M$ Singularity...

[Sabre]

Very interesting M$ project and it has a RDK! Reminds me a little of QNX....

Singularity is a research project focused on the construction of dependable systems through innovation in the areas of systems, languages, and tools. We are building a research operating system prototype (called Singularity), extending programming languages, and developing new techniques and tools for specifying and verifying program behavior.

Advances in languages, compilers, and tools open the possibility of significantly improving software. For example, Singularity uses type-safe languages and an abstract instruction set to enable what we call Software Isolated Processes (SIPs). SIPs provide the strong isolation guarantees of OS processes (isolated object space, separate GCs, separate runtimes) without the overhead of hardware-enforced protection domains. In the current Singularity prototype SIPs are extremely cheap; they run in ring 0 in the kernel’s address space.

Singularity uses these advances to build more reliable systems and applications. For example, because SIPs are so cheap to create and enforce, Singularity runs each program, device driver, or system extension in its own SIP. SIPs are not allowed to share memory or modify their own code. As a result, we can make strong reliability guarantees about the code running in a SIP. We can verify much broader properties about a SIP at compile or install time than can be done for code running in traditional OS processes. Broader application of static verification is critical to predicting system behavior and providing users with strong guarantees about reliability.

[schvin]

interesting...

[schvin]

just noted your comment on qnx. my, it's been awhile!

[Sabre]

I have a love for OS's, just ask some of the people that have known me for awhile QnX has always been something to run for fun and definitely something I would run if I needed a RTOS. Personal favorite OS's though are BeOS (I've been watching Haiku as of late), FreeBSD and Windoze XP (for games

[ElZorro]

Reading through that, it sounds like they're pushing the Java concept down into the OS...

[Sabre]

Agreed! To me, a SIP = VM This is the scary part of the whole thing:

In the current Singularity prototype SIPs are extremely cheap; they run in ring 0 in the kernel’s address space.

Did they not learn!?!?!?! Let's create a VM, but put it in ring 0! That's a GREAT idea... ug...

[schvin]

Agreed! To me, a SIP = VM This is the scary part of the whole thing:

In the current Singularity prototype SIPs are extremely cheap; they run in ring 0 in the kernel’s address space.

Did they not learn!?!?!?! Let's create a VM, but put it in ring 0! That's a GREAT idea... ug...

yeah, i admit i did cringe at that!