[Please Cc: me directly, since I'm not on tech-ports. Thanks]

Hi NetBSD porters,

is anyone or any group interested in porting NetBSD to the L4
microkernel[1]? Note that this would not be a regular port to
a new CPU architecture, but rather a port to a microkernel API!

A NetBSD/L4 port would follow two main goals:
  1. To run unmodified NetBSD binaries on top of L4 (on all
     architectures for which L4 has been ported to) somewhat
     like L4Linux[2].
  2. To later split the big monolithic NetBSD L4BSD task into
     modular components running in their own L4 tasks and
     doing ultra fast IPC via L4 when necessary.

1. would be needed to
  a) get acquainted to both NetBSD _and_ L4 APIs and learn
     how to cleanly cut the line between machine dependent
     and machine indepenent code in -CURRENT.
  b) have a development environment that can be used to
     implement 2. in a second stage.

2. would be mainly an exercise in code modularization. People
   familiar with the interdependencies between functions and
   modules (which one calls what) of the NetBSD kernel could
   say more about the necessary work.

Currently, there are few L4 implementations[3] written against
an old X.0 spec[4], but a much improved spec X.2[5] has been
released recently[5] (the reference microkernel Pistachio[6]
is not yet released). Of course, any NetBSD/L4 port will probably
use X.2 (and later Version 4) API with Pistachio. If someone
is already willing to play with L4, they can try Hazelnut[7]
which works pretty well.

More information about L4 can be found here[8].

Refs:
  [1] http://os.inf.tu-dresden.de/L4/doc.html
  [2] http://os.inf.tu-dresden.de/L4/LinuxOnL4/
  [3] http://os.inf.tu-dresden.de/L4/impl.html
  [4] http://i30www.ira.uka.de/publications/pub1998/Ln-86-21.ps
  [5] http://l4ka.org/documentation/files/l4-x2.pdf
  [6] http://l4ka.org/projects/pistachio/
  [7] http://l4ka.org/download/
  [8] http://os.inf.tu-dresden.de/L4/bib.html

Thanks,

-Farid.

-- 
Farid Hajji -- Unix Systems and Network Admin | Phone: +49-2131-67-555
Broicherdorfstr. 83, D-41564 Kaarst, Germany  | farid.hajji@ob.kamp.net
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One OS To Rule Them All And In The Darkness Bind Them... --Bill Gates.