Any device which runs an OS has a kernel
I have always been confused with the word kernel the word looks as if it is a complicated thing well in reality after doing some simple research I found out that it is not so complicated in layman definition but the work it does and the building of such a thing is quite complicated.
So what is this kernel?
Well lets consider the case of a phone,
The phone has a lot of hardware like processors, ram, storage, camera, Bluetooth, etc.
Any device which requires interaction with hardware and software has a kernel. So for such an interaction a mediator or authority must exist to grant access to the hardware for the software.
Well, this authority is the kernel. When a process requests the Kernel, then it is called System Call.
To be precisely clear let’s take the situation where you want to take a picture you will open the camera app As soon as I press the Camera application on my phone, the software will tell that to the kernel.
The kernel will immediately ask the Camera lens inside my phone to wake up and start working.
Now, the bridge has been set and now both hardware and software will work together happily.
Some fundamental functions of kernel include:
1. Resource Allocation: — to manage the computer’s resources and allow other programs to run and use these resources.
2. Process Management: — allow the execution of an application.
3. Memory Management: — allow the process to access the memory which is required to run the process
4. Disk Management: — for creating, deleting, formatting partition, etc…
5. I/O Device Management: — maintains a list of available devices and provides I/O to physically access this device through some port or memory location.
6. Security or Protection management: -provide security from faults and malicious behaviours.
and many more
Today in the market there are a lot of kernels both closed and open-sourced.
Well, kernels are everything if you have an old system but would still love to use then you can make it much better by changing the kernel according to the device’s needs or optimise the existing kernel.
One of the famous and most used kernels in the market is the Linux kernel all the android smartphones run on the Linux kernel and the amazing fact is that about 97 percent of the world’s 500 most powerful supercomputers run the Linux kernel and also this kernel is opensource so anyone can modify according to their needs.
Some other famous Linux kernel include
windows phone use NT-kernel
Apple and ios run on Darwin kernel
and these two are closed source kernels.
Well if you want you can change the kernel of an OS as there are a lot of 3rd party kernels available in the market which can optimise your device much better than the default kernel. But it is not recommended as kernels getting corrupted can destroy your device.
Thus I believe that now the term kernel might be a familiar word to you.
