eBPF Observability on RISC: What Works, What Breaks, and How to Test It
H.1308 (Rolin) | Day 1 | 18:00 - 18:30 | Speakers: Yuning Liang, Bruce Gain
Abstract
eBPF powers modern observability, but its behavior varies significantly across architectures. This talk examines whether eBPF can be used reliably on RISC-class systems—ARM64 and RISC-V—and what limitations appear in real workloads.
We use reproducible test environments to run tracing, profiling, and networking eBPF tools on x86_64, ARM64, and RISC-V, revealing practical differences in verifier constraints, helper availability, JIT maturity, and performance overhead. RISC-V support exists but remains incomplete, and we show exactly which features succeed, fail, or behave unpredictably.
Using a database benchmark as a workload generator, we compare instrumentation accuracy, latency impact, and stability across architectures. Attendees gain a clear understanding of eBPF’s practical portability and how to build a realistic multi-architecture observability testbed.
Speakers
Yuning Liang is the Founder and CEO of DeepComputing, focusing on developing innovative technology products based on RISC-V SoMs. From the world's first RISC-V development laptop DC-ROMA to pads, workstations, remote-controlled cars, drones, and more, all are based on RISC-V chips. The world's first RISC-V laptop, the world's first RISC-V pad capable of making phone calls, and so on, are all Yuning's masterpieces. Yuning's innovation and pioneering spirit in the RISC-V field have enabled him to create several world firsts, leading DeepComputing to gain widespread recognition in the global RISC-V product commercialization field, contributing significantly to the advancement and progress of RISC-V technology. Yuning's career has taken him from the UK to Switzerland, then to South Korea, and finally to China. He has a strong practical background in embedded systems, platform APIs, and system software. In 2024, he was honored with the "RISC-V Community Contributor Award" and recognized as a "Ubuntu Summit Contributor," further solidifying his influence in the technology sector.
Bruce Gain is founder and principal analyst for ReveCom. His obsession with computers began when he hacked a Space Invaders console to play all day for 25 cents at the local video arcade in the early 1980s. He then started writing code for very elementary games on the family Commodore 64 and programming in BASIC on the high school PC. He has since become a long-time and steadfast Linux and open source advocate and dislikes anything that smacks of marketing. That is why he co-founded ReveCom in part, in order to help contribute to pure research and benchmarking and testing different software tools and platforms. His byline has appeared in Wired, PC World, CIO, Technology Review, Popular Science, and EETimes.
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