234 EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
has the problem that a failure in any part of the kernel can cause the whole system to
crash. Kernels of solaris, unix and linux are monolithic kernels.
7.7.1.2 | Microkernels
In this, some processes of the kernel (i.e. the less important parts) are separated out and
designated as ‘servers’. e relatively more important of these servers run in kernel space,
while the others run in user space. Because of this division, there is the need of interpro-
cessor communication (IPC-Section 7.12) between these servers (i.e. processes) which
can bring down the effi ciency of the kernel. But the advantage is that the modularity
prevents a ‘total crash’, if problems occur in some of the servers. Minix and BeOS are
examples of microkernels. ...