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USENIX ATC '21/OSDI '21 Joint Keynote Address-It's Time for Operating Systems to Rediscover Hardware

USENIX · talk · Watch on YouTube

Operating systems & kernelsComputer architecture & CPUs

What it is

Timothy Roscoe of ETH Zurich delivers the joint USENIX ATC/OSDI 2021 keynote arguing that operating systems must reckon with modern hardware, which is a heterogeneous collection of processors, firmware and coprocessors rather than a simple machine. It shows how much runs below and beside Linux.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Repeatedly recommended as a revelatory talk on how little control the main OS has over modern SoCs and PCs.

  • 12 people recommended it
  • 9 different months
  • 3 strong recommendations
  • first 2021, last 2026

What HN commenters said

  1. “I highly recommend Timothy Roscoe's OSDI keynote[0]”

    Roscoe's OSDI keynote on OSes and modern heterogeneous hardware.

    bcantrill, 2021-10 · Strong recommendation · in “Rust, Wright's Law, and the Future of Low-Latency Systems”

  2. “There's this great USENIX talk by Timothy Roscoe [1]”

    Critique of unholistic OS design and the many hidden RTOSes.

    dist1ll, 2022-11 · Strong recommendation · in “Tales of the M1 GPU”

  3. “I found this talk both riveting and compelling”

    Modern hardware is an amalgam of processors, not a Von Neumann machine.

    jcgl, 2026-02 · Strong recommendation · in “C Isn't a Language”

  4. “After watching the OS talk that Cantrill references [0], I really want to know the answer”

    Raises the question of OS design across heterogeneous chips.

    lostdog, 2021-12 · Recommendation · in “On Hubris and Humility: developing an OS for robustness in Rust [video]”

  5. “First of all, watch this, and learn that there's a whole stack of layers below what Linux can even touch these days.”

    Shows the layers of hardware and firmware below Linux.

    mikewarot, 2021-12 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: "Know Your Hardware”: best books/resources to learn?”

  6. “I can recommend the related talk "It's Time for Operating Systems to Rediscover Hardware".”

    Modern systems are cooperating devices each with own OS, yet main OS pretends control.

    the_duke, 2022-02 · Recommendation · in “I tested four NVMe SSDs from four vendors – half lose FLUSH’d data on power loss”

  7. “If you find this fact surprising, you'll probably want to take a look at this talk from USENIX ATC '21”

    Modern computers are clusters of heterogeneous processors.

    zerohp, 2022-10 · Recommendation · in “How to tell a mainframe from a minicomputer from a micro”

  8. “I suggest taking a look at the talk Bryan mentioned”

    Explains the many separate OSes running inside a modern PC.

    mlindner, 2022-10 · Recommendation · in “I have come to bury the BIOS, not to open it [video]”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: operating systems, heterogeneous hardware, firmware, usenix, systems research

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