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About this paper
Gernot Heiser, Ivan Velickovic, Peter Chubb, Alwin Joshy, Anuraag Ganesh, Bill Nguyen, Cheng Li, Courtney Darville and 7 more
LionsOS, an operating system built on the seL4 microkernel and Microkit, offers a practical approach to developing high-assurance systems for industrial embedded applications. It achieves superior networking performance, outperforming Linux with higher throughput, lower CPU usage, and 3-10x lower latency, while maintaining a small trusted computing base and simplifying driver development.
Key insights
- Fine-grained modularity in microkernel-based operating systems can achieve performance comparable to or exceeding monolithic designs, directly challenging the long-held belief that IPC overheads are prohibitive.
- A design philosophy focused on 'radical simplicity' enables both high performance and a significantly reduced trusted computing base (e.g., ~3.1 kSLOC), making end-to-end formal verification more attainable.
- Encapsulating legacy Linux drivers in minimal Linux guest VMs offers a practical and efficient method for reusing existing drivers, bridging the gap for devices not warranting native rewrites.
Summary by alphaXiv.
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