Autogenerating fast packet-processing code using program synthesis

Packet-processing code should be fast. But, it is hard to write fast code for programmable substrates such as high-speed switches, multicore SoC SmarfNICs, FP-GAs, middleboxes, and the end-host stack. Today, expert developers with deep familiarity with the underlying hardware handcraft such code. Making things worse, building optimizing compilers for these substrates requires significant development effort, which may not be available for these new, niche, and evolving substrates. We propose an alternative: to automatically generate fast packet-processing code using program synthesis. For the domain of packet processing, using synthesis can generate faster code than an optimizing compiler at the cost of increased compile time. As a case study, we apply program synthesis to build a code generator, Chipmunk, for a simulator of the protocol-independent switch architecture (PISA). Chipmunk generates code for many programs that a previous code generator based on classical compiler optimizations rejects, and code generated by Chipmunk uses much fewer hardware resources. We also outline future directions in applying program synthesis to code generation for packet processing.