On the duality of operating system structures
- 1 April 1979
- journal article
- Published by Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review
- Vol. 13 (2), 3-19
- https://doi.org/10.1145/850657.850658
Abstract
Many operating system designs can be placed into one of two very rough categories, depending upon how they implement and use the notions of process and synchronization. One category, the "Message-oriented System," is characterized by a relatively small, static number of processes with an explicit message system for communicating among them. The other category, the "Procedure-oriented System," is characterized by a large, rapidly changing number of small processes and a process synchronization mechanism based on shared data.In this paper, it is demonstrated that these two categories are duals of each other and that a system which is constructed according to one model has a direct counterpart in the other. The principal conclusion is that neither model is inherently preferable, and the main consideration for choosing between them is the nature of the machine architecture upon which the system is being built, not the application which the system will ultimately support.Keywords
This publication has 6 references indexed in Scilit:
- On unifying module interfacesACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review, 1978
- The CAP project - an interim evaluationPublished by Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) ,1977
- The Cambridge CAP computer and its protection systemPublished by Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) ,1977
- Early experience with MesaPublished by Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) ,1977
- Overview of the Hydra Operating System developmentPublished by Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) ,1975
- MonitorsCommunications of the ACM, 1974