English: In computing, the kernel is the central component of most computer operating systems (OSs). Its responsibilities include managing the system's resources and the communication between hardware and software components. As a basic component of an operating system, a kernel provides the lowest level of abstraction layer for the resources (especially memory, processors and I/O devices) that applications must control to perform their function. It typically makes these facilities available to application processes through inter-process communication mechanisms and system calls. This image is a SVG version of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kernel-simple.png by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ysangkok