The Lions Operating System
2 days ago
- #seL4
- #Microkernel
- #Operating System
- LionsOS is an operating system based on the seL4 microkernel, focusing on performance, security, and reliability.
- Developed by the Trustworthy Systems research group at UNSW Sydney, Australia.
- Not a conventional OS but a collection of composable components for custom OS creation using Microkit.
- Components are connected via lock-free queues with an efficient model-checked signaling mechanism.
- Each component performs a single task, e.g., drivers convert hardware interfaces to queues.
- Virtualisers handle multiplexing, control, and address conversion between virtual and IO spaces.
- Information sharing is minimized, occurring only via queues or published information pages.
- The system is static, not adapting to hardware changes or loading components at runtime.
- Supports runtime swapping of components for policy changes or VM reboots with new Linux kernels.
- Encourages community contributions through pull requests to expand component libraries.