Exterminate all operating system abstractions

The de ning tragedy of the operating systems community has been the de nition of an operating sys tem as software that both multiplexes and abstracts physical resources The view that the OS should ab stract the hardware is based on the assumption that it is possible both to de ne abstractions that are appro priate for all areas and to implement them to perform e ciently in all situations We believe that the fallacy of this quixotic goal is self evident and that the op erating system problems of the last two decades poor performance poor reliability poor adaptability and in exibility can be traced back to it The solution we propose is simple complete elimination of operating system abstractions by lowering the operating system interface to the hardware level