Object-orientation in a family of parallel operating systems

A major challenge in operating system design for massively parallel systems is to combine transparency with efficiency. The author discusses the program family concept and object-orientation as implementation instruments to build parallel operating systems that can be suited to the individual needs of parallel applications and computer architectures. He presents the PEACE parallel operating system family and demonstrates object orientation as the key for constructing featherweight, flexible, and high performance operating systems for massively parallel systems. He concentrates on the description of the family organization and on a detailed illustration of the cooperation between the various building blocks. A case study on the modeling of active objects in PEACE is presented to exemplify how the design of a family of parallel operating systems may benefit from an object-oriented implementation