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Perspectives on CTRON
Abstract
Unlike other TRON software components, CTRON is designed to run on various CPU architectures, including existing, large-scale computers as well as microprocessors. It is expected that various implementations of CTRON should provide common support for suitable applications in spite of differences in software and hardware architecture. Thus CTRON may be viewed as a standard for an interface between operating systems and applications, and between operating systems and CPU architectures.
Such a standard must be robust, to be useable in many different environments. It also should be in harmony with other standards that may exist for similar or related elements of the distributed system which TRON envisions. This paper reviews some principal interfaces that exist in a typical computing system and significant formal and de facto standards for these interfaces, and examines CTRON’s role among these standards. The review is based on experience in the development of the IEEE MOSI standard, which has many similarities with CTRON, and on an ongoing study of CTRON itself.
Based on this review, some suggestions are offered for the fine tuning and evolution of CTRON, which may help the specification to best fulfill its intended purposes.
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Information communication networks are being developed which provide a variety of services integrating information processing and communications. A high realtime processing capability and high reliability are required in switching and other nodes making up such networks. Multi-user processing and large-scale data processing functions are also required, especially in information processing nodes. In addition, as the network develops, in order to realize a diversity of services reliably and efficiently it should be possible to incorporate similar functions in a number of nodes, and to change the distribution of functions among nodes. Software portability across nodes is thus an important factor. This paper will outline the design principles and configuration of CTRON, which is a set of operating system interfaces designed to meet these requirements in information communication networks.
Some lessons are derived from experience in the development of a software interface standard, IEEE Trial Use Std-855 for Microprocessor Operating System Interfaces (MOSI). This experience has led to the formulation of some useful guidelines which were not necessarily evident from the start. The major observation concerns the importance of careful consideration of the objectives, proper scope, existing models, and expected usage, of the planned standard. This process helps in making the right decisions on what should be standardized. A number of specific guidelines based on these principles are discussed.
TRON's specification for a communication network operating system produced this kernel model. It promises software portability and a high level of performance functions common to diverse network nodes.
The MOSI Standard for Operating System Interfaces
- J D Mooney