Execution (SysTEX)",
address = "Rome, Italy",
month = "May",
publisher = "ACM",
url = "https://doi.org/10.1145/3578359.3593037"
}
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Sebastian Haas, Nils Asmussen, A Trusted Communication Unit for Secure Tiled Hardware Architectures, 2022 29th IEEE International Conference on Electronics, Circuits, and Systems (ICECS), 2022, Download PDF

@inproceedings{
hwtcu-haas,
title = "A Trusted Communication Unit for Secure Tiled Hardware Architectures",
author = "Sebastian Haas, Nils Asmussen",
year = "2022",
booktitle = "2022 29th IEEE International Conference on Electronics, Circuits, and Systems (ICECS)",
month = "October",
pages = "1-4"
}
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Sebastian Haas, Mattis Hasler, Friedrich Pauls, Stefan Köpsell, Nils Asmussen, Michael Roitzsch, Gerhard Fettweis, Trustworthy Computing for O-RAN: Security in a Latency-Sensitive Environment, 2nd Workshop On Architectural Evolution Toward 6G Networks - 6GARCH, 2022, Download PDF

@inproceedings{
m3oran-haas,
title = "Trustworthy Computing for O-RAN: Security in a Latency-Sensitive Environment",
author = "Sebastian Haas, Mattis Hasler, Friedrich Pauls, Stefan Köpsell, Nils Asmussen, Michael Roitzsch, Gerhard Fettweis",
year = "2022",
booktitle = "2nd Workshop On Architectural Evolution Toward 6G Networks - 6GARCH",
month = "December",
pages = "1-6"
}
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Robert Walther, Carsten Weinhold, Michael Roitzsch, RATLS: Integrating Transport Layer Security with Remote Attestation, 4th Workshop on Cloud Security and Privacy (Cloud S&P), 2022, Download PDF

@inproceedings{
Walther:RATLS,
title = "RATLS: Integrating Transport Layer Security with Remote Attestation",
author = "Robert Walther, Carsten Weinhold, Michael Roitzsch",
year = "2022",
booktitle = "4th Workshop on Cloud Security and Privacy (Cloud S&P)",
address = "Rome, Italy",
month = "June",
publisher = "Springer Nature",
url = "https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16815-4_20"
}
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Friedrich Pauls, Sebastian Haas, Stefan Köpsell, Michael Roitzsch, Nils Asmussen, Gerhard Fettweis, On Trustworthy Scalable Hardware/Software Platform Design, Smart Systems Integration Conference and Exhibition (SSI), 2022, Download PDF

@inproceedings{
hwswplatform_pauls2022,
title = "On Trustworthy Scalable Hardware/Software Platform Design",
author = "Friedrich Pauls, Sebastian Haas, Stefan Köpsell, Michael Roitzsch, Nils Asmussen, Gerhard Fettweis",
year = "2022",
booktitle = "Smart Systems Integration Conference and Exhibition (SSI)",
month = "April"
}
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Till Miemietz, Maksym Planeta, Viktor Reusch, Jan Bierbaum, Michael Roitzsch, Hermann Härtig, Fast Privileged Function Calls, 11th Workshop on Systems for Post-Moore Architectures (SPMA), 2022, Download PDF

@inproceedings{
Miemietz:FastCalls,
title = "Fast Privileged Function Calls",
author = "Till Miemietz, Maksym Planeta, Viktor Reusch, Jan Bierbaum, Michael Roitzsch, Hermann Härtig",
year = "2022",
booktitle = "11th Workshop on Systems for Post-Moore Architectures (SPMA)",
address = "Rennes, France",
month = "April"
}
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Lluís Vilanova, Lina Maudlej, Shai Bergman, Till Miemietz, Matthias Hille, Nils Asmussen, Michael Roitzsch, Hermann Härtig, Mark Silberstein, Slashing the Disaggregation Tax in Heterogeneous Data Centers with FractOS, European Conference on Computer Systems (EuroSys), 2022, Download PDF

@inproceedings{
Vilanova:FractOS,
title = "Slashing the Disaggregation Tax in Heterogeneous Data Centers with FractOS",
author = "Lluís Vilanova, Lina Maudlej, Shai Bergman, Till Miemietz, Matthias Hille, Nils Asmussen, Michael Roitzsch, Hermann Härtig, Mark Silberstein",
year = "2022",
booktitle = "European Conference on Computer Systems (EuroSys)",
address = "Rennes, France",
month = "April",
pages = "352–367",
url = "https://doi.org/10.1145/3492321.3519569"
}
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Nils Asmussen, Sebastian Haas, Carsten Weinhold, Till Miemietz, Michael Roitzsch, Efficient and Scalable Core Multiplexing with M³v, ACM International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems (ASPLOS), 2022, Download PDF

