> On 20 Dec 2014, at 10:00, Sven Van Caekenberghe <[email protected]> wrote: > > This has been done before for Erlang: > > http://erlangonxen.org > > They can boot in 100ms, even per request.
Like this http://zerg.erlangonxen.org Pretty impressive. >> 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 >>> >>> >>> >> >> >
