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XNU is the name of the kernel that Apple acquired and developed for use in the Mac OS X operating system and released as open source as part of the Darwin operating system. XNU is an acronym for X is Not Unix.[1] In computer science, the kernel is the core piece of most operating systems. ... Apple Computer, Inc. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... An operating system (OS) is an essential software program that manages the hardware and software resources of a computer. ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... Hexley, the mascot of Darwin Darwin is a free, open source, Unix-like operating system first released by Apple Computer in 2000. ... Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial letter or letters of words, such as NATO and XHTML, and are pronounced in a way that is distinct from the full pronunciation of what the letters stand for. ... Wikibooks has more about this subject: Guide to Unix Unix or UNIX is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T Bell Labs employees including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and Douglas McIlroy. ...


Originally developed by NeXT for the NEXTSTEP operating system, XNU was a hybrid kernel combining version 2.5 of the Mach kernel developed at Carnegie Mellon University with components from 4.3BSD and an object-oriented API for writing drivers called Driver Kit. The NeXT logo, designed by Paul Rand. ... NeXTSTEP is the original object-oriented, multitasking operating system that NeXT Computer, Inc. ... Graphical overview of a hybrid kernel Hybrid kernels are essentially microkernels that have some non-essential machine code in the kernel address space in order for that code to run more quickly than it would were it to be in user space. ... Mach is an operating system kernel developed at Carnegie Mellon University to support operating system research, primarily distributed and parallel computation. ... Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. ... BSD redirects here; for other uses see BSD (disambiguation). ...


After the acquisition of NeXT by Apple, the Mach component was upgraded to 3.0, the BSD components were upgraded with code from the FreeBSD project and the Driver Kit was replaced with a C++ API for writing drivers called I/O Kit. FreeBSD is a Unix-like free software operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) branch through 386BSD and 4. ... C++ (generally pronounced see plus plus) is a general-purpose programming language. ... The I/O Kit is an open-source framework in the XNU kernel that helps developers code device drivers for Darwin-enabled operating systems (one popularly known as Apples Mac OS X.) The I/O Kit framework was originally introduced at the release of Mac OS X along with...

Contents


Kernel design

Like some other modern kernels, XNU is a hybrid, containing features of both monolithic and microkernels, attempting to make the best use of both technologies, such as the message passing capability of microkernels enabling larger portions of the OS to benefit from protected memory, as well as retaining the speed of monolithic kernels for certain critical tasks. In computer science, the kernel is the core piece of most operating systems. ... Memory protection is a system that prevents one process from corrupting the memory of another process running on the same computer at the same time. ...


Mach was originally conceived as a simple, extensible microkernel. As such, it is able to run the core of an operating system as a separated process, which allows a great flexibility (one could run several operating systems in parallel above the Mach core), but this reduces performance because of the translations between Mach and the different codebases. With Mac OS X, since the behavior of the system is known in advance, BSD functionalities were built into the core with Mach. The result is a combination of the assets of Mach and BSD. BSD redirects here; for other uses see BSD (disambiguation). ...


Mach

The core of the XNU kernel, Mach, provides kernel threads, processes, pre-emptive multitasking, message-passing (used in inter-process communication), protected memory, virtual memory management, very soft real-time support, kernel debugging support, and console I/O. The Mach component also allows the OS to host binaries for multiple distinct CPU architectures within a single file (such as x86 and PowerPC) due to its use of the Mach-O binary format. A thread in computer science is short for a thread of execution. ... In computing, a process is a running instance of a program, including all variables and other state. ... Pre-emptive multitasking is a form of multitasking. ... The expression Inter-process communication (IPC) describes the exchange of data between one process and another, either within the same computer or over a network. ... Memory protection is a system that prevents one process from corrupting the memory of another process running on the same computer at the same time. ... The memory pages of the virtual address space seen by the process, may reside non-contiguously in primary, or even secondary storage. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... Debugging is a methodical process of finding and reducing the number of bugs, or defects, in a computer program or a piece of electronic hardware thus making it behave as expected. ... This article is about the computer interface. ... x86 or 80x86 is the generic name of a microprocessor architecture first developed and manufactured by Intel. ... PowerPC is a RISC microprocessor architecture created by the 1991 Apple-IBM-Motorola alliance, known as AIM. Originally intended for personal computers, PowerPC CPUs have since become popular embedded and high-performance processors as well. ... Mach-O, short for Mach object file format, is a file format for executables and object code. ...


