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Out of curiosity, why shouldn't some level of device I/O be handled by the kernel? If the alternative is putting all device I/O responsibility in userspace pro
by jude- 12y ago
Out of curiosity, why shouldn't some level of device I/O be handled by the kernel? If the alternative is putting all device I/O responsibility in userspace processes, then wouldn't the kernel still need to do basic driver-related tasks like programming the IOMMU and DMA engine? Even if that's outsource-able to userspace, then wouldn't the kernel still need to run some sort of security-preserving outsourcing logic (e.g. only letting a trusted process access a hardware device)?
- justincormack 12y agoSure, minimal amount needed for safety should be in the kernel. That can also be somewhat federated if you like. Much of a kernel is not hardware access though, it is things like filesystems and sockets way on top of hardware.
- imanaccount247 12y ago>Sure, minimal amount needed for safety should be in the kernel Which is exactly how it is. So the question remains, what's the problem?