Distributed Network Operating Systems

Distributed Network Operating Systems

Distributed

Distributed operating systems (OSs) are a type of network operating system (NOS). NOSs exist mostly or fully for, their main reason for being, is to facilitate networking, between two or more computers, to operate and improve networks, with non-trivial networking (e.g., routing) included and/or built in, which need not be added later, and they make little sense without their network functions. Many OSs have some networking ability, but not all such OSs are NOSs. Distributed OSs go beyond most NOSs, to divide, distribute, and even dynamically migrate tasks and information, to operate, over networks to run on two or more processors, often called clustering, and heterogeneous multiprocessing. By definition, distributed OSs are multiprocessor OSs, usually asymmetric. On this page, OSs are arranged in two groups and levels: 1) Top group: OSs for which there are more than one instance of an OS of this name/type, an OS family. 2) Bottom group: specific OSs, individual instances; there is only one OS of this name/type.

Top: Computers: Software: Operating Systems: Network: Distributed

See Also:

- Global Layer Unix; technology trends in high-speed, low-latency LANs suggest convergence of hardware in Massively Parallel Processors, MPPs, and Networks of Workstations, NOWs. Relative to many MPPs, NOWs offer more cost-effectiveness and scalability, and
- Brief, simple layman's treatment of Carnegie Mellon University's Odyssey project; IBM Research's Autonomic Computing initiative; Microsoft's Farsite project. [CNN.com]
- Support for Multimedia in Operating systems, Lancaster University: microkernel OS with facilities to support distributed realtime and multimedia applications and ODP-based multimedia distributed application platforms.
- Mobile agent system for ubiquitous computing; new way to cope with the wide-area, large-scale ubiquitous computing environment of near future. Allows access to personal and collaborative computing services anywhere, via varied desktop and mobile computing
- Modular object-oriented application to index files across networks. Consists of plug-in type data retrieval system, webserver, peer-to-peer connections for network-wide information gathering, retrieval; has features of OSs, database management systems, di
- Distributed OS gives one system image to/over a networked cluster of workstations, research project, Berkeley, John Outerhoust group; high file system performance via client and server caching, process migration to use idle machines; testbed for research
- hierarchically clustered OS implemented on Hector multiprocessor; manages system resources in clusters, using tight coupling within clusters, loose coupling across clusters. Succeeded by Tornado.
- Researches distributed and realtime operating systems, communication, software engineering. Part of Department of Computer Science at the Otto-von-Guericke-University of Magdeburg. Some information on site not in English.
- A distributed operating system based on the concepts of object replication, component model support and persistence. It consists of a L4 microkernel and a set of distributed objects acting at the user level. [Open source]
- Simple, yet efficient distributed shared memory (DSM) system; a user-level library plus header files supports DSM on groups of Unix workstations. Runs on 4.3BSD/M68k, HP-UX/PA-RISC, IRIX 5.2/MIPS, SunOS 4.1/SPARC. [Open Source, public domain]
- Details active project to illustrate use of MOSIX to create clusters of surplus machines that can be used to provide network services, application resources.
- Object-oriented operating system for large-scale shared-memory multiprocessors. Minimizes data sharing via careful design: often eliminates data sharing even when sharing appears natural. Successor to Hurricane.
- Gives distributed OS services needed to build applications that are wide-area, highly available, incrementally scalable, dynamically reconfiguring, with mechanisms for: resource discovery, global namespace, remote process execution, resource management, a
- Grenoble Universities Integrated Distributed Environment. Object-oriented distributed OS to develop and operate distributed applications on local area networks of workstations and servers. Joint project Bull, IMAG Research Institute; related to COMANDOS,
- An operating system that lets applications be built simpler. The system selects and combines resources from the network semi-automatically.
- Distributed operating system, to be fully object-oriented, preemptively multithreaded/tasked, event/message-driven. Little code yet, but design documents and links are interesting, useful reading.
- Software package to enhance Unix kernels (7 so far) and Linux with cluster computing abilities. Lets any size cluster of x86-based workstations and servers work cooperatively as if part of one system. [Open Source, GPL]
- Parallel and Distributed Operating Systems Group; research focus: extensible and flexible system services: filesystems, networking, languages. Projects: 'C, Chord, Click, Exokernel (Exopc), Grid, Prolac, RON, and SFS. Funding: DARPA, NSF; AT&T, IBM, I
- Agent-based communication models show great promise to operate in unpredictable, metamorphic environments, such as mobile computing networks. Excellent basic explanations, clear arguments, well reasoned; from Crossroads, ACM student magazine.
- Distributed Unix operating system for Stanford FLASH multiprocessor; survives hardware and software faults, performance near commercial Unix. Arranged as internal system of independent kernels (cells) for reliability, scalability.
- Short, annotated, alphabetically sorted list and links, part of larger system.

Newsgroups:

Usenet comp.os.misc - news: - Google Groups
Usenet comp.os.research - news: - Google Groups

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