Microkernel
Near-minimum amount of software that can provide the mechanisms needed to implement an operating system (OS).
- Microkernel174 related topics
Protection ring
In computer science, hierarchical protection domains, often called protection rings, are mechanisms to protect data and functionality from faults (by improving fault tolerance) and malicious behavior (by providing computer security).
A renewed interest in this design structure came with the proliferation of the Xen VMM software, ongoing discussion on monolithic vs. micro-kernels (particularly in Usenet newsgroups and Web forums), Microsoft's Ring-1 design structure as part of their NGSCB initiative, and hypervisors based on x86 virtualization such as Intel VT-x (formerly Vanderpool).
Monolithic kernel
Operating system architecture where the entire operating system is working in kernel space.
The monolithic model differs from other operating system architectures (such as the microkernel architecture) in that it alone defines a high-level virtual interface over computer hardware.
Mach (kernel)
Kernel developed at Carnegie Mellon University by Richard Rashid and Avie Tevanian to support operating system research, primarily distributed and parallel computing.
Mach is often mentioned as one of the earliest examples of a microkernel.
QNX
Commercial Unix-like real-time operating system, aimed primarily at the embedded systems market.
QNX was one of the first commercially successful microkernel operating systems.
Message passing
Technique for invoking behavior on a computer.
For example, modern microkernels generally only provide a synchronous messaging primitive and asynchronous messaging can be implemented on top by using helper threads.
Inter-process communication
Operating system provides to allow the processes to manage shared data.
IPC is very important to the design process for microkernels and nanokernels, which reduce the number of functionalities provided by the kernel.
GNU Hurd
GNU Hurd is a collection of microkernel servers written as part of GNU, for the GNU Mach microkernel.
Windows NT
Proprietary graphical operating system produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released on July 27, 1993.
This was designed as a modified microkernel, as the Windows NT kernel was influenced by the Mach microkernel developed by Richard Rashid at Carnegie Mellon University, but does not meet all of the criteria of a pure microkernel.
L4 microkernel family
L4 is a family of second-generation microkernels, used to implement a variety of types of operating systems (OS), though mostly for Unix-like, Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) compliant types.
Debian
Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993.
Debian GNU/Hurd is a flavor based on the Hurd microkernel, instead of Linux.