Re:The SeL4 Microkernel: An Introduction [pdf]
by pjmlp on Sunday March 23, 2025 @02:05PM
(#43454609)
NT in Windows 11 has very little to do with the monolithic kernel story that keeps being repeated.
Not only did the graphics stack moved again back into userspace, there is now a complete userspace drivers stack, and VBS (Virtualization-based security) for several kernel components that run on their mini Hyper-V island, talking via IPC with the rest of the kernel.
Likewise on XNU land, Apple has started a crusade already a few years ago, to move all kexts into userspace, no more drivers in the kernel beyond the ones Apple considers critical.
In both cases, they never were a pure monolithic kernel, due to the way walls were introduced with kernel level IPC to talk across modules, instead of straight function calls.
Not only did the graphics stack moved again back into userspace, there is now a complete userspace drivers stack, and VBS (Virtualization-based security) for several kernel components that run on their mini Hyper-V island, talking via IPC with the rest of the kernel.
Likewise on XNU land, Apple has started a crusade already a few years ago, to move all kexts into userspace, no more drivers in the kernel beyond the ones Apple considers critical.
In both cases, they never were a pure monolithic kernel, due to the way walls were introduced with kernel level IPC to talk across modules, instead of straight function calls.