Inside L4/MIPS
Abstract
This document is an attempt to document the internal structure of L4 and
its operations. It is based on the L4 implementation for the MIPS R4x00
(L4/MIPS), kernel version 79 (February 1999). The document
is meant as an aid in teaching operating systems internals, and as a
guide for kernel implementors. While the actual code discussed is very
specific to the MIPS processor, much of the overall structure and logic
of L4 is quite uniform across platforms.
The present version of this report documents:
- kernel data structures,
- exception handling,
- the ipc() system call,
- the id_nearest() system call,
- the task_new() system call,
- the lthread_ex_regs() system call,
- the thread_switch() system call, and
- most of scheduling.
Documentation of the implementation of the other system calls
(thread_schedule() and fpage_unmap(), and
issues such as interrupts and initialisation will be added in the near
future.
PDF (print double sided)
Operating Systems and Distributed Systems Group, disy@cse.unsw.edu.au
Last modified:
Saturday, 19-Oct-2002 13:55:31 EST