Microkernel architecture?

Kip Macy kmacy at fsmware.com
Mon Oct 27 16:11:25 PST 2003



> Thanks for the hint. Looks promising.
>
> I extend my dreams towards a "real-world", microkernel based, BSD-like,
> multiserver
> (= non-monolithic) operating system (meaning that most drivers run in
> separte address
> spaces and therefor cannot crash whole kernel).
> Not sure if such an os could be called BSD anymore.
>

The group doing Xen is actually planning on moving drivers that
aren't performance critical into ring 1. The multi-server approach is
somewhat similar to what Matt foresees doing with VFS. Much of what
you're talking about is going to happen here. It just won't look the way
the Mach/L4 folks envisioned it looking.

As for whether or not its BSD any more? Lion's Unix v6 was 10,000 lines
of code. As complexity increases one needs to find new ways to cope with
it.


			-Kip





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