Few works are as timely and critical to the advancement of high performance computing than is
this new up-to-date treatise on leading-edge directions of operating systems. It is a
first-hand product of many of the leaders in this rapidly evolving field and possibly the most
comprehensive.This new and important book masterfully presents the major alternative concepts
driving the future of operating system design for high performance computing. In particular it
describes the major advances of monolithic operating systems such as Linux and Unix that
dominate the TOP500 list. It also presents the state of the art in lightweight kernels that
exhibit high efficiency and scalability at the loss of generality. Finally this work looks
forward to possibly the most promising strategy of a hybrid structure combining full service
functionality with lightweight kernel operation. With this it is likely that this new work
will find its way on the shelves of almost everyone who is in any way engaged in the
multi-discipline of high performance computing.(From the foreword by Thomas Sterling)
