An environment for an operating system

Abstract

Conventional operating systems are limited in scope and are designed to deal with very specific problems in the utilization of a computer facility. As more sophisticated programming techniques and new applications for computers are developed, it becomes increasingly apparent that operating systems, as currently conceived, do not adequately cope with the resulting problems. In this paper, a new approach to computer facility utilization is proposed which is based on the concept of extending the operations of a computer with software so as to provide a proper environment for an operating system. The organization and functional descriptions of a system, called an -and-ldquo;extensible machine-and-rdquo;, is presented with the advantages it affords over conventional systems being explicitly stated. Criteria for developing such a system are presented and the capabilities of the system are discussed in the light of current problem areas such as parallel processing, real time processing, and intelligence systems.