Microsoft team members share the structure of Windows Kernel
Microsoft Windows 10 operating system supports x86, x64, ARM, and ARM64 architectures that run on the desktop, mobile, and data centers. How does it maximize the reuse of operating system components? The Windows Kernel team members introduced the software giant’s approach on the official blog.
“The base technology used for Windows refactoring are a lightly documented technology (entirely by design) called API sets. API sets are a mechanism that allows Windows to decouple the DLL from where its implementation is located. For example, API sets allow win32 apps to continue to use kernel32.dll but, the implementation of all the APIs are in a different DLL. These implementation DLLs can also be different depending on your SKU. You can see API sets in action if you launch dependency walker on a traditional Windows DLL; e.g. kernel32.dll.”
“Windows NT is like a microkernel in the sense that it has a core Kernel (KE) that does very little and uses the Executive layer (Ex) to perform all the higher-level policy. Note that EX is still kernel mode, so it’s not a true microkernel. The kernel is responsible for thread dispatching, multiprocessor synchronization, hardware exception handling, and the implementation of low-level machine dependent functions. The EX layer contains various subsystems which provide the bulk of the functionality traditionally thought of as kernel such as IO, Object Manager, Memory Manager, Process Subsystem, etc.”
“The base technology used for Windows refactoring are a lightly documented technology (entirely by design) called Read more here.
