New publication on Intel user interrupts: a step forward for the DiVa project
The KrakOS (Louis Duval, Renaud Lachaize, Alain Tchana) and SEPIA (Yves Kone, Daniel Hagimont) teams, in collaboration with Pascal Felber (University of Neuchâtel), have just published a major study as part of the DiVa project. This project aims to develop innovative virtualization mechanisms for disaggregated cloud infrastructures and edge environments connected to data centers.
Their article, “Understanding Intel User Interrupts” (ACM DL), analyzes a recent feature of Intel Xeon processors: user interrupts (UINTR). Presented on June 12, 2025, at Sigmetric 2025 (Stony Brook, New York, USA), this work shows that UINTRs enable inter-processor interrupts to be handled directly in user mode, without kernel intervention. The results demonstrate a significant improvement in the responsiveness of inter-process communications, with time quanta in the order of microseconds—an asset for distributed systems and real-time applications, which are at the heart of the challenges of the DiVa project.
The paper is available on HAL
Page on ACM DL
