Well, I've read Scott's design paper. And it has most of the elements that I would want in a managed operating system. Here are some of the key features I would love to see (just from the top of my head):
1. Execute the kernel, drivers and applications in ring 0. Because we can use software protection through appdomains we don't need the hardware protection of execution rings. This way we can significantly improve performance by not having to do context switches all the time. Compatibility with non-managed/unsafe applications can be achieved by running these in ring 3 as usual. I think we could even emulate other kernels for these non-managed applications by translating their system calls. 2. A microkernel that only handles system resources at the lowest level and manages communication between all other parts. All popular OS's are monolithic because of performance reasons (context switches), a managed system does not have to be. 3. Only managed code. (except maybe the very first boot instructions) 4. The kernel strictly manages system resources. Drivers request everything from the kernel, and the kernel makes sure they don't use anything else. Drivers could have a manifest file (like in Singularity) so the kernel can verify they have everything they need before trying to initialize the driver. 5. Possibility for distributed behavior. My ideas here are almost identical to those of Scott. The microkernel abstractions should make it relatively easy to let applications use remote resources transparently. I also have an idea in this area that I haven't heard mentioned elsewhere. Just like a system can distribute processes between it's cores, it could also distribute them in the same way over the network. If we have for example a cluster of a few servers and one of them is overloaded, it could serialize some processes and send them over to an idle machine that can handle the load. The connections to other resources can simply be changed from local IPC to remote TCP communication. The application wouldn't notice any difference (except a short delay while transferring). You can see that everything in the business world is moving to centralized locations: web applications/services, Citrix, terminal servers, ... This move is inspired by the fact that users want to be able to have access to their data and applications from everywhere in the world. I believe major problems in the future will be: a) distributing these centralized loads over a set of available servers b) letting users transparently access centralized data and applications from everywhere, anytime and without configuring a lot of stuff I think a managed operating system can solve both of these problems if applied correctly. Insite Mees-Delbeke VOF Zomerstraat 29A 9270 Laarne Telefoon: 09 367 96 34 GSM: 0478 44 96 04 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Site: http://www.insitehosting.be -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Chad Z. Hower aka Kudzu Sent: dinsdag 28 augustus 2007 21:23 To: sharpos-developers@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: [SharpOS Developers] SharpOS vs Singularity I looked at Singularity about 2 years back. I haven't looked at it since then. I spent the last 2 years developing a lot of ideas etc. Today I reviewed newer info on Singularity. Its pretty much 100% inline with what I've designed. There are some differences of course, but the major parts are pretty identical. That being said - moving forward how do you guys see SharpOS being different? -- Chad Z. Hower aka Kudzu "Programming is an art form that fights back" http://www.KudzuWorld.com/ http://www.Woo-Hoo.net/ http://www.DelphiToDotNet.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ - This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Still grepping through log files to find problems? Stop. Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser. Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/ _______________________________________________ SharpOS-Developers mailing list SharpOS-Developers@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/sharpos-developers ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Still grepping through log files to find problems? Stop. Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser. Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/ _______________________________________________ SharpOS-Developers mailing list SharpOS-Developers@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/sharpos-developers
