Operating Systems for Modern Applications

Irene ZhangAdriana Szekeres, Franzi Roesner,

Dan Ports, Hank Levy, Arvind Krishnamurthy

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1. Introduction

2. Re-thinking the OS

3. Research Projects

Once upon a time, applications were..

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single user, single platform, and single node.

AppOS

Operating systems provided important services.

• Execution environment & hardware abstractions (e.g., process model).

• Protection & isolation (e.g., access control policy and enforcement).

• Managed storage & caching (e.g., the file system).

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AppOS

Today, applications are ...

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multi-user, multi-platform and multi-node

MobileApp

MobileApp

OS OS

Operating systems provide fewer services for modern applications.

Applications are now responsible for:

• Executing in many heterogeneous execution environments.

• Protecting shared user data.

• Coordinating distributed storage & caches.

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1. Introduction

2. Re-thinking the OS

3. Research Projects

Evolution of Application Architecture

Mainframes & Minicomputers

OS

1970s-1980s 1990s-2000s

PCs & Laptops

OS

2010s-?

Mobile Devices & Cloud Servers

OS OS OS

Users

Apps

Systems

Hardware

Mobile Devices & Cloud Servers

OS OS OS

Are operating systems obsolete?

• Programmers must learn a different interface & process model for each platform.

• OS becomes a performance bottleneck, providing services that application doesn’t need.

• Application still must manage users, sharing, and cross-platform coordination.

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No! But the OS must now be…

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AppMobile

AppMobile

AppOS

distributed flexible customizable

OSOS OS

1. Introduction

2. Re-thinking the OS

3. Research Projects

Rethinking the OS

Distribution &

Deployment

Sapphire

Protection &

Privacy

Coordination &

Consistency

Sapphire

A new distributed execution environment that allows applications to control

performance trade-offs.

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Sapphire Architecture

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DK Server DK Server DK ServerDeployment Management Layer

Deployment Kernel

AppMobile

AppMobile

App

OSOS OS

Sapphire Runtime System

App

Protection &

Privacy

Rethinking the OS

Distribution &

Deployment

Sapphire Agate

Coordination &

Consistency

Agate

A new secure distributed OS for protecting shared user data.

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Agate Architecture

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Agate Server

Agate Server

Agate Server

Cloud App

MobileApp

MobileApp

OSOS OS

Rethinking the OS

Distribution &

Deployment

Sapphire

Coordination &

Consistency

Diamond

Protection &

Privacy

Agate

Diamond

A new coordination layer for tracking & synchronizing

distributed application state.

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Diamond Architecture

2020

Diamond Server

Diamond Server

Diamond Server

Cloud App

MobileApp

MobileApp

OSOS OS

Summary

• Traditional OSes do not provide the services that modern applications need.

• We must rethink the OS for the new requirements of modern applications.

• We are working on projects to provide new OS services for modern applications.

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