BSD

The BSD portion of the kernel provides the POSIX API (BSD system calls), the Unix process model atop Mach tasks, basic security policies, user and group ids, permissions, the network stack, the virtual file system code (including a filesystem independent journalling layer), cryptographic framework, System V IPC, and some of the locking primitives. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... An application programming interface (API) is the interface that a computer system, library or application provides in order to allow requests for service to be made of it by other computer programs, and/or to allow data to be exchanged between them. ... Wikibooks has more about this subject: Guide to Unix Unix or UNIX is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T Bell Labs employees including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and Douglas McIlroy. ... A protocol stack is a particular software implementation of a computer networking protocol suite. ... A Virtual file system (VFS) or Virtual filesystem switch is an abstraction layer on top of a more concrete file system. ... It has been suggested that Traditional Unix be merged into this article or section. ...


I/O Kit

This is the device driver framework, written in a subset of C++. Due to its object-oriented design, device drivers can be written more quickly while using less code; features common to any class of driver are provided within the framework itself. The I/O Kit is multi-threaded, SMP safe, and allows for hot pluggable devices and automatic, dynamic device configuration. A device driver, often called a driver for short, is a computer program that enables another program, typically an operating system (OS), to interact with a hardware device. ... C++ (generally pronounced see plus plus) is a general-purpose programming language. ... In computer science, object-oriented programming, OOP for short, is a computer programming paradigm. ... Symmetric Multiprocessing, or SMP, is a multiprocessor computer architecture where two or more identical processors are connected to a single shared main memory. ...


Many drivers can be written to run from user-space, which further enhances the stability of the system; if a user-space driver crashes, it will not crash the kernel.


Protecting shared resources

In order to run safely on multiprocessor machines, access to shared resources (files, data structures etc.) must be serialized so that threads or processes do not attempt to modify the same resource at the same time. Atomic operations, spinlocks, critical sections, mutexes, and serializing tokens are all possible methods that can be used to prevent concurrent access. Like both Linux and FreeBSD 5, XNU, as of Mac OS X 10.4 and Darwin 8.0, employs a fine-grained mutex model to achieve higher performance on multiprocessor systems. In software engineering, a spinlock is a lock where the thread simply waits in a loop (spins) repeatedly checking until the lock becomes available. ... Mutual exclusion (often abbreviated to mutex) algorithms are used in concurrent programming to avoid the concurrent use of un-shareable resources by pieces of computer code called critical sections. ... Linux (also known as GNU/Linux) is a computer operating system. ... FreeBSD is a Unix-like free software operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) branch through 386BSD and 4. ... Multiprocessing is traditionally known as the use of multiple concurrent processes in a system as opposed to a single process at any one instant. ...


Supported processors

Currently, XNU runs on x86 (Intel and AMD) based computers, as well as PowerPC based machines, both single processor and SMP models. x86 or 80x86 is the generic name of a microprocessor architecture first developed and manufactured by Intel. ... Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC, SEHK: 4335), founded in 1968 as Integrated Electronics Corporation, is a U.S.-based multinational corporation that is best known for designing and manufacturing microprocessors and specialized integrated circuits. ... Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. ... PowerPC is a RISC microprocessor architecture created by the 1991 Apple-IBM-Motorola alliance, known as AIM. Originally intended for personal computers, PowerPC CPUs have since become popular embedded and high-performance processors as well. ... Symmetric Multiprocessing, or SMP, is a multiprocessor computer architecture where two or more identical processors are connected to a single shared main memory. ...


References

  1.   (2005). Porting UNIX/Linux Applications to Mac OS X: Glossary. Apple Computer. URL accessed on December 13, 2005.

