microkernel
Sign in to savethumb|450px|Structure of monolithic and microkernel-based operating systems, respectively
Article
14 sectionsContents
- History
- Introduction
- Inter-process communication
- Servers
- Device drivers
- Essential components and minimality
- Performance
- Security
- Third generation
- Examples
- Nanokernel
- See also
- References
- Further reading
thumb|450px|Structure of monolithic and microkernel-based operating systems, respectively
In computer science, a microkernel (often abbreviated as μ-kernel) is the near-minimum amount of software that can provide the mechanisms needed to implement an operating system (OS). These mechanisms include low-level address space management, thread management, and inter-process communication (IPC).