Server: Netscape-Commerce/1.12 Date: Tuesday, 26-Nov-96 00:06:36 GMT Last-modified: Thursday, 15-Jun-95 00:37:35 GMT Content-length: 2615 Content-type: text/html PARALLEL & DISTRIBUTED OPERATING SYSTEMS GROUP


M. Frans Kaashoek,
Assistant Professor
of Computer Science and Engineering
Fernando J. Corbató,
Ford Professor
of Engineering

The Parallel and Distributed Operating Systems Group conducts software research for parallel and distributed computing systems. The Group collaborates extensively with other LCS researchers.

We take a pragmatic approach by focusing on three primary goals: simplifying the parallel and distributed programming process, building efficient distributed systems with off-the-shelf technology that also can be used for parallel supercomputing, and building scalable, flexible, high-performance storage services for these distributed systems.

The first goal is addressed by a software-based shared-memory system, called Autopilot, that combines the ease of shared-memory programming with the physical scalability of distributed systems. Autopilot's novel aspects include the automatic management of locality and work distribution.

Secondly, the Exokernel is a novel operating system microkernel that provides low-overhead protected communication and a user-customizable kernel interface. Efficient communication is an especially valuable mechanism for structuring complex systems, since it allows the systems to be decomposed into separate protection domains. By allowing user customization, applications can set their own policies instead of being harnessed in a default kernel policy.

Our research into high-performance storage systems is represented by the Logical Disk (LD), which separates file and disk management so that different file systems can be run efficiently over the same LD. We also are extending the three goals to include mobile distributed systems.