The DUNIX distributed operating system

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Abstract
DUNIX is an operating system that integrates several computers, connected by a packet switching network, into a single UNIX machine. As far as the users and their software can tell, the system is a single large computer running UNIX. This illusion is created by cooperation of the computers' kernels. The kernels' mode of operation is novel. The software is procedure call oriented. The code that implements a specific system call (e.g., open) does not know whether the object in question (the file) is local or remote. That uniformity makes the kernel small and easy to maintain. The system behaves gracefully under subcomponents' failures. Users which do not have objects (files, processes, tty, etc) in a given computer are not disturbed when that computer crashes. The system administrator may switch a disk from a "dead" computer to a healthy one, and remount the disk under the original path-name. After the switch, users may access files in that disk via the same old names. DUNIX exhibits surprisingly high performance. For a compilation benchmark, DUNIX is faster than 4.2 BSD, even if in the DUNIX case all the files in question are remote. Currently, in Bell Communications Research we have an installation running DUNIX over five DEC VAX computers connected by an Ethernet. This installation speaks TCP/IP and is on the Internet network.

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