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> Some Amiga diehards await the day when we all realize that virtual memory and process isolation are passing fads, and go back to setting interrupt vectors and
by 0815test 8y ago
> Some Amiga diehards await the day when we all realize that virtual memory and process isolation are passing fads, and go back to setting interrupt vectors and walking kernel data structures directly in RAM like real programmers did on the Amiga back in the day.
You mean, like a unikernel? I don't think anyone has tried to write a modern desktop stack that runs within a unikernel, as the Amiga OS did (parts of the desktop widget interface were even hardwired in ROM) but it can't be that hard if you can get useful language-based guarantees.
- bitwize 8y agoWell, there is AROS, but language guarantees don't stop a rogue binary from bringing the whole system down. For that you want ISA guarantees, and then you're talking a moddern OS. Unikernels only make sense when the entire application of the system is defined AOT.
- swiley 8y agoThat really doesn't sound so bad if the applications are small and everyone can see the sourcecode. That's not the way amiga software was though heh.
- aidenn0 8y agoI know I've seen a design for mostly-single-address-space OS that use a VM just for running untrusted binaries. I think it was from someone working on one of the EROS successors, but not sure. I've also seen proof-carrying code proposed as an alternative; binaries must carry proof that they do not exceed certain capabilities and the proof is verified before they are run.