a no-kernel system

[Raul Deluth Miller]

Francois-Rene Rideau: [...]

Here's my translation :-)

A kernel is a mechanism to simulate multiple physical machines on a
single processor.  Since we already have multiple physical machines we
don't need to enforce that every processor is running a kernel.

Kernels can be implemented, where necessary (they're just another
process that takes over communication), but shouldn't be required on
all machines.

......................................................................

My only question is: how do we recover from individual machine
crashes?  One of the services a kernel provides (which is
traditionally classified under "security") is that when a virtual
machine crashes the machine is still running.

More generally, what do we do about programming bugs which shut down
communications with the outside world?  ["Open the pod bay doors,
please, HAL..."?]  

-- 
Raul D. Miller          N=:((*/pq)&|)@                 NB. public e, y, n=:*/pq
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                        1=t|e*d    NB. (,-:<:)pq is four large primes, e medium
x-:d P,:y=:e P,:x                  NB. (d P,:y)-:D P*:N^:(i.#D)y [. D=:|.@#.d