Coyotos

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coyotos is a capability-based security-focused microkernel operating system being developed at the Johns Hopkins University's Systems Research Laboratory[1]. It is a successor to the EROS system.

[edit] History

Coyotos is considered by its creators to be an “evolutionary step” [2] beyond the EROS operating system, which in turn was derived from KeyKOS, itself coming from GNOSIS Great New Operating System In the Sky). The primary developer of EROS was Jonathan Shapiro, who is also a driving force behind Coyotos. A more in-depth history is located at [3]. Since mid-2006 the Coyotos developers have been working with the developers of GNU Hurd to make Coyotos a suitable microkernel for GNU Hurd. However, progress is slow.

[edit] Objectives

While it has many objectives, one of the most interesting is to become the first formally verified operating system. To support this, the Coyotos project is concurrently developing a new programming language called BitC and a new compiler called BitCC.

[edit] Microkernel

Coyotos uses a microkernel design which “retains the atomicity and pure capability-based design of the EROS system”[4], but which uses a new asynchronous communications model, and “introduces a more efficient memory mapping mechanism”. Compare this with the Mach and L4 family of microkernels.

[edit] External links

• Coyotos web page
• EROS web page
• KeyKOS web page
• Jonathan Shapiro's web page
• BitC web page