Dynamic translator-based virtualization

Abstract

Microkernels and virtual machine monitors are both utilized as platforms for running operating systems. Although there are many similarities in their designs and features, they have opposite advantages and drawbacks. A microkernel based system is highly portable. However, the interface it exposes is inflexible and incompatible with other real hardware interfaces. In contrast, a virtual machine monitor interface is identical to a specific real hardware interface. However, the implementation of virtual machine monitors highly depends on processor architectures and specific hardwares. In this paper, we present a new model of virtual machine monitor, a flexible dynamic translator constructed on a portable microkernel. Our model offers both high portability and compatibility. Moreover, its flexible interface could be reconfigured to support various types of hardware interfaces. The results of the evaluation show that the performance of our prototype system is unsatisfactory, so we propose some techniques to improve its performance as future work. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2007.