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kernel

Core of a computer operating system

EntityQ9662

Also known as operating system kernel · OS kernel

Subclass of: operating system component
Part of: operating system

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

A kernel is a computer program at the core of a computer's operating system that always has complete control over everything in the system. The kernel is also responsible for preventing and mitigating conflicts between different processes. It is the portion of the operating system that is always resident in memory and facilitates interactions between hardware and software components. A full kernel controls all hardware resources via device drivers, arbitrates conflicts between processes concerning such resources, and optimizes the use of common resources, such as CPU, cache, file systems, and network sockets. On most systems, the kernel is one of the first programs loaded on startup. It handles the rest of startup as well as memory, peripherals, and input/output (I/O) requests from software, translating them into data-processing instructions for the central processing unit.

Overview

All data

22 statements · 14% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Follows: firmware
Followed by: operating system

On other databases

16 identifiers linking kernel across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

14%

externally sourced

Source last edited September 26, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). kernel (Q9662). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/kernel-Q9662