@inproceedings{
Asmussen:M3v,
title = "Efficient and Scalable Core Multiplexing with M³v",
author = "Nils Asmussen, Sebastian Haas, Carsten Weinhold, Till Miemietz, Michael Roitzsch",
year = "2022",
booktitle = "ACM International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems (ASPLOS)",
address = "Lausanne, Switzerland",
month = "February",
publisher = "ACM",
pages = "452–466",
url = "https://doi.org/10.1145/3503222.3507741"
}
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Robert Khasanov, Julian Robledo, Christian Menard, Andrés Goens, Jeronimo Castrillon, Domain-Specific Hybrid Mapping for Energy-Efficient Baseband Processing in Wireless Networks, International Conference on Compilers, Architecture, and Synthesis of Embedded Systems (CASES), 2021, Download PDF

@inproceedings{
Khasanov:BasebandMapping,
title = "Domain-Specific Hybrid Mapping for Energy-Efficient Baseband Processing in Wireless Networks",
author = "Robert Khasanov, Julian Robledo, Christian Menard, Andrés Goens, Jeronimo Castrillon",
year = "2021",
booktitle = "International Conference on Compilers, Architecture, and Synthesis of Embedded Systems (CASES)",
month = "October",
publisher = "ACM",
url = "https://doi.org/10.1145/3476991"
}
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Carsten Weinhold, Nils Asmussen, Michael Roitzsch, Hardware/Software Co-Design für eine Modulare Systemarchitektur, Echtzeit 2020: Kommunikationssicherheit im Internet der Dinge, 2020

@inproceedings{
Weinhold:CoDesign,
title = "Hardware/Software Co-Design für eine Modulare Systemarchitektur",
author = "Carsten Weinhold, Nils Asmussen, Michael Roitzsch",
year = "2020",
booktitle = "Echtzeit 2020: Kommunikationssicherheit im Internet der Dinge",
month = "November",
publisher = "Springer",
pages = "21–30",
url = "https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-32818-4_3"
}
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Matthias Hille, Nils Asmussen, Hermann Härtig, Pramod Bhatotia, A Heterogeneous Microkernel OS for Rack-Scale Systems, 11th ACM SIGOPS Asia-Pacific Workshop on Systems (APSys), 2020, Download PDF

@inproceedings{
Hille:RackScaleOS,
title = "A Heterogeneous Microkernel OS for Rack-Scale Systems",
author = "Matthias Hille, Nils Asmussen, Hermann Härtig, Pramod Bhatotia",
year = "2020",
booktitle = "11th ACM SIGOPS Asia-Pacific Workshop on Systems (APSys)",
address = "Tsukuba, Japan",
month = "August",
publisher = "ACM",
url = "https://doi.org/10.1145/3409963.3410487"
}
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Lluís Vilanova, Lina Maudlej, Matthias Hille, Nils Asmussen, Michael Roitzsch, Mark Silberstein, Caladan: A Distributed Meta-OS for Data Center Disaggregation, 10th Workshop on Systems for Post-Moore Architectures (SPMA), 2020, Download PDF

@inproceedings{
Vilanova:Caladan2020,
title = "Caladan: A Distributed Meta-OS for Data Center Disaggregation",
author = "Lluís Vilanova, Lina Maudlej, Matthias Hille, Nils Asmussen, Michael Roitzsch, Mark Silberstein",
year = "2020",
booktitle = "10th Workshop on Systems for Post-Moore Architectures (SPMA)",
month = "April"
}
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Matthias Hille, Nils Asmussen, Pramod Bhatotia, Hermann Härtig, SemperOS: A Distributed Capability System, USENIX Annual Technical Conference (ATC), 2019, Download PDF

@inproceedings{
Hille:SemperOS,
title = "SemperOS: A Distributed Capability System",
author = "Matthias Hille, Nils Asmussen, Pramod Bhatotia, Hermann Härtig",
year = "2019",
booktitle = "USENIX Annual Technical Conference (ATC)",
address = "Renton, WA, USA",
month = "July",
publisher = "USENIX"
}
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Nils Asmussen, Michael Roitzsch, Hermann Härtig, M3x: Autonomous Accelerators via Context-Enabled Fast-Path Communication, USENIX Annual Technical Conference (ATC), 2019, Download PDF

@inproceedings{
Asmussen:M3x,
title = "M3x: Autonomous Accelerators via Context-Enabled Fast-Path Communication",
author = "Nils Asmussen, Michael Roitzsch, Hermann Härtig",
year = "2019",
booktitle = "USENIX Annual Technical Conference (ATC)",
address = "Renton, WA, USA",
month = "July",
publisher = "USENIX"
}
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Nils Asmussen, Michael Roitzsch, Carsten Weinhold, Pluggable Components All The Way Down, 1st International Workshop on Next-Generation Operating Systems for Cyber-Physical Systems (NGOSCPS), 2019, Download PDF

@inproceedings{
Asmussen:Pluggable2019,
title = "Pluggable Components All The Way Down",
author = "Nils Asmussen, Michael Roitzsch, Carsten Weinhold",
year = "2019",
booktitle = "1st International Workshop on Next-Generation Operating Systems for Cyber-Physical Systems (NGOSCPS)",
address = "Montreal, Canada",
month = "April"
}
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