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Re: Exterminate All Operating System Abstractions

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On Mon, 25 Jul 2016 17:52:35 -0400
"Mike Gonta" <mikegonta@gmail.com> wrote:

> http://forum.osdev.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=30607
> 
> https://redd.it/4ul4db


I didn't read the paper linked to, but I read Exokernel on Wikipedia
since someone mentioned it in one of those replies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exokernel

It seems to solve the problem that Microsoft faced with DirectX.  They
needed direct to provide direct access to the hardware for video games,
but the OS was in the way.  The Exokernel apparently allows the
developer to call either the OS drivers or use direct hardware access.
In effect, it would combine the best of DOS (direct hardware access)
with the best of a high-level OS (drivers for everything).

The only "bad" thing I can see here is that someone may abuse direct
hardware access which was the reason to go to OS drivers in the first
place.  On a resource constrained device like a smartphone or tablet,
this may also be a way to improve performance.

One drawback might be the byte coded language used for networking.
That's likely to be rather slow, but on the other hand, it might not
need to do that much.

Given that an exokernel is apparently smaller than a micro-kernel, this
design could be easily maintained even in assembly.  On a trusted
platform, where users can't compile or run their own code, this design
could be a real advantage to the vendor, especially if it reduces
hardware cost and software development time.


Feel free to forward my comments, if attributed, Mike.  IIRC, the
Brendan on OSDev.org was one of two Brendan's who used to post here,
and he is the one that is very easy to tick off.  ;-)


Rod Pemberton

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Thread

Exterminate All Operating System Abstractions "Mike Gonta" <mikegonta@gmail.com> - 2016-07-25 17:52 -0400
  Exterminate All Operating System Abstractions "Rick C. Hodgin" <rick.c.hodgin@gmail.com> - 2016-07-25 17:37 -0700
    Exterminate All Operating System Abstractions "Rick C. Hodgin" <rick.c.hodgin@gmail.com> - 2016-07-25 18:01 -0700
  Re: Exterminate All Operating System Abstractions Rod Pemberton <NoHaveNotOne@bcczxcfrze.cam> - 2016-07-26 07:52 -0400
    Re: Exterminate All Operating System Abstractions "Rick C. Hodgin" <rick.c.hodgin@gmail.com> - 2016-07-26 05:12 -0700
      Re: Exterminate All Operating System Abstractions "wolfgang kern" <nowhere@never.at> - 2016-07-26 20:33 +0200
        Re: Exterminate All Operating System Abstractions "Rick C. Hodgin" <rick.c.hodgin@gmail.com> - 2016-07-26 11:45 -0700
  Re: Exterminate All Operating System Abstractions Janis Gertulla <j.gertulla@t-online.de> - 2016-08-11 13:07 -0700
    Re: Exterminate All Operating System Abstractions "Rick C. Hodgin" <rick.c.hodgin@gmail.com> - 2016-08-11 13:53 -0700
    Re: Exterminate All Operating System Abstractions James Harris <james.harris.1@gmail.com> - 2016-08-13 18:00 +0100
  Re: Exterminate All Operating System Abstractions Janis Gertulla <j.gertulla@t-online.de> - 2016-08-11 15:34 -0700

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