Grapevine: An exercise in distributed computing

Abstract

Grapevine is a distributed, replicated system running on a large internet within the Xerox research and development community. The internet extends from coast to coast in the USA, to Canada and to Europe, and contains more than 50 Ethernet local networks linked by leased telephone lines. Over 1500 computers are attached to the internet. Most computers are used an personal workstations, but some are used as servers providing access to shared facilities such as printers, large-scale secondary storage, or data bases. Computers on the internet are uniformly addressable using the PUP family of protocols.