A multikernel

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

treats a

multi-core A multi-core processor is a microprocessor on a single integrated circuit with two or more separate processing units, called cores, each of which reads and executes program instructions. The instructions are ordinary CPU instructions (such a ...

machine as a network of independent cores, as if it were a distributed system. It does not assume shared memory but rather implements inter-process communications as

message-passing In computer science, message passing is a technique for invoking behavior (i.e., running a program) on a computer. The invoking program sends a message to a process (which may be an actor or object) and relies on that process and its supporting ...

. Barrelfish was the first operating system to be described as a multikernel.

References

{{Operating system Distributed operating systems Operating system kernels

See also

References