Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!mit-eddie!bu-cs!mirror!rayssd!raybed2!linus!munck From: munck@linus.UUCP (Robert Munck) Newsgroups: comp.os.misc Subject: Re: Does anyone still use Multics?? Message-ID: <42972@linus.UUCP> Date: 13 Dec 88 18:16:20 GMT References: <6392@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU> <281@cs-spool.calgary.UUCP> <33003@think.UUCP> <12778@steinmetz.ge.com> Reply-To: munck@faron.UUCP (Robert Munck) Distribution: na Organization: The MITRE Corporation, Bedford MA Lines: 43 In article <12774@steinmetz.ge.com> davidsen@crdos1.UUCP (bill davidsen) writes: >In article <6360@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> elg@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Eric Green) writes: > >| Re: 68030 vs. 80386 -- what I'd love to see on the '386 would be a >| Multics-like system. The hardware looks so Multics-like... > > I thought of Multics when I first saw the 386. Come on someone, >Multics is certified B2 secure, and it's written in a high level >language. Can't someone see the market for Multic/386? Could it really >be harder to port than UNIX? ----------------- Well, doing all of Multics turned out to be a bit much for a one-man project, but I am writing a smaller system with the same basic architecture -- persistent segments that can be attached and detached from the address space. I'm into the debugging of something I think can be called an "open-architecture secure kernel." The "open-architecture" comes from the fact that it should be very easy to add device drivers, servers (such as X-Windows), and make enhancements to the system. The "secure" part is because the base system has all the mechanism needed to be certified at B2 level or higher, in the opinions of the security people here at MITRE (and they help do actual certifications). There's conflict, of course, between "open" and "secure," with most of the security becoming impossible if a user-written, untrusted server is started. We're planning to put some effort into wide distribution of the source code of the system later this year. It's been done with government money, from the Ada Joint Program Office, and so is Public Domain. Currently written in Professional Pascal/386 from MetaWare, but we're considering recoding in Ada now that there may be usable compilers for the 386. The kernel is to form the base system for a prototype implementation of DOD-STD-1838A, the CAIS (an OS interface for programming tools). I wouldn't mind some help debugging the trickier stuff like dynamic paging, might even be able to pay for a summer student or two or subsidize a good semester project. Source code on request. -- Bob Munck, MITRE Corporation -- munck@mitre.org, munck@mitre.arpa -- ..!linus!munck -- 617/271-3671