Minix 3: An OS that doesn't suck -- too much.

Alan Grimes agrimes at speakeasy.net
Sat May 20 15:20:54 UTC 2006


> Maybe advantage of Minix3 over every other operating system I know is, that all (but one)
> device drivers are in user space. This has many direct implications
(they can be
> conveniently devoloped, when some experimental driver crashes, it does not cause the
> whole system to crash, faulty experimental drivers can be
automatically restarted, etc.)

Sorry, but that is false. =(
For all regular "kernel" features that is true.

However, for stuff that can access the hardware, such as DMA mechanisms,
 it is possible to circumvent all possible OS restrictions. It is
possible to design hardware that doesn't have that security limitation
-- IE all memory accesses from all devices are routed through a
virtualization system such as what the CPU itself uses... Even still,
Minix is a vast improvment over other designs.


-- 
Don't let your schoolwork get in the way of your learning.

### NEW E-MAIL: agrimes at speakeasy.net ###




More information about the Squeak-dev mailing list