Research Assistants: J. Lin, A. Muckelbauer, D. Stevens
Sponsors: Sun Microsystems, Inc., Digital Equipment Corporation, AT&T
Xinu is a small, elegant system that follows a hierarchical structure. The latest Xinu work has focused on porting Xinu to new architectures, adding support for virtual memory and Internet protocols, and adding a file system. In all cases, we are exploring how to add new facilities to the multilevel design without introducing level violations. The virtual memory system project has explored a novel approach to backing store. In the Xinu model, a server that consists of a dedicated, large-memory machine provides high-speed remote memory for a set of Xinu client machines. We have developed a highly optimized streaming protocol that permits cli ents and servers to send data at high rates. In addition, we have developed an optimized page server that re quires little processing time to store or fetch pages.