Abstract
The future of supercomputing lies in massively parallel computers. The nodes of these machines will need a different kind of operating system than current computers have. Many researchers in the field believe that microkernels provide the kind of functionality and performance required. In this paper we discuss three popular microkernels, Amoeba, Mach, and Chorus, to show what they can do. They are compared and contrasted in the areas of process management, memory management, and communication.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Accetta, M., Baron, R., Golub, D., Rashid, R., Tevanian, A., and Young, M. 1986. Mach: A new kernel foundation for UNIX development. InProc., Summer 1986 USENIX Conf., pp. 93–112.
Ball, J.E., Feldman, J.A., Low, J.R., Rashid, R.F., and Rovner, P.D. 1976. RIG, Rochester's intelligent gateway system overview.IEEE TRans. Software Eng., SE-2, 4 (Oct.): 321–328.
Baron, R., Rashid, R., Siegel, E., Tevanian, A., and Young, M. 1985. Mach-1: An operating environment for large-scale multiprocessor applications.IEEE Software, 2, 4 (July): 65–67.
Bennett, J.K., Carter, J.K., and Zwaenepoel, W. 1990. Munin: Distributed shared memory based on type-specific memory coherence. InProc. Second ACM Symp. on Principles and Practice of Parallel Programming (Seattle, Mar.), ACM, pp. 168–176.
Birrell, A.D., and Nelson, B.J. 1984. Implementing remote procedure calls.ACM Trans. Comp. Systems, 2, 1 (Feb.): 39–59.
Black, D.L., Golub, D.B., Julin, D.P., Rashid, R.F., Draves, R.P., Dean, R.W., Forin, A., Barrera, J., Tokuda, H., Malan, G., and Bohman, D. 1992. Microkernel operating system architecture and Mach. InProc., USENIX Workshop on Microkernels and Other Kernel Architectures, USENIX Assoc., pp. 11–30.
Boykin, J., Kirschen, D., Langerman, A., and LoVerso, S. 1993.Programming under Mach. Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass.
Draves, R.P. 1990. The revised IPC interface. InProc., First USENIX Conf. on Mach, USENIX Assoc., pp. 101–121.
Gien, M., and Grob, L. 1992. Microkernel based operating systems moving UNIX onto modern system architectures. InProc., UniForum '92 Conf., USENIX Assoc.
Kaashoek, M.F., Tanenbaum, A.S., and Verstoep, K. 1993. Group communication in Amoeba and its applications.Distr. Systems Eng. J., 1 (July): 48–58.
Lea, R., Jacquemot, C., and Pillevesse, E. 1993. COOL system support for distributed programming.CACM, 36 (Sept.): 37–46.
Li, K., and Hudak, P. 1989. Memory coherence in shared virtual memory system.ACM Trans. Comp. Systems, 7 (Nov.): 321–359.
Mullender, S.J., Rossum, G. van, Tanenbaum, A.S., Renesse, R. van, and Staveren, H. van 1990. Amoeba—A distributed operating system for the 1990s.IEEE Comp., 23, 5 (May): 44–53.
Rashid, R.F. 1986a. From RIG to Accent to Mach: The evolution of a network operating system. InFall Joint Comp. Conf., AFIPS, pp. 1128–1137.
Rashid, R.F. 1986b. Threads of a new system.Unix Review, 4, 8 (Aug): 37–49.
Rozier, M. 1992. Chorus. InProc., USENIX Workship on Microkernels and Other Kernel Architectures, USENIX Assoc.
Tanenbaum, A.S., Mullender, S.J., and Renesse, R. van. 1986. Using sparse capabilities in a distributed operating system. InProc., Sixth Internat. Conf. on Distributed Computer Systems (Cambridge, May 19–13), IEEE Comp. Soc. Press, pp. 558–563.
Tanenbaum, A.S., Kaashoek, M.F., Renesse, R. van, and Bal, H. 1991. The Amoeba distributed operating system—A status report.Comp. Communications, 14, 4 (July–Aug.): 324–335.
Tanenbaum, A.S., Renesse, R. van, Staveren, H. van, and Sharp, G.J. 1990. Experiences with the Amoeba distributed operating system.CACM, 33, 12 (Dec.): 46–63.
Zajcew, R., Black, D., Peak, C., Guedes, P., Kemp, B., LoVerso, J., Leibensperger, M., Barnett, M., Rabii, F., and Netterwala, D. 1993. An OSF/1 Unix for massively parallel multicomputers.In Proc., Winter 1993 USENIX Tech. Conf. (San Diego, Jan. 25–29), pp. 449–468.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tanenbaum, A.S. A comparison of three microkernels. J Supercomput 9, 7–22 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01245395
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01245395