Definition
Monolithic Kernel
A monolithic kernel is an operating system architecture where the entire kernel executes as a single, large process in kernel mode. In this design, all OS services (e.g., file system, device drivers, memory management) share the same address space.
A monolithic kernel can be viewed as a collection of procedures where any procedure is free to call any other procedure. This results in high performance but can lead to complexity and reduced robustness.
Characteristics
- Efficiency: Communication between system components is fast because it involves simple function calls rather than message passing.
- Complexity: The lack of internal boundaries makes the code harder to maintain as the system grows.
- Vulnerability: A bug in any single component (like a device driver) can potentially crash the entire operating system, as everything runs with the same high privilege level.