On the architectural support for logical machine systems

Abstract Logical machine is a new approach for the development of operating systems. In a logical machine system, a highly machine-independent interface is provided by a control program, called the Logical Machine Monitor ( lmm ). Based on the interface, several logical machines with different copies of operating systems can be constructed and executed concurrently. A logical machine is an abstract machine with purely logical resources. No real memory or devices are visible from within a logical machine. Thus, programs executed within a logical machine are highly portable. In this paper, the architecture dependent features of a logical machine system is explored. Implementations of logical machine systems on contemporary processors are discussed. A processor architecture is presented, which is designed intentionally for efficient implementation of a logical machine system. An assessment is made to show that the proposed architecture would be superior to currently available processors in terms of logical machine support.