Windows NT supports preemptive multitasking and threading like most large scale systems. The kernel can stop any task and start others without help from the application programmer. NT also manages virtual memory like a time sharing computer and supports networking and remote terminals. Since NT has become the base technology for workstations, it nearly completely dominates desktop and laptop workstations with Apple a distant second and Linux yet fewer. When Windows 3.
This decision caused tension between Microsoft and IBM and the collaboration ultimately fell apart. The operating system was designed to run on multiple instruction set architectures and multiple hardware platforms within each architecture.
The platform dependencies are largely hidden from the rest of the system by a kernel mode module called the HAL. Windows NT's kernel mode code further distinguishes between the 'kernel' whose primary purpose is to implement processor and architecture dependent functions and the 'executive'.
This has led some writers to refer to the kernel as a microkernel , but the Windows NT kernel no longer meets many of the criteria of a 'microkernel', although this was the original goal of chief architect Cutler. Both the kernel and the executive are linked together into the single loaded module ntoskrnl. Routines from each are directly accessible, as for example from kernel mode device drivers.
Windows NT was the first operating system to use Unicode internally. Windows Server "Longhorn" codename. The first release was given version number 3. The NT version is no longer marketed, but is said to reflect the degree of changes to the core of the operating system [1]. The build number is an internal figure used by Microsoft's developers. Like Unix , NT was written in a high level language such as C. It can be recompiled to run on other processor systems, at the expense of larger and slower code.
For this reason, NT was not favored initially for use with slower processors with less memory. It also proved far more difficult to port applications such as Microsoft Office which were sensitive to issues such as data structure alignment on RISC processors. Unlike Windows CE which routinely runs on a variety of processors, nearly all actual NT deployments have been on x86 architecture processors. Windows NT 3. Windows NT 4.
Only two of the Windows NT 4. All of the other ports done by 3rd parties Motorola, Intergraph, etc. The Xbox uses a heavily modified and stripped down Windows kernel. This kernel was heavily modified again for the Xbox which runs on PowerPC.
This version is not for separate sale, and little is known about it. The minimum hardware specification required to run each release of the professional workstation version of Windows NT has been fairly slow-moving until the 6. No specifications for processors or free disk space have been published for Vista at the time of writing.
Various Microsoft publications, including a question-and-answer session with Bill Gates , reveal that the letters were expanded to 'New Technology' for marketing purposes but no longer carry any specific meaning. The letters were dropped from the name of Windows , though the box contained the phrase 'Built on NT technology'. This action ostensibly reflected Microsoft's intent to unify its home and business lines, then represented by Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.
Some believe this to be the result of a trademark dispute between Microsoft and Nortel as on the bottom of the Windows NT 4. Microsoft Wiki Explore. Windows families. Windows Windows 11 Windows 10 Windows 8. These two levels are often referred to as "ring 3" and "ring 0", respectively. Kernel mode consists of executive services , which is itself made up of many modules that do specific tasks, kernel drivers , a kernel and a Hardware Abstraction Layer , or HAL. Grouped together, the components can be called Executive services internal name Ex.
System Services internal name Nt , i. The term "service" in this context generally refers to a callable routine, or set of callable routines. This is distinct from the concept of a "service process," which is a user mode component somewhat analogous to a daemon in Unix-like operating systems. Each object in Windows NT exists in a global namespace. This is a screenshot from SysInternals WinObj. The kernel sits between the HAL and the Executive and provides multiprocessor synchronization, thread and interrupt scheduling and dispatching, and trap handling and exception dispatching; it is also responsible for initializing device drivers at bootup that are necessary to get the operating system up and running.
That is, the kernel performs almost all the tasks of a traditional microkernel; the strict distinction between Executive and Kernel is the most prominent remnant of the original microkernel design, and historical design documentation consistently refers to the kernel component as "the microkernel". The kernel often interfaces with the process manager. Template:Sfn The level of abstraction is such that the kernel never calls into the process manager, only the other way around save for a handful of corner cases, still never to the point of a functional dependence.
Windows NT uses kernel-mode device drivers to enable it to interact with hardware devices. Each of the drivers has well defined system routines and internal routines that it exports to the rest of the operating system. Intermediate drivers consist of function drivers—or main driver for a device—that are optionally sandwiched between lower and higher level filter drivers. The function driver then relies on a bus driver—or a driver that services a bus controller, adapter, or bridge—which can have an optional bus filter driver that sits between itself and the function driver.
Intermediate drivers rely on the lowest level drivers to function. These lower level drivers directly control hardware and do not rely on any other drivers. The Windows NT hardware abstraction layer , or HAL, is a layer between the physical hardware of the computer and the rest of the operating system.
It was designed to hide differences in hardware and therefore provide a consistent platform on which the kernel is run. However, despite its purpose and designated place within the architecture, the HAL isn't a layer that sits entirely below the kernel, the way the kernel sits below the Executive: all known HAL implementations depend in some measure on the kernel, or even the Executive. In practice, this means that kernel and HAL variants come in matching sets that are specifically engineered to work together.
In particular hardware abstraction does not involve abstracting the instruction set, which generally falls under the wider concept of portability.
Abstracting the instruction set, when necessary such as for handling the several revisions to the x86 instruction set, or emulating a missing math coprocessor , is performed by the kernel, or via platform virtualization.
Microsoft Wiki Explore. Windows families. Windows Windows 11 Windows 10 Windows 8. Windows CE Windows Embedded. Microsoft Surface. European Union Microsoft antitrust case United States v. Microsoft Shared source. Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? Architecture of Windows NT. View source. History Talk 0.
Microsoft Windows Professional Resource Kit. O'Reilly and Associates, Inc.. ISBN Windows NT Workstation documentation.
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