A
kernel where the total amount of kernel code, i.e. Code executing in the
privileged mode of the hardware,
is very small. The term picokernel was sometimes used to further emphasize
small size. The term nanokernel was coined by Jonathan S. Shapiro in the paper
The keykos nanokernel Architecture. It was a sardonic response to Mach, which
claimed to be a microkernel while being monolithic, essentially unstructured,
and slower than the systems
it sought to replace. Subsequent reuse of and response to the term, including
the picokernel coinage, suggest that the point was largely missed. Both
nanokernel and picokernel have subsequently come to have the same meaning
expressed by the term microkernel.
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