This has been done before for Erlang: http://erlangonxen.org
They can boot in 100ms, even per request. > On 20 Dec 2014, at 09:52, stepharo <[email protected]> wrote: > > I love this idea :) > > Le 20/12/14 05:08, Ben Coman a écrit : >> >> Just some thoughts that arose as I skipped along the web... >> >> With the idea of using Pharo in the cloud, I was thinking of how PharoNOS[1] >> is basing off top of the Linux kernel, but the examples indicate its >> operating in User Mode. So I was wondering about performance being >> greater[2] if the CogVM ran in Kernel Mode. However maybe this could get >> tangled in the GPL license of the kernel. >> >> Now I believe FreeBSD/NetBSD license is compatible with COG's MIT license, >> so that seems a better option for eliminating layers of the operating >> system. They both[3][4] have pre-built Amazon Machine Images to run on EC2, >> as well as instructions[5] to build your own AMI. So potentially we could >> build an AMI with the CogVM linked to the FreeBSDKernel operating in Kernel >> Mode, with no User Mode. The lack of direct access to memory from the Image, >> and probably single application focus should be sufficient security to forgo >> User Mode, and run faster. >> >> But we could go a step further. Runing in the cloud relies heavily on >> virtualisation, and for performance[6], most likely on the OS's >> paravirtualisation interface - to Xen for example. So from Cog, why not >> interface direct to the Xen FrontEndDriver[7] and eliminate the DomU >> operating system all together. What I understand from [6] is that Xen's >> paravirtualisation hooks makes it much easier to boot, than booting on the >> bare metal of a fully-virtualised system. So the former seems more >> achievable than the latter (which was the only option in years past), and >> also be more portable as technology evolves, to any platform Xen runs on. >> >> Squeak/Pharo on Cog-Xen could be a good choice for a Cloud Operating >> System[8]. Maybe a good student research project? >> >> cheers -ben >> >> [1] http://pillarhub.pharocloud.com/hub/mikefilonov/pharonos >> [2] http://blog.codinghorror.com/understanding-user-and-kernel-mode/ >> [3] http://www.daemonology.net/freebsd-on-ec2/ >> [4] http://wiki.netbsd.org/amazon_ec2/amis/ >> [5] http://wiki.netbsd.org/amazon_ec2/build_your_own_ami/ >> [6] http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Virtualization_Spectrum >> [7] http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/FrontendDriver >> [8] http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Cloud_Operating_Systems >> >> >> > >
