HelenOS: Difference between revisions

HelenOS
OS family	Experimental
Working state	Current
Source model	Open Source
Latest release	0.4.0 / Feb 14 2009
Repository	github.com/HelenOS/helenos ;
Platforms	IA-32, AMD64, SPARC V9, IA-64, PowerPC, ARM, MIPS
Kernel type	Microkernel
License	BSD
Official website	www.helenos.org

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Revision as of 13:46, 2 August 2009

HelenOS is an operating system based on a preemptible microkernel design. The source code of HelenOS is published under free software licences, making the operating system free software.

Technical Overview

HelenOS is based on a preemptible microkernel called SPARTAN. The microkernel handles multitasking, memory management and inter-process communication. It also provides kernel-based threads and supports symmetric multiprocessing. Each process (called task) can contain several threads (preemptively scheduled by the kernel) which, in turn, can contain several fibrils scheduled cooperatively in user space. Device and file-system drivers, as well as other system services, are implemented in user-space tasks (servers).

Tasks communicate via HelenOS IPC, which is connection-oriented and asynchronous. It can be used to send small fixed-size messages, blocks of bytes or to negotiate sharing of memory. Messages can be forwarded without copying bulk data or mapping memory to the address space of middle-men tasks.

Development

HelenOS is partly hobbyist, partly academic, being developed mainly by staff and former and contemporary students of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at Charles University in Prague, with help from other contributors around the world.

Available ports

HelenOS has been ported to run on many different computer architectures including ARM, AMD64 (x86-64), IA-32, IA-64 (Itanium), MIPS, PowerPC (32-bit only), and SPARC V9. There are also incomplete ports to 64-bit PowerPC and the Xen hypervisor paravirtualization environment on IA-32.

Source-code licensing

The source code of HelenOS is published under the BSD licence, while some third-party components are available under the GNU General Public License, and others are public domain. Both of these licences are free software licences, making HelenOS free software.

Research use

HelenOS is used for research in the area of creating a fully componentized operating system and implementing an object-oriented filesystem.

References

HelenOS architecture overview

External links

This operating-system-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 '''HelenOS''' is an [[operating system]] based on a [[Preemption (computing)|preemptible]] [[microkernel]] design. The [[source code]] of HelenOS is published under [[free software licence]]s, making the operating system [[free software]].
+== Technical Overview ==
-==Features==
-HelenOS is based on a [[microkernel]] design. It is fully [[Preemption (computing)|preemptible]]. It provides all the facilities expected of a modern kernel, including [[multitasking]], [[multithreading]], and [[symmetric multiprocessing]], but is small and easy to expand.  Particular features of HelenOS are: lightweight [[Inter-process communication|IPC]], [[thread-local storage]], and user-space managed [[Fiber (computer science)|fibrils]].
+HelenOS is based on a [[Preemption (computing)|preemptible]] [[microkernel]] called SPARTAN. The microkernel handles [[multitasking]], memory management and [[inter-process communication]]. It also provides kernel-based [[thread]]s and supports [[symmetric multiprocessing]]. Each process (called ''task'') can contain several [[Thread_(computer_science)|threads]] (preemptively scheduled by the kernel) which, in turn, can contain several [[Fiber (computer science)|fibrils]] scheduled cooperatively in user space. Device and file-system drivers, as well as other system services, are implemented in user-space tasks (''servers'').
+Tasks communicate via HelenOS IPC, which is [[connection-oriented]] and [[asynchronous]]. It can be used to send small fixed-size messages, blocks of bytes or to negotiate sharing of memory. Messages can be forwarded without copying bulk data or mapping memory to the address space of middle-men tasks.
-==Development==
-HelenOS is developed mainly by staff and students at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at [[Charles University in Prague]], with help from other contributors around the world.
+== Development ==
+HelenOS is partly hobbyist, partly academic, being developed mainly by staff and former and contemporary students of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at [[Charles University in Prague]], with help from other contributors around the world.
 ==Available ports==