Date: Wed, 09 Jun 1999 13:30:57 EDT From: Russell T Hunt <alaric@MIT.EDU> To: jobs@freebsd.org Cc: alaric@exoinc.com Subject: Startup looking for developers for a RADICAL NEW OS Message-ID: <199906091730.NAA14484@all-night-tool.mit.edu>
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Note: This OS is not BSD, but one of its interfaces implements the *BSD syscall interface, uses BSD derived device drivers, and runs BSD utils. *BSD or Linux kernel hacking experience wanted - filesystem, network, SMP, scheduling, drivers, etc. Exotec, Inc. (www.exoinc.com), an MIT Lab for Computer Science (LCS) spinoff, is looking for several more full-time operating system developers. We're commercializing the research quality version of the exokernel OS written by the Parallel and Distributed Operating Systems (PDOS) group at LCS. Be part of a fast-growing startup - we offer equity and competitive pay. We need people to write user-level filesystems, network stacks, SMP abstractions, etc. NOT JUST REWRITING UNIX FOR THE UMPTEENTH TIME - totally different from standard monolithic and microkernel designs. This stuff is really challenging and fun to design and implement. The exokernel architecture involves a relatively thin kernel which securely multiplexes the hardware (it has mechanism but very little policy). Exokernels implement traditional OS abstractions in user-level libraries - called library operating systems. The trick is that a demanding application can modify/rewrite whichever parts of a libOS fall on its fast path. An application which will be doing many short-lived http requests can optimize its TCP stack for that purpose, while a database application with certain file access patterns can optimize for its particular case. Regular programs and optimized ones can run simultaneously because the kernel securely multiplexes the resources. For more on the theory of exokernels check out the research papers and web site at http://pdos.lcs.mit.edu/exo/. The exokernel architecture should not be confused with the microkernel architecture. All of the exokernel standard utilities and libraries come from OpenBSD and the library operating system implements the OpenBSD system call interface (not fully of course, but well enough to run Apache, perl, gcc, etc. and also binary emulate programs as complicated as RealNetworks' RealServer). We also have a variety of programs (like http, nfs servers and web testing clients) which use our lower level interfaces to maximize performance. A lot of interesting OS work remains to be done, including work in the kernel and in the user-level library OS (designing/implementing missing parts of the tradition UNIX interface and also the lower-level high-speed extensible interfaces). Contact: Carl Zuckerman, Director of Engineering hr@exoinc.com (617) 354-1823, toll-free: 877-386-6464 http://www.exoinc.com/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-jobs" in the body of the message
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