 |
|
|
|
|
|
||
 |
|
||
|
|
||
|
||||||||||||||
|
| < Previous PageNext Page > |
If you plan to do extensive work inside the Mac OS X kernel, you may find it convenient to have a complete Mach API reference, since this document only documents the most common and useful portions of the Mach API. In order to better understand certain interfaces, it may also be helpful to study the implementations that led up to those used in Mac OS X, particularly to fill in gaps in understanding of the fundamental principles of the implementation.
Mac OS X is based on the Mach 3.0 microkernel, designed by Carnegie Mellon University, and later adapted to the Power Macintosh by Apple and the Open Software Foundation Research Institute (now part of Silicomp). This was known as osfmk, and was part of MkLinux (http://www.mklinux.org). Later, this and code from OSF’s commercial development efforts were incorporated into Darwin’s kernel. Throughout this evolutionary process, the Mach APIs used in Mac OS X diverged in many ways from the original CMU Mach 3 APIs.
You may find older versions of the Mach source code interesting, both to satisfy historical curiosity and to avoid remaking mistakes made in earlier implementations. MkLinux maintains an active CVS repository with their recent versions of Mach kernel source code. Older versions can be obtained through various Internet sites. You can also find CMU Mach white papers by searching for Mach on the CMU computer science department’s website (http://www.cs.cmu.edu), along with various source code samples.
Up-to-date versions of the Mach 3 APIs that Mac OS X provides are described in the Mach API reference in the kernel sources. The kernel sources can be found in the xnu project on http://www.opensource.apple.com.
| < Previous PageNext Page > |
Last updated: 2006-11-07
 |
||
|
|
|
|
| ||
| ||
Get information on Apple products.
Visit the Apple Store online or at retail locations. 1-800-MY-APPLE Copyright © 2007 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. | Terms of use | Privacy Notice |
