Re: write news article about virtual kernel

["Dmitri Nikulin" <dnikulin@xxxxxxxxx>]

One question I am surprised not to find asked is: how do virtual
kernels work on SMP systems? A layered question I suppose; how would
the virtual kernel itself scale, and also how would its processes
scale, and how would the threads of those processes scale? The first
thing I think when I hear of a new (to me) virtualization system is
how well it would work with SMP.

Yet another question is, is there any long-term plan to allow virtual
kernels to control specific items of host hardware? This could be
extremely useful for fast development of drivers, if the host memory
protection is done properly. I think Xen has some facilities for this.
It's part of the way towards DragonFly having safe userland drivers:
using userland kernels with (what appears to them as) kernel drivers.
This seems a much simpler initial step than a whole new interaction
layer and architecture for userland drivers, even if it's not nearly
as simple or efficient as what the final result should be.

Thanks in advance for any responses.

---
Dmitri Nikulin

Centre for Synchrotron Science
Monash University
Victoria 3800, Australia

email: dnikulin@gmail.com