DocumentCode :
3657332
Title :
Evolution of a virtual machine supporting fault-tolerant distributed processes at a research laboratory
Author :
K. H. Kim
Author_Institution :
Department of Computer Science &
fYear :
1984
fDate :
4/1/1984 12:00:00 AM
Firstpage :
620
Lastpage :
628
Abstract :
A research laboratory named The Reliable Distributed Microcomputing Laboratory (RDML) has been established at the University of South Florida (USF) in order to support experimental research on fault-tolerant distributed computing. In order to cover a broad range of distributed computing situations, both loosly coupled and tightly coupled network facilities have been constructed. Both network facilities are relatively easy to reconfigure physically as well as logically. The primary components of the network facilities are a variety of microcomputers. In order to ease the problem of dynamic process migration among a set of heterogeneous microcomputers, the same virtual machine architecture has been implemented on all the microcomputers. The virtual machine supports concurrent processes and the initial version implemented was a 16-bit stack machine architecture with several limitations, e.g., inflexible scheduling, lack of support for networking, etc. The virtual machine has continued to evolve since its initial implementation, some due to hardware upgrade, e.g., incorporation of new microprocessors such as MC68000, and others due to the requirements imposed by the schemes for fault-tolerant distributed computing. In this paper, we review the motivations, the trade-offs made, and the engineering lessons learned during the evolution of the virtual machine in recent years.
Keywords :
"Fault tolerance","Fault tolerant systems","Virtual machining","Distributed computing","Processor scheduling","Concurrent computing","Computer architecture"
Publisher :
ieee
Conference_Titel :
Data Engineering, 1984 IEEE First International Conference on
Print_ISBN :
978-0-8186-0533-8
Type :
conf
DOI :
10.1109/ICDE.1984.7271327
Filename :
7271327
Link To Document :
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