Amoeba: a distributed operating system for the 1990s

Sape J. Mullender; Guido van Rossum; Andrew S. Tanenbaum; Robbert van Renesse; Hans van Staveren

doi:10.1109/2.53354

Amoeba: a distributed operating system for the 1990s

Sape J. Mullender, Guido van Rossum, Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Robbert van Renesse, Hans van Staveren

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

216 Citations (Scopus)

628 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

A description is given of the Amoeba distributed operating system, which appears to users as a centralized system but has the speed, fault tolerance, security safeguards, and flexibility required for the 1990s. The Amoeba software is based on objects. Objects are managed by server processes and named using capabilities chosen randomly from a sparse name space. Amoeba has a unique, fast file system split into two parts: the bullet service stores immutable files contiguously on the disk; the directory service gives capabilities symbolic names and handles replication and atomicity, eliminating the need for a separate transaction management system. To bridge the gap with existing systems, Amoeba has a Unix emulation facility consisting of a library of Unix system call routines that make calls to the various Amoeba server processes.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	44-53
Number of pages	10
Journal	Computer (New York)
Volume	23
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/2.53354
Publication status	Published - May 1990

Access to Document

10.1109/2.53354

Mullender1990amoebaFinal published version, 988 KB

Cite this

@article{70695a8db8494c68a1884410243be196,

title = "Amoeba: a distributed operating system for the 1990s",

abstract = "A description is given of the Amoeba distributed operating system, which appears to users as a centralized system but has the speed, fault tolerance, security safeguards, and flexibility required for the 1990s. The Amoeba software is based on objects. Objects are managed by server processes and named using capabilities chosen randomly from a sparse name space. Amoeba has a unique, fast file system split into two parts: the bullet service stores immutable files contiguously on the disk; the directory service gives capabilities symbolic names and handles replication and atomicity, eliminating the need for a separate transaction management system. To bridge the gap with existing systems, Amoeba has a Unix emulation facility consisting of a library of Unix system call routines that make calls to the various Amoeba server processes.",

author = "Mullender, {Sape J.} and {van Rossum}, Guido and Tanenbaum, {Andrew S.} and {van Renesse}, Robbert and {van Staveren}, Hans",

year = "1990",

month = may,

doi = "10.1109/2.53354",

language = "English",

volume = "23",

pages = "44--53",

journal = "Computer (New York)",

issn = "0018-9162",

publisher = "IEEE",

number = "5",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Amoeba: a distributed operating system for the 1990s

AU - Mullender, Sape J.

AU - van Rossum, Guido

AU - Tanenbaum, Andrew S.

AU - van Renesse, Robbert

AU - van Staveren, Hans

PY - 1990/5

Y1 - 1990/5

N2 - A description is given of the Amoeba distributed operating system, which appears to users as a centralized system but has the speed, fault tolerance, security safeguards, and flexibility required for the 1990s. The Amoeba software is based on objects. Objects are managed by server processes and named using capabilities chosen randomly from a sparse name space. Amoeba has a unique, fast file system split into two parts: the bullet service stores immutable files contiguously on the disk; the directory service gives capabilities symbolic names and handles replication and atomicity, eliminating the need for a separate transaction management system. To bridge the gap with existing systems, Amoeba has a Unix emulation facility consisting of a library of Unix system call routines that make calls to the various Amoeba server processes.

AB - A description is given of the Amoeba distributed operating system, which appears to users as a centralized system but has the speed, fault tolerance, security safeguards, and flexibility required for the 1990s. The Amoeba software is based on objects. Objects are managed by server processes and named using capabilities chosen randomly from a sparse name space. Amoeba has a unique, fast file system split into two parts: the bullet service stores immutable files contiguously on the disk; the directory service gives capabilities symbolic names and handles replication and atomicity, eliminating the need for a separate transaction management system. To bridge the gap with existing systems, Amoeba has a Unix emulation facility consisting of a library of Unix system call routines that make calls to the various Amoeba server processes.

U2 - 10.1109/2.53354

DO - 10.1109/2.53354

M3 - Article

SN - 0018-9162

VL - 23

SP - 44

EP - 53

JO - Computer (New York)

JF - Computer (New York)

IS - 5

ER -

Amoeba: a distributed operating system for the 1990s

Abstract

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this