CAREER: A Communication-Oriented Operating Systems for the National Information Infrastructure (Career Development Program)

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This project will design, implement and experiment with an operating system that satisfies the requirements of emerging applications such as multimedia, parallel computing, and distributed information retrieval. These performance critical applications can be characterized by their intense use of communication, and by their need for tight control of the machine's resources. Existing operating systems often limit the performance of such applications, thereby preventing users from reaping the power of high-performance computer systems. As a result, lagging operating system technology threatens to delay the acceptance of parallel computing, multimedia, and other services in the emerging national information infrastructure. The major themes of the project are (1) designing OS communications support that delivers performance close to that provided by the network; (2) achieving OS performance that scales with the underlying computer system's performance; and, (3) investigating open service implementations that allow customization of OS services to match precisely an application's requirements. The goal is to deliver the resources provided by high-performance computer systems to applications, without sacrificing functionality, fairness, safety, and portability. Methods include the re-evaluation of current operating systems in light of changing application requirements and hardware performance characteristics; design, implementation, and experimentation with appropriate solutions; and, dissemination of results through publication and distpibution of software artifacts. Education plans of this CAREER project include the development of an interactive teaching style, introduction of a hands-on course in parallel programming using networks of workstations, and the organization of a summer program designed to expose junior high students to computer and information technology.