Overview of CapROS: Architecture and Benefits

CapROS is a new operating system that merges some very old ideas about capabilities with some newer ideas about performance and resource management. The result is a small, secure, real-time operating system that provides orthogonal persistence.

An overview of the CapROS system is not yet available. In the meantime, the following publications, describing systems with a very similar architecture, will be of use in learning about the design and use of CapROS.

J. S. Shapiro, N. Hardy, EROS: A Principle-Driven Operating System from the Ground Up, IEEE Software, Jan/Feb 2002.

Describes the principles that gave rise to the EROS and CapROS system architectures.
J. S. Shapiro, Jonathan M. Smith, and David J. Farber, EROS: A Fast Capability System, 17th ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Research, Operating Systems Review, 34(5):170-185, Dec. 1999

A good description of the architecture of EROS. The CapROS architecture is mostly similar. (Performance data are not applicable to CapROS.)
Mark S. Miller and Jonathan S. Shapiro, Paradigm Regained: Abstraction Mechanisms for Access Control, Proc. 8th Asian Computing Science Conference, Mumbai India, Dec. 2003

Describes why capabilities offer a stronger security model than commonly-used access control mechanisms, and refutes some criticisms of the capability model.
Mark S. Miller, Bill Tulloh, and Jonathan S. Shapiro, The Structure of Authority: Why Security is Not a Separable Concern, Proc. 2nd International Conference on Multiparadigm Programming in Mozard/OZ, Charleroi Belgium, Oct. 2004

Explains how capabilities support the Principle of Least Authority.
W. Frantz, N. Hardy, J. Jonekait, and C. Landau, GNOSIS - A prototype Operating System for the 1990's, Proc. SHARE 52 I, March 1979, pp 3-17

Somewhat dated, but describes some benefits of capabilities that still apply today.