Title:		Virtualising Darwin on L4

Author:		Joshua Root

		School of Computer Science and Engineering,
		The University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia,
		jmr@cse.unsw.edu.au

Abstract:

Virtualisation involves abstracting the interface between computer hardware 
and the operating systems that run on it. One real machine can be used 
to run several operating systems simultaneously, presenting a complete ma- 
chine interface to each of them. Virtualisation is increasingly popular due 
to its usefulness for many tasks, such as server consolidation, debugging, 
improving security, and running legacy software.

I have added virtualisation features to the Darbat operating system, a 
version of Apple's Darwin OS that has been modified to run on the L4 
microkernel. Multiple instances of the Darbat kernel can be executed si- 
multaneously on a single computer system. Each instance is isolated from 
the others by hardware-enforced memory protection. System resources, in- 
cluding memory, CPU time, and peripheral devices, are shared between the 
Darbat instances in a controlled manner.