Mikrokern

Mikrokern is a term used in computer science to describe a microkernel architecture that emphasizes a small, functionally focused kernel with most operating system services running in user space. In Mikrokern designs, the kernel provides only essential primitives such as low-level scheduling, inter-process communication, and basic address space management, while servers for file systems, networking, device drivers, and security policies operate as separate processes. This separation aims to improve modularity, fault isolation, and security by reducing the amount of code running with privileged access.

The architecture relies on efficient inter-process communication to coordinate among the many user-space services. Because services run in user space, they can be updated or replaced without rebooting the kernel, and crashes in servers are less likely to bring down the whole system. Mikrokern typically supports preemptive multitasking and strong isolation between processes, with capabilities or object references used to control access to resources.

In practice, Mikrokern-inspired designs emphasize portability across hardware architectures, with a small, hardware-abstracted kernel providing a uniform interface. The trade-offs include IPC overhead and increased complexity in user-space service management, which can affect performance and debugging. Nonetheless, Mikrokern is valued in research and education for illustrating modular OS design, reproducible fault isolation, and the potential for formally verifiable interfaces.

Historically, Mikrokern has appeared in academic literature as a reference model for microkernel experiments and as a teaching example rather than a widely deployed production system. Several open-source projects and prototypes have drawn on Mikrokern concepts to explore secure, extensible system architectures. See also microkernel, L4, and MINIX.