Trustworthy Systems

The L4 microkernel — from research to mass deployment and back

Authors

Gernot Heiser

    School of Computer Science and Engineering
    UNSW,
    Sydney 2052, Australia

Published:

Invited Talk at Workshop on Isolation and Integration for Dependable Systems
Paris
France

Abstract

The talk describes the journey of the L4 microkernel from its roots in research to deployment in hundreds of millions of embedded devices. It discusses how this commercial experience shaped the kernel's API, and influenced further research. It concludes with a comparison of the latest research and commercial versions of L4 with the microkernel design rules stated by Liedtke, L4's creator, about 15 years ago.

BibTeX Entry

  @misc{Heiser_10:iids,
    author           = {Gernot Heiser},
    howpublished     = {Invited Talk at Workshop on Isolation and Integration for Dependable Systems, Paris, France},
    month            = apr,
    title            = {The {L4} Microkernel --- from Research to Mass Deployment and Back},
    year             = {2010}
  }

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