VINO: An Integrated Platform for Operating System and Database Research

Abstract

In 1981, Stonebraker wrote: "Operating system services in many existing systems are either too slow or inappropriate. Current DBMSs usually provide their own and make little or no use of those offered by the operating system." The standard operating system model has changed little since that time, and we believe that, at its core, it is the wrong model for DBMS and other resource-intensive applications. The standard model is in inflexible, uncooperative, and irregular in its treatment of resources. We describe the design of a new system, the VINO kernel, which addresses the limitations of standard operating systems. It focuses on three key ideas: 1.) Applications direct policy. 2.) Kernel mechanisms are reusable by applications. 3.) All resources share a common extensible interface. VINO's power and flexibility make it an ideal platform for the design and implementation of traditional and modern database management systems.