From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Mar 18 07:43:37 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EF0921065673 for ; Tue, 18 Mar 2008 07:43:37 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from peterjeremy@optushome.com.au) Received: from mail09.syd.optusnet.com.au (mail09.syd.optusnet.com.au [211.29.132.190]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 707178FC19 for ; Tue, 18 Mar 2008 07:43:37 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from peterjeremy@optushome.com.au) Received: from server.vk2pj.dyndns.org (c220-239-20-82.belrs4.nsw.optusnet.com.au [220.239.20.82]) by mail09.syd.optusnet.com.au (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id m2I7hW3x004408 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Tue, 18 Mar 2008 18:43:33 +1100 Received: from server.vk2pj.dyndns.org (localhost.vk2pj.dyndns.org [127.0.0.1]) by server.vk2pj.dyndns.org (8.14.2/8.14.1) with ESMTP id m2I7hWaG078831; Tue, 18 Mar 2008 18:43:32 +1100 (EST) (envelope-from peter@server.vk2pj.dyndns.org) Received: (from peter@localhost) by server.vk2pj.dyndns.org (8.14.2/8.14.2/Submit) id m2I7hWHR078830; Tue, 18 Mar 2008 18:43:32 +1100 (EST) (envelope-from peter) Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2008 18:43:32 +1100 From: Peter Jeremy To: Matthew Dillon Message-ID: <20080318074332.GS44676@server.vk2pj.dyndns.org> References: <20080316122108.S44049@fledge.watson.org> <200803162313.m2GNDbvl009550@apollo.backplane.com> <3c0b01820803171243k5eb6abd3y1e1c44694c6be0f6@mail.gmail.com> <200803172016.m2HKGfjA020263@apollo.backplane.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="tMbDGjvJuJijemkf" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <200803172016.m2HKGfjA020263@apollo.backplane.com> X-PGP-Key: http://members.optusnet.com.au/peterjeremy/pubkey.asc User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.17 (2007-11-01) Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Re[2]: vkernel & GSoC, some questions X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2008 07:43:38 -0000 --tMbDGjvJuJijemkf Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 01:16:41PM -0700, Matthew Dillon wrote: > This reminds me of XEN. Basically instead of trying to rewrite > instructions or do 100% hardware emulation it sounds like they are > providing XEN-like functionality where the target OS is aware it is > running inside a hypervisor and can make explicit 'shortcut' calls to > the hypervisor instead of attempting to access the resource via > emulated hardware. That reminds me of IBM VM/CMS: CP (the hypervisor) had a variety of magic "syscalls" (via the DIAGNOSE instruction) that CMS would use to perform (eg) real I/O. > Frankly, I would love to see something like VMWare force an industry-w= ide > API for machine access which bypasses the holy hell of a mess we have It would need to be open and I can't see any particular driver for VMWare (or anyone else) to force this. > with the BIOS, and see BIOSes then respec to a new far cleaner API. T= he > BIOS is the stinking pile of horseshit that has held back OS developme= nt > for the last 15 years. I'd go further and say that BIOSes are getting worse: Back in the AT-clone days, you could just totally ignore the BIOS once you'd gotten the kernel loaded. Now you _have_ to keep talking to the BIOS for things like ACPI - but the BIOSes are still just as broken as they used to be. --=20 Peter Jeremy Please excuse any delays as the result of my ISP's inability to implement an MTA that is either RFC2821-compliant or matches their claimed behaviour. --tMbDGjvJuJijemkf Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.8 (FreeBSD) iEYEARECAAYFAkffcqQACgkQ/opHv/APuIe2rACfe+2P3UZbyZZuQDNlQic8Jm7I DQMAoK2X2gB2BqiGT9U1SxvVEq+w42cK =1toW -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --tMbDGjvJuJijemkf--