S(o)OS Deliverables

S(o)OS D5.3 - First Set of OS Architecture Models - Executive Summary

This document reports the results of the preliminary investigations about general Operating System (OS) architecture models that will make it easier for developers to code applications on massively parallel and distributed systems as expected to be available in 10-15 years in the future. The discussion focuses first on a small set of target application scenarios which are useful to highlight particularly critical requirements posed by the applications on the OS, as arising in the context of S(o)OS. These requirements are mainly related to scalability issues of nowadays OSes and run-time environments. Then, the OS architecture model is sketched out in terms of subcomponents, their interconnections and interdependencies and behaviour. However, as this constitutes a first preliminary investigation that will be refined in the future version of this deliverable D5.4, the whole set of details of an OS architecture are not deeply discussed, but rather the focus is on those aspects that are critical for the project objectives. A recurring discussion in this context relates to kernel- versus user-space location of the OS/kernel components, which we however want to avoid in this first iteration, for the sake of concentrating on the OS capabilities in the first instance. Indeed, the definition of a whole OS architecture is actually outside the scope of the S(o)OS project. The main focus of this document (and of the refined version that will be released later) is the one to identify critical architectural elements and subcomponents that, constituting major bottlenecks in nowadays operating systems, need to be reviewed and rethought for the purpose of being able to face with future massively parallel and distributed systems so as to expose the available computing power to a broad range of developers, ranging from average developers to highly experienced ones.

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S(o)OS Deliverable D5.3 - First Set of OS Architecture Models.