George Neville-Neil: Hardware Performance Monitoring Counters on non-X86 Architectures

AsiaBSDCon 2010 paper session.

Abstract:

Hardware Performance Monitoring Counters provide programmers and systems integrators with the ability to gather accurate, low level, information about the performance of their code, both at the user and kernel levels. Until recently these counters were only available on Intel and AMD chips but they have now been made available on alternate, embedded, architectures such as MIPS and ARM.

This paper discusses the motivation, design and implementation of counters using the hwpmc(4) driver in the FreeBSD operating system with an eye towards easing future porting efforts.

Massimiliano Stucchi: BSD in the routing industry

AsiaBSDCon 2010 paper session.

Abstract:

The BSD family has always been very well known for its robust network stack, hence it has been widely used in many different fields and applications. In the ISP market, though, the situation is totally different, and solutions employing *BSD operating systems are often discarded in favour of proprietary solutions.

In this talk we will discuss the different possibilities offered by the BSD operating systems family in terms of networking tools and practices, compared to proprietary solutions offered by companies such as Cisco and Juniper, detailing the differences between them and highlighting the major points and drawbacks of each of them, up to a cost comparison in real field applications.

Real field applications will be introduced via explanation of the solutions created using BSD-based routing software in the real industry running in two different environments, an ISP spanning Europe and another one offering WISP services.

We will also delve into the experience in running a FreeBSD-/OpenBSD- and OpenBGPd-based route server at MINAP, the MIlanNeutralAccessPoint, describing success stories and guiding the audience into a comparison with the other route servers running at the same IX, powered by Linux and Bird/Quagga.

Constantine A. Murenin: Quiet Computing with BSD

AsiaBSDCon 2010 paper session.

Abstract:

Quiet Computing with BSD (Programming system hardware monitors for quiet computing)

In this talk, we will present an overview of the features and common problems of microprocessor system hardware monitors as they relate to the topic of silent computing. In a nutshell, the topic of programmable fan control will be explored. A live demonstration of the fan-controlling prototype might be possible.

Silent computing is an important subject as its practice reduces the amount of unnecessary stress and improves the motivation of the workforce, at home and in the office.

Attendees will gain knowledge on how to effectively programme the chips to minimise fan noise without impeding reliability or causing any system failures, as well as some basic principles regarding the practice of quiet computing.

A patch for programming the most popular chips (like those from Winbond) is already publicly available for the OpenBSD operating system, although the talk itself will be more specific to the microprocessor system hardware monitors themselves, as opposed to any specific interfacing with thereof in modern operating systems like OpenBSD, NetBSD, DragonFly BSD and FreeBSD.

Rui Paulo: Wireless Mesh Networks under FreeBSD

AsiaBSDCon 2010 paper session.

Abstract:

With the advent of low cost wireless chipsets, wireless mesh networks became much more attractive for both companies, governments, and the general consumer. Wireless mesh networks are being used extensively since the popularization of the 802.11 wireless technologies, but usually they worked with the help of layer 3 routing technologies.

Since 802.11 didn’t provide any kind of support for wireless mesh networks, in 2004, IEEE created the Task Group s (TGs) to develop a new amendment to 802.11 which would define the operation of a wireless mesh network using existing 802.11 hardware and having a routing protocol work at layer 2. Later, the amendment also included provisions for mesh authentication, encryption, link management, bridging mesh networks with other types of networks, and channel reservation.

This paper will talk about the FreeBSD implementation of 802.11s that’s available in version 8.0 and beyond. This work was sponsored by The FreeBSD Foundation.

AsiaBSDCon 2010 paper session.

Abstract:

Since 2001 we have used FreeBSD as a high performance computing (HPC) cluster operating system. In the process we have ported a number of HPC tools including Ganglia, Globus, Open MPI, and Sun Grid Engine. In this talk we will discuss the process of porting these types of applications and issues encountered while maintaining these tools. In addition to generally issues of porting code from one Unix-like operating system to another, there are several type of porting common to many HPC infrastructure codes which we will explore. Beyond porting, we will discuss how the ports collection aids our use of HPC applications and ways we think overall integration could be improved.