pk: A POSIX Threads Kernel

pk is a new operating system kernel targeted for use in real-time and embedded applications. There are two novel aspects to the pk design:

• Documentation: The kernel is documented using literate programming techniques and the noweb tool in particular.
• POSIX Threads with Memory Protection: The concurrency model is based on the POSIX Threads (aka Pthreads) standard, however, the kernel also provides page-based memory protection using Memory Management Unit (MMU) hardware.

This short paper discusses these facets of the pk kernel project. The use of literate programming is presented rst, followed by a brief description of some of the pk design issues.