JavaOS

[Gabriel Sebestyen]

Hi,

First of all, Windows NT(tm :-) ) uses an own kernel developed by DEC
not Mach. Mach is designed to be a small and independent microkernel
which can be used to build your own system on. Mach 3 finally lost the
only (BSD) UN*X dependent part now it has a BSD server instead.
Some facts about Mach:
* unified and VERY efficient message handling
* simple but efficient virtual memory handling (who likes NT's memory
management? :-) )
* supports threads
* ported to a lot of platforms but it's as independent from them as it
can be

I think Mach is a real microkernel (because it was designed to be
originally and choosen by a lot of OS's) and an excellent starting point
to develope e.g. a JavaOS. Making a new kernel from the beginning does
not make sense! Just a little performance example:
An HP UNIX emulator to Mach wrote by a team for test purposes was faster
than the original HP! It's true believe me!

Gabriel Sebestyen