Microsoft engineer: Windows 7 kernel is not as simple as Vista SP3

Windows 7 version number is Windows NT 6.1, and Windows Vista is Windows NT 6.0, so many people call Windows 7 Vista X3. At the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC 2009) in Los Angeles, Microsoft kernel engineers gave an in-depth look at the Windows 7 Kernel. There have been impressive changes on the next-generation operating system kernel.

Microsoft's goal is mainly to improve system performance - after being criticized for poor performance of Windows Vista, this goal is not surprising. Windows NT kernel developer Mark Russinovich said that the information they received clearly pointed out that users want smaller, more efficient, faster and more energy-efficient operating systems, so performance is at the forefront in the development of Windows 7. As a result, although Windows 7 provides more features, its memory footprint is lower than the previous version for the first time.

Windows 7 removes a number of locks that severely impede performance. For example, the dispatcher lock that manages scheduling is completely gone - the dispatch lock is a key element in Vista's Windows architecture. Instead of fine-grained locking, there are 11 types of locks, threads, processors, timers, objects, etc. have special locks. The system will no longer observe global deadlocks and synchronizations. Most operations are lock-free.

Another Windows kernel developer said that from the perspective of the end user, Windows 7 is Vista's Service Pack 3, but the key underlying architecture has replaced the 20-year-old and has become increasingly incapable of adapting to changes. The concept, the new seemingly complex but actually efficient concept will make Windows 7 the same as the future of Windows 9.