Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att-cb!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!decwrl!pyramid!prls!philabs!sbcs!root
From: root@sbcs.sunysb.edu (SBCS Systems Staff)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: An alternative IPC system
Summary: Cheriton V system papers highly recommended
Message-ID: <1149@sbcs.sunysb.edu>
Date: 16 Apr 88 16:15:06 GMT
References: <2783@crash.cts.com> <12379@orchid.waterloo.edu> <1833@sugar.UUCP> <12388@orchid.waterloo.edu>
Organization: State University of New York at Stony Brook
Lines: 59

In article <12388@orchid.waterloo.edu>, kgschlueter@orchid.waterloo.edu (Kevin Schlueter) writes:
> 
> The V-kernel addresses these issues.  I don't have the pertinent paper with me
> right now, but I believe it was in IEEE Software, April 1984.  We should all
> read this paper.

	Let me go a bit further and suggest that everyone involved in
	the IPC thing go out and read all of the Cheriton/Zwaenepoel 
	papers on the V kernel and the work that lead up to it.  Also
	suggested reading is the paper on the Ridge message passing kernel.
	You might also do well to read the Cambridge Ring book.  After you're
	basically sold on message passing as IPC, read the recent Bill Joy
	interview in Unix Review (?).

	Here are some references to get started:

	(1)	Cheriton, etal, "Thoth, a portable realtime operating
		system".  Comm ACM 22, Feb 1979.

		PS.  Cheriton was at Waterloo when he wrote this paper.
		     Perhaps this accounts for the original authors
		     interest in V :-) ?

	(2)	Needham & Herbert, _The Cambridge Distributed Computing
		System_, Addison-Wesley,  Reading, Mass., 1982.

	(3)	Cheriton & Mann, "Uniform Access to Distributed Name
		Interpretation in the V-System", some IEEE conf 1984.

	(4)	Basart, E, "The Ridge Operating System:  High Performance
		Through Message-Passing and Virtual Memory", some IEEE conf
		1985.

	(5)	Cheriton & Zwaenepoel, "The Distributed V Kernel and Its
		Performance for Diskless Workstations".  Proceedings of the
		Ninth ACM Symposium on Operating System Principles, Oct 1983.

	Sorry about the vague publication credit in (3) & (4).  I'll dig
	up the proceedings if interest merits it.

	Another nice reference is to get a copy of the V System manual
	from Stanford.  Anyways once you've traced the literature tree 
	from the above references, be sure to look at:

	(6)	Cheriton, "VMTP: Versatile Message Transaction Protocol
		Protocol Specification", Internet RFC1045.

	If you need some convincing to go out and read the literature, be
	sure to look at the performance figures given in (4).  Just think
	of what we could do with the Amiga if we transplanted the V I/O
	system onto the Amiga.....  

	As for Ameristar, we are looking at including (6) in one of our 
	next releases.  The application interface will probably be sockets 
	at first, and perhaps the "Usenet standard" if one can be agreed upon.

						Rick Spanbauer
						SUNY/Stony Brook
						(& Ameristar)