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The Benefits and Limitations of User Interrupts for Preemptive Userspace Scheduling#

NSDI '25 digest Program Wildcard pick 28–30 April 2025

Abstract Paper Slides Recording

  • Authors / tier: Linsong Guo, Danial Zuberi, Tal Garfinkel, Amy Ousterhout (UC San Diego). Wildcard.

Play the recording: The Benefits and Limitations of User Interrupts for Preemptive Userspace Scheduling

  • Why: A clear-eyed measurement study of a newer x86 hardware feature (user interrupts) for preemptive userspace scheduling — the kind of "here's what the new primitive actually buys you, and where it doesn't" result that informs datapath and dataplane-OS design.
  • What: An evaluation of user interrupts as a mechanism for preemptive scheduling in userspace, characterizing both the wins and the limits rather than pitching a single system.
  • Where applicable: Userspace network/dataplane stacks and low-latency runtimes on hardware that supports user interrupts. General, forward-looking.