Linux Device Drivers, Second Edition

Splitting the Kernel

In a Unix system, several concurrent processes attend to different tasks. Each process asks for system resources, be it computing power, memory, network connectivity, or some other resource. The kernel is the big chunk of executable code in charge of handling all such requests. Though the distinction between the different kernel tasks isn’t always clearly marked, the kernel’s role can be split, as shown in Figure 1-1, into the following parts:

Figure 1-1. A split view of the kernel

Process management

The kernel is in charge of creating and destroying processes and handling their connection to the outside world (input and output). Communication among different processes (through signals, pipes, or interprocess communication primitives) is basic to the overall system functionality and is also handled by the kernel. In addition, the scheduler, which controls how processes share the CPU, is part of process management. More generally, the kernel’s process management activity implements the abstraction of several processes on top of a single CPU or a few of them.

Memory management

The computer’s memory is a major resource, and the policy used to deal with it is a critical one for system performance. The kernel builds up a virtual addressing space for any and all processes on top of the limited available resources. The different parts of the kernel interact with ...