December 13 is the 347th day of the year (348th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

  • Building the XNU kernel on Mac OS X 10.3.x / OpenDarwin 7.2.1 (for mortals)
  • XNU: The Kernel - an overview of the components of XNU on kernelthread.com
Mac OS X
Applications

Activity Monitor · Address Book · AirPort Admin Utility · Audio MIDI Setup · Automator · Bluetooth File Exchange · BOMArchiveHelper · Calculator · Chess · Classic · ColorSync Utility · Console · Crash Reporter · Dashboard · Dictionary · DigitalColor Meter · Directory Access · DiskImageMounter · Disk Utility · DVD Player · Exposé · Finder · Font Book · Grab · Grapher · Help Viewer · iCal · iChat · Image Capture · Installer · Internet Connect · iSync · Keychain Access · Mail · Migration Assistant · NetInfo Manager · Network Utility · ODBC Administrator · Photo Booth · Preview · Printer Setup Utility · QuickTime Player · Safari · Script Editor · Sherlock · Software Update · Spotlight · Stickies · System Preferences · System Profiler · Terminal · TextEdit · VoiceOver · X11 This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Activity Monitor is the name of a utility for performing different tasks to a computer process in the Mac OS X operating system. ... An address book or a name and address book (NAB) is a book or a collection of data storing contact details (for example: address, telephone number, e-mail address, fax number, mobile phone number). ... The AirPort Admin Utility in Mac OS X serves to allow the user to configure AirPort Wifi Base Stations to create a wireless network. ... The Audio MIDI Setup utility is a program that comes with the Mac OS X operating system for adjusting the computers audio input and output configuration settings and managing MIDI devices. ... Apple Automator is a new technology for automating applications, first implemented in Mac OS X v10. ... Bluetooth File Exchange is an aptly-named utility that comes with the Mac OS X operating system, used to exchange files to or from a Bluetooth-enabled device. ... BOMArchiveHelper is the default archive file handler in Mac OS X. It is a service application that has no GUI when double-clicked, rather it is invoked by opening its associated files or by choosing Create archive of file in the Finders contextual menu. ... Calculator is a basic calculator application made by Apple Computer and bundled with Mac OS X. It has three modes: basic, scientific, and programmer. ... Chess is a chess game for Mac OS X, featuring a high quality graphical display and support for chess variants such as crazyhouse and suicide chess. ... Classic is an emulation layer in Mac OS X that allows applications written for earlier versions of Mac OS to run on OS X systems, without having to boot the system using one of those versions. ... ColorSync Utility is an interface for Apples ColorSync specification on the Mac OS X operating system. ... Console is the default log viewer in Mac OS X. Categories: | ... Crash Reporter is the standard crash reporter in Mac OS X, fount at /System/Library/CoreServices/Crash Reporter. ... Dashboard is an application for Apple Computers Mac OS X operating system, used for hosting mini-applications known as widgets. It is a semi-transparent layer that is invisible to the user unless activated by a hotkey (which can be set to the users preference), and is only... Dictionary is an application introduced with Mac OS X v10. ... DigitalColor Meter is a utility for measuring and displaying the colour values of pixels displayed on the screen of a Macintosh computer. ... Directory Access is a Mac OS X utility for connecting to network services. ... DiskImageMounter is the utility that handles mounting disk images in Mac OS X. Like BOMArchiveHelper it has no GUI when double-clicked, in fact doing so does nothing. ... Disk Utility is the name of a utility created from Apple Computer for performing disk-related tasks in Mac OS X. These tasks include: the creation of disk images; mounting, unmounting, and ejecting disks (including both hard disks, removable media and disk images); enabling or disabling journaling; verifying a disk... This page relates to Apple software. ... Mac OS X 10. ... The Finder is the default application program used on the Mac OS and Mac OS X operating systems that is responsible for the overall user-management of files, disks, network volumes and the launching of other applications. ... Apples Font Book includes fonts, and dividing them into groups. ... Grab is an application by Apple Computer used to make screenshots of the users computer. ... Grapher is a new application bundled with Mac OS X v10. ... Help Viewer is a WebCore based HTML viewer aimed at displaying help files and other documentation. ... The correct title of this article is iCal. ... iChat is an AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and Jabber client for Mac OS X. Using a Jabber-like protocol and Bonjour for user discovery, it also allows for LAN communication. ... Image Capture in Mac OS X serves to allow the user to upload pictures from digital cameras or scanners either connected to the computer or the network. ... Installer is an application included in Mac OS X which extracts and installs files out of . ... The Internet Connect in Mac OS X serves to allow the user to activate connections to the internet via an ISP or VPN. It also provides a simple way to connect to an AirPort Network. ... iSync 1. ... Keychain Access in Mac OS X serves to allow the user to configure keychain passwords - unlocking, locking and displaying passwords saved by the system which are dynamically linked to ones login password. ... Mail (aka Mail. ... Migration Assistant is a/an utility by Apple Computer that imports users, applications, settings, various files and volumes to a new Macintosh computer from a (presumably) older one. ... NetInfo Manager is a utility that comes with Mac OS X. It is found in /Applications/Utilities/NetInfo Manager. ... Network Utility is a an application included with Mac OS X that provides a variety of computer network information. ... ODBC Administrator is a utility in the Mac OS X operating system for administering ODBC. Category: ... A photo booth is a kiosk which contains an automated, usually coin-operated, camera and film processor. ... Apple Preview 2. ... The Printer Setup Utility in Mac OS X serves to allow the user to configure printers physically connected to the computer, or connected via a network. ... QuickTime is a multimedia technology developed by Apple Computer, capable of handling various formats of digital video, sound, text, animation, music, and immersive virtual reality panoramic images. ... Safari is a web browser developed by Apple Computer, Inc. ... Script Editor is a program included with Mac OS that allows AppleScripts to be written, debugged, and ran. ... Sherlock 2 for Mac OS 9, Files Channel Sherlock, named after Sherlock Holmes, is the file and web searching tool made by Apple Computer for the Mac OS, introduced with Mac OS 8. ... Software Update is a software tool by Apple Computer that install the latest version of Apple software on computers running Mac OS X (there was also a Software update tool for classic Mac OS). ... Spotlight is an as-you-type, system-wide desktop search feature found in Mac OS X v10. ... Stickies is a Macintosh application for putting Post-it note-like windows on the screen, with short reminders, notes and other clippings. ... System Preferences is the application used by Mac OS X to set user preferences. ... System Profiler is a software utility that has been bundled with Mac OS since System 7 (until Mac OS X it was called Apple System Profiler). ... Terminal is an application included with Apples Mac OS X operating system. ... A screenshot of Apples TextEdit. ... A voice-over is a narration that is played on top of a video segment, usually with the audio for that segment muted or lowered. ... X11. ...

