The ServOS kernel: a special-purpose operating system kernel for server machines

For distributed computer systems consisting of dedicated user and server machines the paper investigates the problem of the best operating system (OS) support to server modules loaded on server machines. It argues in favor of a special-purpose OS kernel and describes the ServOS system, which contains such a kernel. Special attention is given to those aspects that contrast the ServOS kernel against its main competitors, general-purpose distributed operating system (DOS) kernels. The differences are in two areas. First, the ServOS kernel takes simpler solutions where problems are easier to solve on server machines. Second, it gives the server modules a higher-level OS support