Design and implementation of an object-orientated 64-bit single address space microkernel

Abstract

In the mid eighties, the System Architecture Research Centre at City University developed a message-passing, UNIX compliant micro kernel (Meshix) for our own scalable distributed memory architecture (Topsy). Over the last two years we have been engaged in a research programme aimed at learning from this experience, and developing a new operating system based on these lessons. The result is the Angel microkernel. This paper sets out the lessons we have learnt from Meshix, how this has influenced the design of Angel and outlines our current design of Angel and its C++ implementation. We will also describe our future plans and hopes for Angel, and the lessons that we have learnt from the design and implementation process. 1 Introduction Almost all modern operating systems are being designed using microkernels [1, 2]. The microkernel architecture can be said to encompass good software engineering practice: small code "units" that are insulated from each other together with a minimal amou...