Design of the x-kernel

ABSTRACT

The x-kernel is a configurable operating system kernel designed to support experimentation in interprocess communication and distributed programming. The x-kernel's underlying architecture provides a rich set of abstractions that are used to construct and compose communication protocols. The architecture is interesting because the abstractions are both general enough to accommodate a wide range of protocols and efficient enough to provide a useful testbed in which protocol performance can be accurately measured.

REFERENCES

• Acce86: M. Accetta, et. al. Mach: A New Kernel Foundation for UNIX Development. In Proceedings of Summer Usenix, July 1986.
• Andr88: Gregory R. Andrews , Michael Coffin , Irving Elshoff , Kelvin Nilson , Gregg Townsend , Ronald A. Olsson , Titus Purdin, An overview of the SR language and implementation, ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS), v.10 n.1, p.51-86, Jan. 1988 [doi>10.1145/42192.42324]
• AT&T87: CORPORATE AT&T, UNIX system V: streams programmer's guide, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1987
• Blac87: Andrew Black , Norman Hutchinson , Eric Jul , Henry Levy , Larry Carter, Distributed and abstract types in Emerald, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, v.13 n.1, p.65-76, Jan. 1987 [doi>10.1109/TSE.1987.232836]
• Cher85: David R. Cheriton , Willy Zwaenepoel, Distributed process groups in the V Kernel, ACM Transactions on Computer Systems (TOCS), v.3 n.2, p.77-107, May 1985 [doi>10.1145/214438.214439]
• Cher87: D Cheriton, VMTP: a transport protocol for the next generation of communication systems, Proceedings of the ACM SIGCOMM conference on Communications architectures & protocols, p.406-415, August 05-07, 1986, Stowe, Vermont, United States
• Clar85: David D. Clark, The structuring of systems using upcalls, Proceedings of the tenth ACM symposium on Operating systems principles, p.171-180, December 1985, Orcas Island, Washington, United States
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• Hutc87: N. C. Hutchinson, EMERALD: An object-based language for distributed programming, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 1987
• Hutc88: N.C. Hutchinson, S. Mishra, L.L. Peterson, and V. Thomas. Tools for Implementing Network Protocols. In preparation.
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• Leff83: S.J. Leffler, W.N. Joy, and R.S. Fabray. 4.2BSD Networking Implementation Notex. In Unix Programmer's Manual, Volume 2C, University of California at Berkeley, 1983.
• Mock87: P. Mockapetris. Domain Names--Implementation and Specification. Request For Comments 1035. USC Information Sciences Institute, Marina del Ray, Calif., November 1987.
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• Plum82: D. Plummer. An Ethernet Address Resolution Protocol. Request For Comments 826, USC Information Sciences Institute, Marina del Ray, Calif., November 1982.
• Post80: J. PosteI. User Datagram ProtocoI. Request For Comments 768, USC Information Sciences Institute, Marina del Ray, Calif., August 1980.
• Post81a: J. PosteI. Internet Protocol. Request For Comments 791, USC Information Sciences Institute, Marina del Ray, Calif., September 1981.
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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.2 Network Protocols
          Subjects: Protocol architecture (OSI model)

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.2 Language Classifications

          Nouns: C
  D.4 OPERATING SYSTEMS
      D.4.0 General

          Nouns: UNIX

General Terms:
Design, Languages