One question I am surprised not to find asked is: how do virtual kernels work on SMP systems? A layered question I suppose; how would the virtual kernel itself scale, and also how would its processes scale, and how would the threads of those processes scale? The first thing I think when I hear of a new (to me) virtualization system is how well it would work with SMP.
Yet another question is, is there any long-term plan to allow virtual kernels to control specific items of host hardware? This could be extremely useful for fast development of drivers, if the host memory protection is done properly. I think Xen has some facilities for this. It's part of the way towards DragonFly having safe userland drivers: using userland kernels with (what appears to them as) kernel drivers. This seems a much simpler initial step than a whole new interaction layer and architecture for userland drivers, even if it's not nearly as simple or efficient as what the final result should be. Thanks in advance for any responses. --- Dmitri Nikulin Centre for Synchrotron Science Monash University Victoria 3800, Australia email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
