Rich and Rob, Have you seen the new flash ram technology coming out? SSD strapped to a ram bus and its fast. http://highscalability.com/blog/2012/1/19/is-it-time-to-get-rid-of-the-linux-os-model-in-the-cloud.html Rich, since you tweeted about kernel stuff this is a good thing to keep in mind if your still looking at it. The I/O of devices is changing and apparently linux is still a huge bottleneck to work with. According to this it takes linux 20k instructions to perform a simple I/O request. The more i read about the exo kernel stuff the more it seemed like all you needed was the exo kernel and a lib to compensate for the missing kernel bits which i wonder if it could be mostly a pass through with the kernel not babysitting anymore. exciting times. stephen On Wed, Jan 28, 2015 at 12:12 PM, stephen Turner wrote: > On Wed, Jan 28, 2015 at 11:19 AM, Nathan McSween > wrote: > >> An exokernel just multiplexes resources, similar concept to 'unikernel' >> design such as ellcc bare metal project except that unikernels includes the >> api within the kernel (as I understand). IMO the best would a single >> address space but would require a language that could guarantee safety, you >> would still need to the split though to verify that it isn't something that >> shouldn't be loaded though. Correct me if I'm wrong. >> On Jan 28, 2015 7:41 AM, "stephen Turner" >> wrote: >> >>> so I have found 4 kernel types, exo, mono, mach, hybrid. >>> >>> the Exo sounds like the way to go but im curious if it could be built to >>> work with the existing linux world without rewriting everything for it. >>> since i have no programming knowledge im just curious what you guys think >>> about it if you have given it any thought. >>> >>> It is definately the ideal for hypervisors and with what little i have >>> read thus far feels like it manages hardware usage like containers but >>> without most of the kernel overhead to do so. >>> >>> Im getting tickled about this exo kernel. think i will go find more on >>> it. >>> >>> stephen >>> >> > Unikernels is that bare metal stuff is it not? so then that elk project > (is it elk?) is a unikernel + Musl + what ever linkage (syscalls and api?) > is needed to support native linux apps? > > If i am understanding this still out of my element programming jargon, exo > kernels don't manage the apps they take a step back and simply supervise. > this leaves the existing gnu applications to speak directly with hardware > which they were not made for by using syscalls that the existing kernel > recognizes. so there would need to be a userspace kernel (now were getting > into mach kernels) of sorts to intermediate for old school apps while > allowing new built for exo kernel apps to do their unencumbered duties. > > sound like wayland + xwayland to anyone else? :-p > > Stephen >