Multikernel Linux Tree Released: Runs Multiple Kernels On Bare Metal Without a Hypervisor (itsfoss.com) 13
"Multikernel Technologies has put out mklinux v7.0-mk2, the first public release of the multikernel Linux tree it's been building since last year," reports the blog It's FOSS:
The basic premise of the project is that one physical server can run several independent Linux kernels side by side, each with its own dedicated CPUs and memory. So, the same box could run a database on one kernel and a GPU training job on another without either kernel touching the other's resources... One kernel runs as the host, controlling the machine's CPUs, memory, and PCI devices. When it spins up a new kernel instance, that instance gets its own dedicated slice of hardware and boots straight onto it using Linux's kexec mechanism, running natively rather than under a hypervisor.
The host tracks all of this through device tree overlays under /sys/fs/multikernel/, and it can shift hardware between running instances while everything stays up.
That's a different setup from both VMs and containers. A VM still puts a hypervisor and a host kernel between the app and the hardware. A container skips the hypervisor, but every tenant on the machine shares one kernel... This release only supports x86_64 hardware, though Multikernel Technologies says the architecture-specific code is already modular enough for other ports to follow later.
The article notes they're selling multiple products based on the kernel tree, including one for running AI agents in their own kernel with direct GPU access and one that promises to patch a running kernel without taking the system down.
The host tracks all of this through device tree overlays under /sys/fs/multikernel/, and it can shift hardware between running instances while everything stays up.
That's a different setup from both VMs and containers. A VM still puts a hypervisor and a host kernel between the app and the hardware. A container skips the hypervisor, but every tenant on the machine shares one kernel... This release only supports x86_64 hardware, though Multikernel Technologies says the architecture-specific code is already modular enough for other ports to follow later.
The article notes they're selling multiple products based on the kernel tree, including one for running AI agents in their own kernel with direct GPU access and one that promises to patch a running kernel without taking the system down.
what else can it do? (Score:2)
Can it power off CPUs and other devices allowing for hot-swap? I can imagine the next generation of multi-cpu/conntroller motherboards with power LEDs for each socket.
Re: (Score:2)
I believe Linux already supports CPU hot-swap if the hardware supports it. It was needed by IBM so their POWER mainframes could literally do just that.
Unfortunately I don't think there's many x86-based servers that support CPU hot swapping.
Re: (Score:2)
Can it power off CPUs and other devices allowing for hot-swap?
Linux introduced CPU Hotplugging in 2.6.16 almost exactly 20 years ago.
Re: (Score:2)
Can you save me the time googling this and point me to a hardware manufacturer who sold systems that supported this?
3 separate machines in one box, (Score:2)
Most modern servers have more than one core.
Not that hard to treat each core as a separate machine, all using another core as something like an internal router to access memory, graphic cards, keyboards, etc.
The hardware changes would be minimal. Basically take 4 motherboards, put it one metal box and put most of the real memory, etc. on the 'host' motherboard that allocates between the other 3.
There would be real speed penalties to doing this, but totally possible just using hardware. Duplicating it with
Sounds like an LPAR but for a PC (Score:1)
IBM mainframes have LPARS - logical partitions - to divide up the hardware. This sounds like almost the same thing, but for PCs.
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos-basic-skills?topic=design-mainframe-hardware-logical-partitions-lpars
Re: Sounds like an LPAR but for a PC (Score:2)
mklinux: name already taken (Score:3)
As someone who worked a bit on mklinux (after Apple abandoned it), I wonder if they googled before choosing a name. The mklinux.org website is actually still up, amazingly.
Re: (Score:2)
As someone who worked a bit on mklinux (after Apple abandoned it), I wonder if they googled before choosing a name. The mklinux.org website is actually still up, amazingly.
Yes, it's being served by a Mac Mini in my TV room closet. :-D
Long time, no see.
Re: (Score:2)
Ha! I thought you were making a joke, but - it appears you are being completely serious [mklinux.org].
Re: (Score:1)
My guess is they knew of the name's history. There's a case to be made that it's an homage, but IMHO a stronger case to be made that the confusion outweighs any merits of this name. "Multikernel Linux" would've been better.