Phantom OS
Phantom OS is an orthogonally persistent managed code general-purpose operating system. It is based on a concept of persistent virtual memory, and executes bytecode in a virtual machine. It is one of a few OSes not based on the classic concepts of Unix-like systems. Phantom is based on the principle that "Everything is an object", in contrast to the Unix-like approach of "Everything is a file".
Overview
Phantom was founded by and is being developed mostly by Russian programmers. It is free and open-source software released under a GNU Lesser General Public License.Basics
Managed code – Memory protection on object level, rather than process level; absence of pointer arithmetic in managed code avoids many problems that exist and occur in unmanaged code.Global address space – Inexpensive inter-process communication. Single address [space operating system|Single (flat) address space] allows transfer of objects from one process to another by transferring links to that object. Security is achieved by the absence of pointer arithmetic and the inability of an application to get linked to an object other than by calling a public method.
Persistence – Application code does not see OS restarts and can live forever—this does not use the concept of a file and any variable or data structure can be stored forever and at the same time be available directly through a pointer. Contrary to hibernation, which is done in other OSs, persistence lies in the very core principles of the Phantom OS core. The implementation creates snapshots continuously and transparently to the applications maintaining consistent internal state without pausing applications.
Compatibility
Two ways to migrate code are offered:- Converter from Java virtual machine bytecode; is supposed to permit the import of bytecode from Java and other programming languages that target the JVM.
- The Portable Operating System Interface subsystem allows porting application code from Unix and Linux, although important features of Phantom OS such as persistence become unavailable.
Status
, the system exists as an alpha version for x86 IA-32 processors. Porting to ARM architecture is underway and porting to MIPS architecture and x86-64 has begun. Kernel operation has been demonstrated at the biggest Russian IT-conferences RIT 2011, ADD 2010, CC 2010, and 2009.A Genode-based fork has been in development since 2020.