system revision 1.6
1 $NetBSD: system,v 1.6 2009/09/15 21:07:58 agc Exp $ 2 3 NetBSD System Roadmap 4 ===================== 5 6 This is a small roadmap document, and deals with the main system 7 aspects of the operating system. 8 9 The following projects are expected to be included in NetBSD 6.0 10 11 1. 64-bit time values supported 12 2. Better Kernel Modules support 13 3. Full kernel preemption for real-time threads 14 4. POSIX shared memory 15 5. namei() tactical changes 16 6. Better resource controls 17 7. Improved observability: online crashdumps, remote debugging 18 8. Processor and cache topology aware scheduler 19 9. namei() strategic changes 20 21 We currently expect to branch 6.0 in the March 2010 timeframe, with a view 22 to a 6.0 release later in 2010. 23 24 We'll continue to update this roadmap as features and dates get firmed up. 25 26 27 Some explanations 28 ================= 29 30 1. 64-bit time_t support 31 ------------------------- 32 33 The Unix 32-bit time_t value will overflow in 2037 - any mortgage calculations 34 which use a time_t value are in danger of overflowing at the present time - 35 and to address this, 64-bit time_t values will be used to contain the number 36 of seconds since 1970. 37 38 Responsible: christos 39 40 2. Better Kernel Module Support 41 ------------------------------- 42 43 Starting with 5.99.2, the kernel support for modules was enhanced by 44 ad, and GENERIC was switched over to be a MODULAR kernel. Support 45 from booting from modules, like ffs, was introduced at the same time. 46 Some work has been done by Luke Mewburn in this area to define module 47 locations and paths so that effective kernel development can be done 48 using modules. 49 50 Responsible: ad, lukem 51 52 3. Full kernel preemption for real-time threads 53 ----------------------------------------------- 54 55 With the revamp of the kernel concurrency model, much of the kernel is fully 56 multi-threaded and can therefore be preempted at any time. In support of 57 lower context switch and dispatch times for real-time threads, full kernel 58 preemption is being implemented. 59 60 4. POSIX shared memory 61 ---------------------- 62 63 Implement POSIX shared memory facilities, which can be used to create the 64 shared memory objects and add the memory locations to the address space of 65 a process. 66 67 Responsible: rmind 68 69 5. Incremental namei improvements, Phase 1 70 ------------------------------------------ 71 72 In NetBSD 5.99.15, some changes were made to split the namei() routine 73 up into logical parts, so that changes can be made to the constituent 74 parts in a less intrusive way. 75 76 Responsible: dholland 77 78 6. Better resource controls 79 --------------------------- 80 81 A resource provisioning and control framework that extends beyond the 82 traditional Unix process limits. 83 84 7. Improved observability: online crashdumps, remote debugging 85 -------------------------------------------------------------- 86 87 XXX crashdumps while the system is running 88 XXX firewire support in libkvm 89 90 8. Processor and cache topology aware scheduler 91 ----------------------------------------------- 92 93 Implement the detection of the topology of the processors and caches. 94 Improve the scheduler to make decisions about thread migration 95 according to the topology, to get better thread affinity and less 96 cache thrashing, and thus improve overall performance in modern SMP 97 systems. 98 99 Responsible: rmind 100 101 9. Incremental namei improvements, Phase 2 102 ------------------------------------------ 103 104 Implement the rest of the changes to namei outlined in Message-ID: 105 <20080319053709.GB3951 (a] netbsd.org>. Simplify the locking and behavior 106 of namei() calls within the kernel to resolve path names within file 107 systems. 108 109 Responsible: dholland 110 111 112 113 Alistair Crooks 114 Tue 15 Sep 2009 08:02:11 PDT 115
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