Using Object-Oriented Techniques in Microkernel Based Operating Systems

Advanced future applications require to exploit new types of objects such as continuous media objects and distributed objects. Such new requirements stress operating systems to support variable levels of responsiveness and reliability. One computational model and resource management policy cannot cover the various requirements from all users so a exible structure is important when building future distributed systems to ensure such requirements. The microkernel is a good starting point to build such exible distributed systems. Current microkernel technologies, however, do not provide structuring tools for the internal structuring of microkernels and the system servers. In this paper, we describe object-oriented structuring techniques to be used in microkernel based operating systems. First, we survey several existing systems which use object-oriented techniques. Next, we describe objectoriented techniques used in Real-Time Mach in depth. Lastly, we discuss the architectures of microkernel based operating systems.