Operating system support for emerging application domains
Michael Clarke · 2000
Traditional operating systems are based on a design first originated some thirty years ago. Though suitable then for supporting a limited and predetermined set of application domains, many flaws in this design have recently been exposed. Such systems are structured as a fixed set of abstractions and mechanisms presented to the application programmer through an Application Programmer’s Interface (API). The problem here is that many application domains have emerged that are not well suited to either the abstractions, mechanisms or policies of the services on offer. Typically, to rectify these problems, the operating system is continually extended to support emerging domains at some vendor defined interval. Such extensions tend to bloat the system with excess functionality, are extremely generic and sub-optimal in nature and introduce bugs into an ever expanding code base that becomes more and more difficult to maintain. The first part of this thesis reviews the three operating system architectures in use today and evaluates them against a number of requirements identified as necessary to