An object-oriented distributed operating system

Abstract

The BiiN operating system executive, an extensible multiuser, multitasking, object-based operating system that provides symmetric multiprocessing, distributed computing, transaction processing, and support for real-time programs, is discussed. Key system functions are embedded in VLSI to increase performance, reliability, availability and security. The operating system extends the hardware object support by providing a persistent object store. The complex data structures programmers create to describe entities like compound documents and engineering drawings can be stored as a collection of interconnected objects. The relationship between these objects is embodied in the pointers from one object to another. The operating system can store this collection of objects, as well as the pointers between objects, in the BiiN object store. The operating system provides the requisite synchronization and data integrity primitives to allow different programs to access the same objects simultaneously.< >