CAREER: Flexible Multi-Core Substrate for Trustworthy Computing Systems

一个芯片上有4到8个核心的多核架构是当今的现实，未来几代处理器预计每个芯片包含更多的核心。该项目的目标是实现大规模多核处理器作为安全可靠的计算基板的全部潜力。首先，在“多核”处理器中，大量处理元素的可用性以及对功耗的限制减轻了对资源大量分时分配的需求，这通常会导致各种类型的侧信道。此更改允许在此项目中使用更多专用和静态分配的资源，以提供强大的隔离和简化的可信软件库。其次，大规模多核中的许多可编程处理元件可以作为各种类型的细粒度检测的通用基板。该项目正在开发一种灵活的体系结构框架，用于各种运行时检查，开销最小，以便自动检测、诊断和从恶意软件攻击中恢复。最后，该项目将体系结构框架扩展到安全之外的其他信任方面，重点关注后验证，其中动态检查可以确保各种正确性属性。该研究将在安全性和验证方面提供硬件支持的好处，而无需为单个固定机制提供专用资源。用户可以将每个“扩展核心”用于各种安全目的、验证和可靠性目的，甚至用于一般计算。同时，该研究还将使高度安全的执行环境能够更好地保护关键软件组件。

Multi-core architecture with 4 to 8 cores on a die is a reality today and future generations of processors are expected to contain even more cores per chip. This project targets to realize the full potential of large-scale multi-core processors as a secure and trustworthy computing substrate. First, in "many-core" processors, the availability of a large number of processing elements together with constraints on power consumption alleviates the need for heavy time-sharing of resources, which often results in various types of side-channels. This change enables the use of more dedicated and statically allocated resources in this project to provide strong isolation and a simplified trusted software base. Second, many programmable processing elements in large-scale multi-cores can serve as a general substrate for various types of fine-grained inspection. This project is developing a flexible architecture framework for various run-time checks with minimal overheads in order to automatically detect, diagnose, and recover from malicious software attacks. Finally, the project extends the architectural framework to other aspects of trust beyond security, focusing on post-silicon verification, where the dynamic inspection can ensure various correctness properties. The research will deliver the benefits of hardware support in security and verification without requiring dedicated resources for a single fixed mechanism. Users can use each "extended core" for various security purposes, for verification and reliability purposes, or even for general computing. At the same time, the research will also enable highly secure execution environments where critical software components can be better protected.