Developer | ETH Zurich with assistance of Microsoft Research |
---|---|
Working state | Discontinued |
Source model | Open source |
Initial release | September 15, 2009 |
Latest release | 2020.03.23 / March 23, 2020 |
Repository | |
Kernel type | Multikernel, Microkernel |
License | MIT License |
Official website | www |
Barrelfish is an experimental computer operating system built by ETH Zurich with the assistance of Microsoft Research in Cambridge.[1][2][3] It is an experimental operating system designed from the ground up for scalability for computers built with multi-core processors with the goal of reducing the compounding decrease in benefit as more CPUs are used in a computer by putting low-level hardware information in a database, thus removing the need for driver software.[4][5]
The partners released the first snapshot of the OS on September 15, 2009[6] with a second being released in March, 2011. Excluding some third-party libraries, which are covered by various BSD-like open source licenses, Barrelfish is released under the MIT license.[1] Snapshots are regularly released, the last one dating to March 23, 2020.[7][8][9]
While originally being developed in collaboration with Microsoft Research, it is now partly supported by Hewlett Packard Enterprise Labs, Huawei, Cisco, Oracle, and VMware.[1]