The design of a distributed kernel for a multiprocessor system

The possibilities of increased responsiveness, throughput, availability, reliability and cost-effectiveness invite investigation of the hardware and software design of multiprocessor computing systems. This thesis describes an experiment in the design of a multiprocessor operating system based on the distribution of kernel functionality among the processors. One of the design objectives was to build a system capable of supporting real-time applications and a general-purpose, multi-user environment concurrently. The hardware base is a simple, closely-coupled, star network of autonomous computers constructed from "off-the-shelf" boards. The operating system developed, named Distributed Verex, is an extension of Verex which is a descendant of Thoth. The Verex kernel provides an environment of processes and inter-process communication via message-passing on a uniprocessor computer. Distributed Verex provides the same environment uniformly and transparently throughout the multiprocessor system. Distributed Verex has been implemented and is undergoing continuing development. Initial performance measurements are given.Science, Faculty ofComputer Science, Department ofGraduat