Developer

AU Lab · CHUD Tools · Core Image Fun House · FileMerge · Help Indexer · Icon Composer · Interface Builder · PackageMaker · Pixie · Property List Editor · Quartz Composer · Repeat After Me · USB Prober · Xcode Screenshot of AU Lab. ... The Computer Hardware Understanding Developer Tools (CHUD Tools) are a suite of software programs developed by Apple Computer for software and hardware developers for measuring and optimizing the performance of Macintosh systems running their products under Mac OS X. The CHUD Tools can be installed separately or with Xcode. ... Core Image Fun House is a graphics application included with the Mac OS X Developer tools for testing Core Image image units. ... FileMerge is an application included with the Mac OS X Tiger Developer Tools. ... Help Indexer is a utility that creates an index file for Help Viewer to use. ... Icon Composer is an icon editor that is part of the Apple Developer Tools. ... Interface Builder is a software development application on Apple Computers Mac OS X operating system. ... PackageMaker is a Mac OS X application created by Apple Computer. ... Pixie is a software application on Apple Computers Mac OS X operating system. ... Property List Editor an application included in the Apple Developer Tools for editing plist files. ... Quartz Composer is a visual programming language provided as part of the Xcode development environment in Mac OS X v10. ... Repeat After Me is a tool by Apple Computer designed to adjust the performance of their text-to-speech software. ... Xcode is Apple Computers IDE for developing applications and other software for Mac OS X. It is shipped free with Mac OS X. First introduced on October 24, 2003 along with the release of Mac OS X v10. ...

