NetKernel is advanced software infrastructure.

NetKernel supports the resource-oriented computing model making it dramatically easier to develop flexible, scalable and fast software. NetKernel is fundamentally different and the benefits have been shown repeatedly over many years in production deployments.

Resource Oriented Computing

NetKernel is grounded in a new way of thinking about software systems. It is a resource oriented computing platform implemented on an operating-system caliber microkernel. On top of this core we provide a wide range of resource models, services, programming languages and management tools.

I never heard the phrase "REST microkernel" before, but I had an immediate expectation of what that would mean. An hour's experimentation with the system met that expectation. Wildly interesting stuff. Jon Udell (infoworld)

What is resource-oriented computing and why does it make a difference?

Simply stated, resource-oriented computing is a logical computing model in which information is modeled as abstract resources and each resource is identified by a logical URI addresses. The microkernel sits between the logical and physical computing layers and mediates all resource requests, binding the request to the physical level at the moment of the request and then unbinding it when the result is returned.

The World Wide Web is an example of a resource oriented computing system. In the Web a URL identifies an abstract resource and the web server mediates the boundary of the physical realm of disk files and programming languages.

NetKernel implements a full resource-oriented computing model. In fact, all resources within an application are addressed by URI. Even code itself! The idea of using URI addresses this way is grounded in extensive research conducted at Hewlett-Packard Labs by the founders of 1060 Research. The research traces its heritage back even further, to the World Wide Web, and even indirectly to the foundations of the Unix operating system.

Why does this provide dramatically better results?

Because of the complete separation of the logic and physical computing layers and because all resources are indirectly addressed with logical URI addresses, the microkernel is free to provide optimizations that would be difficult if not prohibitively expensive to achieve using physical layer code.

Optimizations include caching, transparent thread management and asynchronous processing. The microkernel can cache the results of each resource request eliminating redundant computations. Requests can be scheduled on on separate CPU cores to scale an application just as Google.com can scale using thousands of servers behind a single URL address. Additionally each request is handled asynchronously by tightly managed threads while eliminating the need for a NetKernel developer to ever think about threads. Not only is this vastly simpler, it is impossible to write a non-thread-safe program in NetKernel.

The most important results are flexibility and simplicity. Applications are fully programmed in the logical layer by composing new resources from existing resources and software services. This is a dramatically simpler and less brittle than using traditional languages and APIs.

Other results of resource oriented computing approach include:

• Functions and services decoupled from languages - processes can be scripted rapidly with any supported dynamic language (Ruby, Python, Groovy, BeanShell, Javascript or dynamically compiled Java) or with a domain specific language (XSL, E4X, XQuery, RDFQ, STM).
• Pipes and pipeline development - just like Unix pipes only better: NetKernel supports pipeline streaming of all supported resource types: XML, images and more.
• Speeds development - coding occurs at the logical level instead of the physical level. Gone are direct dependencies on fragile physical API calls and object hierarchies.
• Transports decoupled from applications - an application can utilize HTTP, JMS, SOAP, SMTP/POP and others - simultaneously! Simply map a protocol to an application's URI addressable interface.
• The distinction between client and server is gone - in fact each NetKernel instance can be an equal peer in a network of distributed processes.

The New Equation

NetKernel matches and exceeds the infrastructure capabilities of .Net and J2EE while providing lightning fast development. Problems are transformed from challenging to easy. For example, the nearly impossible problem of XML message processing with physical layer code is addressed at the logical layer by a simple sequence of resource processing requests. The loose coupling of resources and services allows development teams to be decoupled. Architects will visualize the software system as layered resources and logical services. Specialists will construct low-level service implementations. General team members will compose the system, test and apply data constraints in the resource layer and at the system boundaries. Everyone will be able to focus on their areas of expertise without interfering with others.

Invitation

The implications of NetKernel's architecture are fascinating. NetKernel provides an enterprise infrastructure comparable to J2EE and Microsoft .Net but without their bulky collections of physical APIs and libraries. Embrace NetKernel's resource oriented approach and gain the best of all worlds - light-weight scripting, comprehensive resource models and enterprise capabilities.

We are excited by the implications of NetKernel's capabilities for software development. We invite you to try NetKernel and extend an offer to assist you as you explore. We believe you will join the growing number of NetKernel adopters who prove our proposition time and time again.

Start Experiencing the Flexibility, Power and Speed of NetKernel

Download 1060 NetKernel Standard Edition v3.3 and register for thirty days of free evaluation support.