A Multi-User Virtual Machine

Recent efforts aimed at improving the scalability of the Java ™ platform have focused primarily on the safe collocation of multiple applications in the virtual machine. This is often beneficial for various performance metrics, but ultimately leads to a single-user multitasking environment. The lack of multi-user capabilities forms a barrier to the scalability of multitasking virtual machines, as it requires one per user. In this paper we demonstrate how to enhance a multitasking virtual machine with multi-user support. In particular, users can securely manipulate their private files, load their own native libraries without endangering other computations, and use all standard APIs. Auxiliary processes are needed to provide multiple operating system resource and user contexts, but no modifications are needed to the operating system itself.