VINO: An Integrated Platform for Operating System and Database Research

In 1981, Stonebraker wrote: Operating system services in many existing systems are either too slow or inappropriate. Current DBMSs usually provide their own and make little or no use of those o ered by the operating system. [STON81] The standard operating system model has changed little since that time, and we believe that, at its core, it is the wrong model for DBMS and other resource-intensive applications. The standard model is in exible, uncooperative, and irregular in its treatment of resources. We describe the design of a new system, the VINO kernel, which addresses the limitations of standard operating systems. It focuses on three key ideas: Applications direct policy. Kernel mechanisms are reusable by applications. All resources share a common extensible interface. VINO's power and exibility make it an ideal platform for the design and implementation of traditional and modern database management systems.