Hype and virtue

  • Authors:
  • Timothy Roscoe;Kevin Elphinstone;Gernot Heiser

  • Affiliations:
  • ETH Zürich, Switzerland and National ICT Australia;National ICT Australia and University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia;National ICT Australia and Open Kernel Labs

  • Venue:
  • HOTOS'07 Proceedings of the 11th USENIX workshop on Hot topics in operating systems
  • Year:
  • 2007

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Abstract

In this paper, we question whether hypervisors are really acting as a disruptive force in OS research, instead arguing that they have so far changed very little at a technical level. Essentially, we have retained the conventional Unix-like OS interface and added a new ABI based on PC hardware which is highly unsuitable for most purposes. Despite commercial excitement, focus on hypervisor design may be leading OS research astray. However, adopting a different approach to virtualization and recognizing its value to academic research holds the prospect of opening up kernel research to new directions.