The SawMill Framework for Virtual Memory Diversity

We present a framework that allows applications to build and customize VM services on the L4 microkernel. While the L4 microkernel’s abstractions are quite powerful, using these abstractions effectively requires higher-level paradigms. We propose the dataspace paradigm which provides a modular VM framework. The modularity introduced by the dataspace paradigm facilitates implementation and permits dynamic configurability. Initial performance results from a prototype are promising.