RT PC distributed services overview

Abstract

RT PC Distributed Services provides distributed operating system capabilities for the AIX 1 operating system. These include distributed files with local/remote transparency, a form of "single system image" and distributed interprocess communication. Applications, including data management/data base applications, can typically be used in the distributed environment without modification to existing object code. Distributed Services is architected for strong compatibility with AIX, the UNIX 2 operating system, IBM architectures such as SNA and some of the architectures of Sun Microsystems' 3 NFS. The Distributed Services implementation includes caching mechanisms and other algorithms designed for high performance without sacrificing strict functional transparency. This paper describes the key characteristics and decisions in the design of Distributed Services.