Computer Science > Hardware Architecture
[Submitted on 5 May 2020 (v1), last revised 27 Oct 2020 (this version, v3)]
Title:Testing Compilers for Programmable Switches Through Switch Hardware Simulation
View PDFAbstract:Programmable switches have emerged as powerful and flexible alternatives to fixed-function forwarding devices. But because of the unique hardware constraints of network switches, the design and implementation of compilers targeting these devices is tedious and error prone. Despite the important role that compilers play in software development, there is a dearth of tools for testing compilers for programmable network devices. We present Druzhba, a programmable switch simulator used for testing compilers targeting programmable packet-processing substrates. We show that we can model the low-level behavior of a switch's programmable hardware. We further show how our machine model can be used by compiler developers to target Druzhba as a compiler backend. Generated machine code programs are fed into Druzhba and tested using a fuzzing-based approach that allows compiler developers to test the correctness of their compilers. Using a program-synthesis-based compiler as a case study, we demonstrate how Druzhba has been successful in testing compiler-generated machine code for our simulated switch pipeline instruction set.
Submission history
From: Michael Wong [view email][v1] Tue, 5 May 2020 16:15:52 UTC (901 KB)
[v2] Wed, 6 May 2020 15:22:17 UTC (901 KB)
[v3] Tue, 27 Oct 2020 18:40:15 UTC (222 KB)
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