Last Updated on: 22nd August 2023, 03:28 pm
Web site: www.eros-os.org (not active)
Origin: USA
Category: Microkernel, Others
Desktop environment: CLI
Architecture: x86
Based on: KeyKOS
Wikipedia: EROS
Media: Install
The last version | Released: 1.1 | April 18, 2001
EROS (Extremely Reliable Operating System) – an operating system being implemented at the University of Pennsylvania, as a clean-room reconstruction of an earlier system, KeyKOS. The system merges some very old ideas in operating systems with some newer ideas about performance and resource management. The result is a small, secure, real-time operating system that provides orthogonal persistence.
EROS is a pure capability system. Authority in the system is conveyed exclusivly by secure capabilities, down to the granularity of individual pages.
The EROS kernel itself is implemented using multiple kernel-mode threads. This improves the performance of EROS drivers, makes them simpler to code, and greatly simplifies the design of the kernel. In addition, it enables selected kernel functionality to be preempted by higher priority user activities.
Because EROS processes are persistent, processes can hold authorities in their own right rather than inheriting them from the user. This enables a rich variety of options for security and access control that are impossible in systems lacking persistent processes.
EROS developed beginning in 1991 by The EROS Group, LLC., the Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Pennsylvania. Features include automatic data and process persistence, some preliminary real-time support, and capability-based security. EROS is purely a research operating system, and was never deployed in real world use. As of 2005, development has stopped in favor of two successor systems, CapROS and Coyotos.
The project founder is Jonathan Shapiro. He is also the driving force behind Coyotos, which is an “evolutionary step” beyond the EROS operating system.