Instant On Operating System - thoughts, ideas & discussions

Replies

• 

  Ashraf HZ

  Heya, me dropping by in the midst of report submissions 😉
  
  I recently read about 2 intel engineers who managed to boot up linux in just 5 seconds. I think thats quite a good time.
  
  Their approach was not trying to find the fastest time.. but they SET a quick time, and proceeded to reduce and cut out processes to fit that time budget.
  
  Here's the link:
  #-Link-Snipped-#
  
  (btw, I think I go to know it through CE InFocus.. its pretty useful when you have time to read through the section 😉 )
  
  I think instant on OS is very possible. The aim is to marry software directly into the hardware. Perhaps dedicate a chip for the kernel, etc. Something better, but still far ahead in the future, is greater use of vector programming 😀
• 

  sriramchandrk

  Let me tell what i do.
  
  I just hibernate by system.
  
  

  How to hybernate:
  It should show an option in shutdown pull down menu.
  If its not shown, you need to enable hibernation from "power options" control panel.
  
  Once you are done you will have an option to hybernate your system.

  When ever you Power-on a hybernated system, it just takes 2 to 3 seconds for system(based on RAM you have) to become alive, with all services up.
  
  I do an actual restart only once in a month or so, whenever i feel my system has become too slow.
  
  Thanks & Regards
  Sriram
• 

  YourTechMate

  Guys, Arround 8 months back , I read it on Cnet news, Microsoft is working on designing an instant on Windows pc. That PC will not be installable. That pc will be dispatched preinstalled as a complete product but upgradable thru net as new version of firmware.
  
  No confirmation about the same since then, but yes, definitely that is the next big thing. Gud thought!
  
  YourTechMate.blogspot.com
• 

  xero

  its a bad idea to imbibe specific purposes for processor. So the smarter way is to process parallel threads. Just like the way those Intel guys did it in 5 secs. The set out a time line, and tried to attain max parallel processing, reducing the idle time. Anyway it was a linux machine.
  
  For windows, we can tune it up too. Windows usually run lot of unnecessary processes and drivers(which may vary from usage to usage), so we can turn them off and can improve its performance!
• 

  mahul

  How about a system design that boots up from say, a fixed permanent flash ROM. Next as the user warms up, the processes are slowly shifted to the RAM. Once the job is complete, the RAM takes over. This would mean that as the system boots up, the user can still do a limited amount of tasks. Feasible or not?? what say fellas?
• 

  xero

  Mahul, this how even windows works except for permanent flash ROM thing 😀. You show up a GUI for user interaction, and after logging OS executes the rest of the processes
• 

  mahul

  I was trying to propose a fixed, non-customizable OS on a flash ROM with a limited number of applications that people normally use just after they boot up.
  
  For example, you could have a file browser process, a music player, and a document editor permanently on the flash ROM. These processes will be available the instant the machine is powered up. During this time, the normal boot up continues in the RAM. Once it is complete, it takes over and CPU starts accessing addresses from the RAM.
• 

  xero

  now when you say "OS", does that mean kernel, or kernel along with some services?
  If you say kernel then that's really not required, because kernel execution finishes in milliseconds, its the processes which eats up most of the booting time
• 

  mahul

  Definitely the kernel and some user processes that can fit in the available space.
• 

  Kaustubh Katdare

  Can't believe this thread is dead. Reviving it!
  
  Anyone wants to add value to the discussion?