27 research outputs found
Using Sparse Capabilities in a Distributed Operating System
this paper we discuss a system, Amoeba, that uses capabilities for naming and protecting objects. In contrast to traditional, centralized operating systems, in which capabilities are managed by the operating system kernel, in Amoeba all the capabilities are managed directly by user code. To prevent tampering, the capabilities are protected cryptographically. The paper describes a variety of the issues involved, and gives four different ways of dealing with the access rights
Performance of the Amoeba Distributed Operating System
Amoeba is a capability‐based distributed operating system designed for high‐performance interactions between clients and servers using the well‐known RPC model. The paper starts out by describing the architecture of the Amoeba system, which is typified by specialized components such as workstations, several services, a processor pool, and gateways that connect other Amoeba systems transparently over wide‐area networks. Next the RPC interface is described. The paper presents performance measurements of the Amoeba RPC on unloaded and loaded systems. The time to perform the simplest RPC between two user processes has been measured to be 1‐4 ms. Compared to SUN 3/50's RPC, Amoeba has one ninth of the delay, and over three times the throughput. Finally we describe the Amoeba file server. The Amoeba file server is so fast that it is limited by the communication bandwidth. To the best of our knowledge this is the fastest file server yet reported in the literature for this class of hardware. Copyright © 1989 John Wiley & Sons, Lt
A Study of Dynamic Optimization Techniques: Lessons and Directions in Kernel Design
The Synthesis kernel [21,22,23,27,28] showed that dynamic code generation, software feedback, and fine-grain modular kernel organization are useful implementation techniques for improving the performance of operating system kernels. In addition, and perhaps more importantly, we discovered that there are strong interactions between the techniques. Hence, a careful and systematic combination of the techniques can be very powerful even though each one by itself may have serious limitations. By identifying these interactions we illustrate the problems of applying each technique in isolation to existing kernels. We also highlight the important common under-pinnings of the Synthesis experience and present our ideas on future operating system design and implementation. Finally, we outline a more uniform approach to dynamic optimizations called incremental partial evaluation
Acquisition of computer research equipment
Issued as Final report, Project no. G-36-61
Distributed Shared Memory: A Survey of Issues and Algorithms
26 pagesA distributed shared memory (DSM) is an implementation of the shared memory
abstraction on a multicomputer architecture which has no physically shared memory.
Shared memory is important (as a programming model) not only because of the vast
number of existing applications which use it, but also because it is a more appropriate
paradigm for certain algorithms. The DSM concept was demonstrated to be viable by
Li, in IVY. Recently, there has been a surge of new projects which implement DSM in
a variety of software and hardware environments.
This paper gives an integrated overview of distributed shared memory. We discuss
theoretical lower bounds on the performance of DSM systems, design choices such as
structure and granularity, access, coherence semantics, scalability, and heterogeneity,
and open problems in DSM. In addition, we describe algorithms used to implement and
improve efficiency: reducing thrashing, eliminating false sharing, matching the coherence
protocol to the type of sharing, and relaxing the semantics of the memory coherence
provided. A spectrum of current DSM systems are used as illustrative examples
Object Protection in Distributed Systems
Withreferencetoadistributedsystemconsistingofnodesconnectedbyalocalareanetwork,we consider a salient aspect of the protection problem, the representation of access permissions and protection domains. We present a model of a protection system supporting typed objects. Possession of an access permission for a given object is certified by possession of an object pointer including the specification of a set of access rights. We associate an encryption key with each object and a password with each domain. Object pointers are stored in memory in a ciphertext form obtained by using the object key and including the value of the domain password. Each process is executed in a domain and can take advantage of a given object pointer only if this object pointer was encrypted by including the password of this domain. A set of protection primitives makes it possible to use object pointers for object reference and to control the movements of the objects across the network. The resulting protection environment is evaluated from a number of salient viewpoints, including ease of access right distribution and revocation, interprocess interaction and cooperation, protection against fraudulent actions of access right manipulation and stealing, storage overhead, and network traffic
A Programming Environment Evaluation Methodology for Object-Oriented Systems
The object-oriented design strategy as both a problem decomposition and system development paradigm has made impressive inroads into the various areas of the computing sciences. Substantial development productivity improvements have been demonstrated in areas ranging from artificial intelligence to user interface design. However, there has been very little progress in the formal characterization of these productivity improvements and in the identification of the underlying cognitive mechanisms. The development and validation of models and metrics of this sort require large amounts of systematically-gathered structural and productivity data. There has, however, been a notable lack of systematically-gathered information on these development environments. A large part of this problem is attributable to the lack of a systematic programming environment evaluation methodology that is appropriate to the evaluation of object-oriented systems
Management of object-oriented action-based distributed programs
Phd ThesisThis thesis addresses the problem of managing the runtime behaviour of distributed
programs. The thesis of this work is that management is fundamentally
an information processing activity and that the object model, as applied to actionbased
distributed systems and database systems, is an appropriate representation
of the management information. In this approach, the basic concepts of classes,
objects, relationships, and atomic transition systems are used to form object
models of distributed programs. Distributed programs are collections of objects
whose methods are structured using atomic actions, i.e., atomic transactions.
Object models are formed of two submodels, each representing a fundamental
aspect of a distributed program. The structural submodel represents a static
perspective of the distributed program, and the control submodel represents a
dynamic perspective of it. Structural models represent the program's objects,
classes and their relationships. Control models represent the program's object
states, events, guards and actions-a transition system. Resolution of queries on
the distributed program's object model enable the management system to control
certain activities of distributed programs.
At a different level of abstraction, the distributed program can be seen as a
reactive system where two subprograms interact: an application program and a
management program; they interact only through sensors and actuators. Sensors
are methods used to probe an object's state and actuators are methods used
to change an object's state. The management program is capable to prod the
application program into action by activating sensors and actuators available at
the interface of the application program. Actions are determined by management
policies that are encoded in the management program. This way of structuring
the management system encourages a clear modularization of application and
management distributed programs, allowing better separation of concerns. Managemental
concerns can be dealt with by the management program, functional
concerns can be assigned to the application program.
The object-oriented action-based computational model adopted by the management
system provides a natural framework for the implementation of faulttolerant
distributed programs. Object orientation provides modularity and extensibility
through object encapsulation. Atomic actions guarantee the consistency of
the objects of the distributed program despite concurrency and failures. Replication
of the distributed program provides increased fault-tolerance by guaranteeing
the consistent progress of the computation, even though some of the replicated
objects can fail.
A prototype management system based on the management theory proposed
above has been implemented atop Arjuna; an object-oriented programming system
which provides a set of tools for constructing fault-tolerant distributed programs. The management system is composed of two subsystems: Stabilis, a
management system for structural information, and Vigil, a management system
for control information. Example applications have been implemented to illustrate
the use of the management system and gather experimental evidence to give
support to the thesis.CNPq (Consellho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnol6gico, Brazil):
BROADCAST (Basic Research On Advanced Distributed Computing: from Algorithms to SysTems)