PhD student in Computer Systems focusing on memory management in architecture and operating systems - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

The Department of Information Technology has a leading position in research and education. The Department currently has about 300 employees, including 120 teachers and 110 PhD students. More than 4000 students study one or more courses at the department each year. More info: http://www.it.uu.se.

Duties/Project description: The virtual memory system is the backbone of memory management in operating systems, and has further evolved to efficiently support memory protection and isolation in cloud environments (both containers and virtualization). However, with the explosive growth of memory usage in applications and server memory capacity, the virtual memory address translation is suffering from slowdowns, which in turn slows down the entire system.

This project aims to address these performance issues by co-designing the operating system and hardware architecture for a more efficient virtual memory address translation. This project will work on designing hardware improvements for address translation along with efficient operating system support to activate the hardware improvements. 

This project will implement the proposed hardware modifications in architectural simulators (e.g. gem5), and implement the operating system features on the Linux kernel. Furthermore, the hardware improvement could be prototyped based on open-source CPU (e.g. RISC-V) and evaluated with the operating system on FPGA.

The improvement of the virtual memory system will improve the performance and power efficiency of current CPUs and memory systems, and furthermore, offer even better performance/power efficiency for the servers with even larger non-volatile memory.

The position is for four years of research, but will typically include 20% teaching extending the time to five years. We encourage our students to do industrial internships during their PhDs. You will be expected to teach in Swedish or English.

Requirements: Candidates should have a Master of Science in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent.

Excellent skills in spoken and written English are an absolute requirement.

Ultimately, pursuing a PhD will require that you learn new skills and master new subjects. While we consider experience with computer architecture, operating systems, and hardware description languages important and meritorious, you will be working in a coaching-focused environment where such skills can readily be improved with help from your advisors, fellow PhD students, and courses. Thus, aptitude, self-motivation, interest and perseverance are therefore more important a particular skill-set. There are however a few things which one will not have the time to learn during a PhD and hence we require that applicants are already good writers and programmers, and are able to point to indications thereof, such as text and code produced by the in the past.

In addition to the above, applicants should be able to work well both on their own and with others in a diverse group, be comfortable giving and receiving constructive criticism, and have strong abilities for critical thinking and structured work. These competencies are as important as the technical qualifications. Please see http://www.it.uu.se/research/group/uart/applying_phd for more details.

Additional qualifications: Experience with computer architecture, operating systems, and hardware description languages.

Working in Sweden: Sweden is a fantastic place for living and working. Swedes are friendly and speak excellent English. The quality of life is high, with a strong emphasis on outdoor activities. The Swedish working climate emphasizes an open atmosphere, with active discussions involving both junior and senior staff. PhD students are full employees, with competitive salaries, pension provision and five weeks of paid leave per year. Spouses of employees are entitled to work permits. Healthcare is free after a small co-pay and the university subsidizes athletic costs, such as a gym membership. The parental benefits in Sweden are among the best in the world, including extensive parental leave (for both parents), paid time off to care for sick children, and affordable daycare. Upon completion of the PhD degree, students are entitled to permanent residency to find employment within Sweden.

Application: The application must include a statement (at most 2 pages) of the applicant’s motivation for applying for this position, including the candidate’s research interests and how they will support this project, a description of MSc thesis, and evidence of the applicant’s self-motivation and ability to work in a group. The application must also include a CV, degrees and grades (translated to English or Swedish), a copy of the MSc thesis (or a draft thereof), publications (and specific descriptions of the candidate’s own contributions), links to online repositories of code and other artifacts (such as GitHub or Bitbucket) other relevant documents, and the earliest possible starting date. Contact information for at least one reference should be provided. Promising applicants will be invited for a practical programming challenge and an in-depth interview before hiring.

Rules governing PhD students are set out in the Higher Education Ordinance chapter 5, §§ 1-7 and in Uppsala University's rules and guidelines.

Salary: According to local agreement for PhD students.
 
Starting date: As soon as possible or as otherwise agreed.

Type of employment: Temporary position according to the Higher Education Ordinance chapter 5 § 7.

Scope of employment: 100 %.

For further information about the position please contact: Assistant Professor Chang Hyun Park, Ph. +4618 471 7363, chang.hyun.park@it.uu.se or Professor David Black-Schaffer, Ph. +4618 471 6830, david.black-schaffer@it.uu.se.

Please submit your application by 31 March 2021, UFV-PA 2021/544.

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