A distributed virtual machine to support software process

Abstract

The availability of new technologies increases, at least potentially, the chance to support cooperative work exploiting the many resources offered by computer networks. This opportunity is impaired by the lack of tools able to manage the large variety of network resources at an adequate level of abstraction. This lack is particularly felt in the implementation of software process support environments.In this paper we describe how, in Oikos, we realized the distributed run-time support to process enactment. On the basis of this experience, we claim the need of a homogenous framework that overcomes this limitation. We propose oiXos, a virtual machine that abstracts a network of Unix workstations, disk servers, and X Window terminals. We introduce the notions of component, item, and gibject. Upon these notions we build the abstraction level given by the oiXos virtual machine. We discuss the oiXos architecture that relies on a collection of system components that manage the objects of the oiXos machine.