Product scaling

Since you can readily scale a microkernel OS simply by including or omitting the particular processes that provide the functionality required, you can use a single microkernel OS for a much wider range of purposes than you can a realtime executive.

Product development often takes the form of creating a product line, with successive models providing greater functionality. Rather than be forced to change operating systems for each version of the product, developers using a microkernel OS can easily scale the system as needed—by adding filesystems, networking, graphical user interfaces, and other technologies.

Some of the advantages to this scalable approach include:

• portable application code (between product-line members)
• common tools used to develop the entire product line
• portable skill sets of development staff
• reduced time-to-market