FTL: A new operating system for clouds
2 hours ago
- FTL allows building an OS as a userspace library, simplifying feature addition, debugging, and safe upgrades.
- The FTL kernel isolates containers with a hypervisor-like interface using lightweight hardware-based isolation, outperforming monolithic kernels.
- FTL is compatible with Linux binaries, supporting both standard Linux applications and specialized Unikernel-like apps without POSIX abstractions.
- Each container runs a userspace OS as a shared library implementing process, VFS, TCP/IP, and more, with FTL providing a minimal hypervisor-like interface.
- FTL combines the flexibility and security of microkernels with the performance and simplicity of monolithic kernels, aiming for VM-level security in lightweight containers.
- The userspace OS design allows extending Linux kernel features without kernel or eBPF programming, enabling rapid and safe addition of features and security updates.