On a Foundation Model for Operating Systems
Divyanshu Saxena Nihal Sharma Donghyun Kim Rohit Dwivedula Jiayi Chen Chenxi Yang Sriram Ravula Zichao Hu Aditya Akella Sebastian Angel Joydeep Biswas Swarat Chaudhuri Isil Dillig Alex Dimakis P. Brighten Godfrey Daehyeok Kim Chris Rossbach Gang Wang
This paper lays down the research agenda for a domain-specific foundation
model for operating systems (OSes). Our case for a foundation model revolves
around the observations that several OS components such as CPU, memory, and
network subsystems are interrelated and that OS traces offer the ideal dataset
for a foundation model to grasp the intricacies of diverse OS components and
their behavior in varying environments and workloads. We discuss a wide range
of possibilities that then arise, from employing foundation models as policy
agents to utilizing them as generators and predictors to assist traditional OS
control algorithms. Our hope is that this paper spurs further research into OS
foundation models and creating the next generation of operating systems for the
evolving computing landscape.