A server framework in the Act 8 operating system

Many modern operating systems consist of a microkernel and a set of services implemented as user-level processes. However, it is not easy to construct computing systems based on recent microkernels because they lack proper support for service development. In this paper, we propose an efficient framework for service development called the concurrent server model, as implemented in the Act 8 operating system. The concurrent server model requires minimal interactions between the microkernel and application subsystems, and yet provides real-time response. We also describe the design and implementation of the Act 8 microkernel and offer some performance information on the current implementation. (C) 1998 Scripta Technica.