Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Sat, 25 Feb 1995 09:38:26 -0700 (MST)
From:      Don Yuniskis <dgy@seagull.rtd.com>
To:        kelly@fsl.noaa.gov (Sean Kelly)
Cc:        freebsd-hackers@freefall.cdrom.com (FreeBSD hackers)
Subject:   Re: Lites and Doom
Message-ID:  <199502251638.JAA05276@seagull.rtd.com>
In-Reply-To: <9502250005.AA20919@junco.fsl.noaa.gov> from "Sean Kelly" at Feb 24, 95 05:05:45 pm

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
>     >> Is Lites officially out now???
>     Don> Yes. It was released a few days ago...
> 
> Okay ... what the poop is Lites anyway?

First, I think my original statement (above) may be in error...
I think rev 0.8 is available and 1.0 is due in a matter of hours.
I've also heard from jvh that a 1.1 will follow at some point.
Apologies to all... :-(

OK, as for "what it is"... LITES is a BSD4.4 lites derived
single server running atop the Mach microkernel.  I believe
LITES is unencumbered.  Mach3 is a freely redistributable
microkernel originally developed at CMU.  Work is now continuing
at Utah and OSF/RI.  Another group at CMU continues to work on
real-time extensions to Mach3.

OSF/1 from OSF uses a modified earlier version (~2.5) of the
Mach kernel to implement a BSD4.3 (?) single server.  DEC uses
OSF/1 on their Alphas (and others?).  I think IBM's OS/2 port
to one of the RISC machines is Mach based, also.  The HURD is
expected to ride atop Mach4 (from Utah).  CMU has also produced
BSDSS, Mach-UX (a 4.3 single server for Mach3), and Mach-US (ditto
except a *multi*-server configuration).  Each of these are
encumbered to some extent with BSD licensing.

The structure of the microkernel allows multiple OS personalities
to actively coexist as independant servers riding atop the same
microkernel.  And, since Mach is a message passing kernel, it seems
like an obvious choice for a multiprocessor OS implementation.



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199502251638.JAA05276>