Mac OS X Server

AppleShare IP Migration · Fibre Channel Utility · Gateway Setup Assistant · Open Directory · MySQL Manager · QuickTime Broadcaster · QuickTime Streaming Server · RAID Admin · Server Admin · Workgroup Manager · Xgrid Mac OS X Server is the server-oriented version of Apple Computers modern operating system, Mac OS X. It is based on the BSD-Unix-based operating system that Apple Computer acquired from NeXT Computer and which formed the basis of the current Mac OS X. The regular version... AppleShare IP Migration is a utility by Apple Computer to import users and settings from the legacy AppleShare IP to Mac OS X Server. ... Fibre Channel Utility is a Mac OS X Server utility for managing Fibre Channels connected to the server. ... Gateway Setup Assistant is a tool in Apple Mac OS X Server that will guide you through setting up your MacOS X Server as an internet gateway. ... Open Directory is the directory and network authentication services architecture at the core of Mac OS X Server from Apple Computer. ... MySQL Manager is an application that starts and stops the MySQL database in Mac OS X Server. ... QuickTime Broadcaster is an audio and video RTP/RTSP server by Apple Computer for Mac OS X. It is separate from Apples QuickTime Streaming Sever, as it is not a service dæmon but a desktop application. ... QuickTime Streaming Server (QTSS) is a server or service daemon built into Apple Computers Mac OS X that delivers video and audio on request to users over a Computer network or the internet. ... In computing, a redundant array of independent disks, also known as redundant array of inexpensive disks (commonly abbreviated RAID) is a system which uses multiple hard drives to share or replicate data among the drives. ... Workgroup Manager is a software program bundled as part of Mac OS X Server for directory-based management of users, groups and computers across a network. ... In computers, Xgrid is software (Apple Computer, Inc. ...

Technology

AppleScript · Aqua · Audio Units · Bonjour · Boot Camp · Carbon · Cocoa · Core Audio · Core Data · Core Image · Core Video · Darwin · Exposé · Keychain · OpenGL · plist · Quartz · QuickTime · Rosetta · Smart folder · WebKit · XNU AppleScript is a scripting language devised by Apple Computer, and built into Mac OS. More generally, AppleScript is the word used to designate the Mac OS scripting interface, which is meant to operate in parallel with the graphical user interface. ... Mac OS X 10. ... Audio Units is a plug-in API developed by Apple Computer to add functionality to audio creation and recording software. ... Bonjour, formerly Rendezvous, is Apples trade name for its implementation of the IETF Zeroconf protocol, a computer network technology used in Apples Mac OS X from version 10. ... For other meanings, see boot camp. ... Carbon is the codename of Apple Computers API for the Macintosh operating system, which permits a good degree of forward and backward compatibility between source code written to run on the classic Mac OS, and the newer Mac OS X. The APIs are published and accessed in the form... A Cocoa application being developed using Xcode. ... Core Audio is a fairly low-level API for dealing with sound in Apples Mac OS X operating system. ... // Overview Core Data is part of the Cocoa API in Mac OS X, first introduced in Mac OS X 10. ... Core Image is a new technology in Mac OS X that heavily leverages the machines GPU for image related effects. ... Core Video Core Video is a new technology in Mac OS X 10. ... Hexley, the mascot of Darwin Darwin is a free, open source, Unix-like operating system first released by Apple Computer in 2000. ... Mac OS X 10. ... Keychain is Apple Computers password management system in Mac OS X and Mac OS 9. ... OpenGL official logo OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a standard specification defining a cross-language cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 3D computer graphics (and 2D computer graphics as well). ... In Mac OS X operating system, plist files are files that store Core Foundation objects. ... Quartz is the marketing name of the proprietary graphics layer that sits on top of the open source Darwin core of Mac OS X. Quartz is part of the Core Graphics framework. ... QuickTime is a multimedia technology developed by Apple Computer, capable of handling various formats of digital video, sound, text, animation, music, and immersive panoramic (and sphere panoramic) images. ... Rosetta is a lightweight dynamic translation emulator for Mac OS X distributed by Apple. ... A Smart Folder is a special folder that dynamically contains content based on criterion that you specify. ... WebKit is an application framework included with Mac OS X v10. ...


  Results from FactBites:
 
Xnu (1191 words)
Xnu replaces statistically significant tandem repeats in protein sequences with X characters.
Xnu is a program described by Claverie and States in Computers and Chemistry, 17; 191-201 (1993) that is used to mask off tandem repeats in protein sequences.
Xnu does not recognize repeats if the width is set much longer than the length of either the repeat or the sequence.
  More results at FactBites »


 
 

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