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
Sven Van Caekenberghe wrote:
>> 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.
I saw Erlang mentioned in [8], but its impressive to see it demostrated
so well. That makes Erlang very attractive, and so may Pharo be, if it
could do the same.
Now besides the cloud, I came across an application of Xen to the
automotive industry - using virtualisation to both a real-time OS for
mission critical tasks; and a user-interface and media OS; on the same
System-On-Chip. I see this also having application to robotics. Could
be an opportunity in such an upcoming markets.
http://events.linuxfoundation.org/sites/events/files/slides/Xen%20Automotive%20RC1.pdf
http://www.linux.com/news/embedded-mobile/mobile-linux/784551-xen-virtualization-takes-on-automotive
http://www.xenproject.org/developers/teams/embedded-and-automotive.html
http://xenproject.org/component/allvideoshare/video/latest/alss14-xen-project-automotive-hypervisor-presentation.html
