Entries tagged with mark russinovich - Channel 9

Mark Russinovich: Inside Windows 7 Redux

Charles — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:30:00 GMT

Windows 7 is here, available to all for purchase and ships today with new PCs! To celebrate this momentous occasion for Windows and Microsoft, Technical Fellow Mark Russinovich joins me in a discussion that extends the great conversation we had last year on Windows 7 internals. In his previous C9 interview, Mark told us about many of the new additions to the Windows kernel which enable Windows 7 (and Windows Server R2) to scale to large numbers of processors. Well, removing the kernel dispatcher lock is not all that the great Arun Kishan did. He also developed a new scheduling mechanism known as Distributed Fair Share Scheduling (DFSS). Mark describes what this is and how it works.

We also discuss NUMA, non-uniform memory access, (and Mark explains NUMA to us while showing a demo or two on a 256 processor machine!)

Moving on to Windows memory management, the domain of the great engineer Landy Wang, Mark discusses the new additions to the Windows Memory Manager and explains why they matter to those of us who spend all of our time and in user mode.

Learn about all of this and much more as Mark digs into the insides of Windows 7, way deep down in the system (the culmative effects of which help to make Windows 7 Microsoft's most reliable, scalable and efficient general purpose operating system to date). As usual, Mark explains very complex mechanisms and concepts in a readily understandable way. This is a very conversational piece and we cover a lot of ground in a relatively short period of time. We also learn exactly why Mark is so passionate about operating systems and what the spark was that set off his passion and curiosity of how things work internally.

Mark will be presenting at PDC09 in the Technical Leaders track and the free Windows 7 Developer Boot Camp. His talks will be very deep and will explore all aspects of the new, improved Windows 7 kernel. I highly recommend that you attend both of these talks if you are going to PDC (you're going, right?!).

Check out the Windows area on 9 for more great Windows 7 content, all rolled up into a nice experience!

Enjoy!

Note: Check out all the 9 Guys Mark has. :) Also, you should subscribe to his incredible blog.

Mark Russinovich and David Solomon: Windows Internals 5 Released

Charles — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:01:00 GMT

Windows kernel expert and kernel "professor" David Solomon and Windows Kernel Technical Fellow Mark Russinovich have written another great book covering, in great detail, the internal composition of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. A third author,Alex Ionescu, joined the fray this time around. Together, they've just released Windows Internals Fifth Edition. My order has been submitted! If you want to really understand the mechanics of Windows' latest generation general purpose kernel, then go get this book.

David was in Redmond recently conducting deep training on the Windows 7 kernel, which contains 95% of the same ingredients as the Windows Vista kernel. So, of course we had to get the dynamic duo together to talk about their book, the Windows kernel, their history (they've been working together for a long time) and their future.

Enjoy! Happy reading.

Mark Russinovich: Happy Birthday Channel 9!

Charles — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:13:00 GMT

Mark Russinovich, long time Niner, SysInternals co-creator, Microsoft Technical Fellow and Windows Kernel Jedi Master, reflects on C9 through the years and explains what Channel 9 means to him. Mark's Channel 9 interview, Inside Windows 7, is the most viewed technical conversational piece on Channel 9. Over 500,000 views. Incredible!

Happy Birthday Channel 9!!!!

Cheers!!!

Mark Russinovich: Pushing the Limits of Windows - Paged and Nonpaged Pool

Charles — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:39:00 GMT

Paged and Nonpaged Pool.

Mark's posts are stellar. The detail, the clarity, the usefulness. Definitely one of my favorite technical Windows-related blogs. The post I linked to specifically is incredibly interesting given that it details a rare, but very painful problem and in process teaches us about some fundamental properties of the Windows kernel (see his other Pushing the Limits posts on Physical and Virtual memory).

C

Mark Russinovich: Inside Windows 7

Charles — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:39:00 GMT

How has Windows evolved, as a general purpose operating system and at the lowest levels, in Windows 7? Who better to talk to than Technical Fellow and Windows Kernel guru Mark Russinovich? Here, Mark enlightens us on the new kernel constructs in Windows 7 (and, yeah, we do wander up into user mode, but only briefly). One very important change in the Windows 7 kernel is the dismantling of the dispatcher spin lock and redesign and implementation of its functionality. This great work was done by Arun Kishan (you've met him here on C9 last year). EDIT: You can learn exactly what Arun did in eliminating the dispatcher lock and replacing it with a set of synchronization primitives and a new "pre-wait" thread state, here. The direct result of the reworking of the dispatcher lock is that Windows 7 can scale to 256 processors. Further, this enabled the great Landy Wang to tune the Windows Memory Manager to be even more efficient than it already is. Mark also explains (again) what MinWin really is (heck, even I was confused. Not anymore...). MinWin is present in Windows 7. Native support for VHD (boot from VHD anyone?) is another very cool addition to our next general purpose OS. Yes, and there's more!

Tune in. This is a great conversation (if you're into operating systems). It's always great to chat with Mark.

Mark Russinovich: On Working at Microsoft, Windows Server 2008 Kernel, MinWin vs ServerCore, HyperV,

Charles — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 19:01:00 GMT

I recently sat down with Technical Fellow and SysInternals founder Mark Russinovich to dig a bit into what's new in the Windows Server 2008 kernel. Of course, we talk about many things including HyperV, application virtualization, kernel architecture (not everybody defines an OS kernel in the same way - tune in to understand why this is the case. Mark has his own definition that may not be the same as yours....).

Recently, the MinWin project was in the press after a university video lecture by a Microsoft Windows architect was released on the net. Most people confuse MinWin with Windows Server 2008's ServerCore technology - the confusion stems from the incorrect assumption that ServerCore is a byproduct of the MinWin work. In fact, they are not at all related. Mark explains the differences and hopefully this will end the confusion...

Of course, Mark spends time on the whiteboard in this interview, drawing out the kernel architecture, explaining HyperV, touching on application virtualization (running client applications without having to install them locally - tune in to understand what I mean...).

Channel 9 is and has always been about showcasing the humans behind our technologies in addition to drilling into how we make our products, and of course why we do what we do (in a technical sense). Mark is a huge addition to the Windows family and his technical leadership is already being felt throughout buildings 26 and 43. Mark tells me about how life is going inside the Mothership, what a Techincal Fellow is (it's the highest level of engineering career stage at Microsoft), individual contribution versus management, and more.

As always, it's an honor and pleasure to spend time talking with Mark. He's one of our brightest technical minds and Windows architecture is in very good hands.

Enjoy.

Mark Russinovich: From Winternals to Microsoft, On Windows Security, Windows CoreArch

Charles — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 22:21:00 GMT

If you write code on Windows or like to know what goes on under the hood in Windows, then you've no doubt heard of Mark Russinovich. He's an OS kernel expert and a co-founder of Winternals; a company that produced must-have operating system and development utilities for Windows (Winternals is now a Microsoft subsidiary as we purchased them in July, 2006. Yay!).

Mark is now a Technical Fellow in Windows and is a member of the Windows Core Architecture team (you met some of the