ABSTRACT

Operating systems that provide one mechanism for message transfer are forced, by the research community as well as the commercial market, to adopt a high-performance, low-functionality solution. Trollius is the only operating system portable to any multicomputer incarnation and available in source form. Multicomputer operating systems can accommodate a wider variety of applications by offering several different combinations of performance and functionality. A few multicomputer implementations have separate communication links for system-specific message traffic from the user interface, or perhaps from secondary storage. This allows the operating system to place more restrictions on the communication links reserved for the application and, hence, buy more speed. An opportunity appeared to build a strong operating system foundation suitable for future multicomputers. Contemporary system software from the hypercube generation appeared to be hastily constructed solutions from companies under pressure to reach the market fast and to focus attention on the promise of the architecture.