What Is the Kernel?

The Oracle Solaris kernel is a program that manages system resources. The kernel insulates applications from the system hardware and provides them with essential system services such as input/output (I/O) management, virtual memory, and scheduling. The kernel consists of object modules that are dynamically loaded into memory when needed.

The Oracle Solaris kernel can be divided logically into two parts: the first part, referred to as the kernel, manages file systems, scheduling, and virtual memory. The second part, referred to as the I/O subsystem, manages the physical components.

The kernel provides a set of interfaces for applications to use that are accessible through system calls. System calls are documented in section 2 of the Reference Manual Collection (see Intro(2)). Some system calls are used to invoke device drivers to perform I/O. Device drivers are loadable kernel modules that manage data transfers while insulating the rest of the kernel from the device hardware. To be compatible with the operating system, device drivers need to be able to accommodate such features as multithreading, virtual memory addressing, and both 32-bit and 64-bit operation.

The following figure illustrates the kernel. The kernel modules handle system calls from application programs. The I/O modules communicate with hardware.

Figure 2-1  Oracle Solaris Kernel

The kernel provides access to device drivers through the following features:

• Device-to-driver mapping. The kernel maintains the device tree. Each node in the tree represents a virtual or a physical device. The kernel binds each node to a driver by matching the device node name with the set of drivers installed in the system. The device is made accessible to applications only if there is a driver binding.

• DDI/DKI interfaces. DDI/DKI (Device Driver Interface/Driver-Kernel Interface) interfaces standardize interactions between the driver and the kernel, the device hardware, and the boot/configuration software. These interfaces keep the driver independent from the kernel and improve the driver's portability across successive releases of the operating system on a particular machine.

• LDI. The LDI (Layered Driver Interface) is an extension of the DDI/DKI. The LDI enables a kernel module to access other devices in the system. The LDI also enables you to determine which devices are currently being used by the kernel. See Chapter 14, Layered Driver Interface (LDI).