Singularity 2.0 RDK Now Available!

Posted Monday, November 17, 2008 5:50 PM by Nathan Zaugg

Singularity Singularity is a Managed operating system started by Microsoft Research.  It's last version 1.1 target the .NET 1.1 framework and was a very fast OS (if not all that functional).  The latest version supports the 2.0 framework, 64-bit processing, additions to the Bartok (MSIL-to-native) compiler, and updates to the Sing# compiler (C# style language used to build the Kernel).

 

Here is the architecture map of the project:

SingularityArchitecture

Some of the interesting things about Singularity are:

  • The use of Managed code in the Kernel (also includes a small amount of C and assembly, but not much); therefore device drivers can be build using a C#-style language called Sing#.
  • SIP's (Software Isolated Processes) means that processes don't communicate without a "Channel", they are also not allowed to share memory directly or change their own code.  They are also very lightweight and allow the operating system to make guarantees about running code.
  • Channels are interfaced-based process communication that are meant to be safe and fast
  • Static Verification is used before starting a SIP to verify that the code that is about to be run "follows the rules" of the operating system.  This helps eliminate "harmful" code -- that is code that has a negative effect on the system as a whole.

You can download the RDK here.

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