
Operating System Support for Persistent and Recoverable Computations (1996) [pdf] - vezzy-fnord
http://www-systems.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/gh/pub/gh-15.pdf
======
nickpsecurity
Interesting architecture. This structuring might fit well with clouds given
that some container tricks resemble it. Adding capability controls are an
improvement. The use of custom memory management per container is a smart idea
also used in JX operating system. Should be used more often given how each
app, servlet, etc can have considerably different memory requirements and
optimizations.

I think it might also be rewarding to look into combined language and OS
approaches. The reason is that there's lots of diversity in operating systems,
libraries, ISA's, etc with most projects standardizing around a certain
language and interface. I could see some extension that marks things as
persistent while compilers for specific OS's handle the details. Would help
portability.

On other end, some research should be done in hardware support. Acceleration
of persistence options at the least. I particularly think a hardware/software
combo will help with safety-critical embedded where the hardware constantly
checkpoints key state with the OS facilitating that with structuring and
directing its operation. Well, no need to speculate as that's what Tandem's
NonStop did with custom MIPS processors. A little in academia, too. I just
think it's worth another look as it might not add much cost to an existing,
high-end SOC in embedded.

~~~
vezzy-fnord
Capabilities are pretty much the only practical way to perform access control
on a persistent object store design.

External pagers (custom VMM and page fault handling policy on the per-process,
per-task, per-library, etc. level) have been an integral part of all
microkernel architectures since Mach, likely earlier on to the Accent and TRIX
kernels.

The paper actually cited a reference to an old microarchitecture with
capability-based addressing called MONADS-PC. Unfortunately, it seems like the
paper is nowhere to be found in public, even though it's cited quite a bit!
Instead, there's a shorter and related paper called "The Micro-Architecture of
a Capability-Based Computer", but it's not the same one.

~~~
nickpsecurity
The reason it was only cited was because it was a conference that was
published as a whole for $200 and largely out of stock. However, even a wall
that big doesn't easily stop a force of nature like Nick P:

[http://messagelab.monash.edu.au/Publications/DavidAbramson](http://messagelab.monash.edu.au/Publications/DavidAbramson)

Note: Acaddmics and research groups often squirrel away copies on their own
sites for self promotion and sometimes public benefit.

Summary of the group's work below along with important point that hardware
wasn't good enough for software at that point:

[http://www.monads-security.org](http://www.monads-security.org)

Enjoy. :)

