Amoeba (operating system)

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Amoeba (English for Amoeba ) is a distributed operating system that was developed by Andrew S. Tanenbaum and his colleagues at the Free University of Amsterdam . The aim of the project was to give each user the illusion of their own machine, even though the system is distributed over many computers, which may also be located far away from each other, for example in different countries.

The Python programming language was originally developed for Amoeba.

The system

Amoeba uses a separate, diskless computer for each user. Other computers serve as pool processors, which are requested and released again as required. Special services such as file servers, directory services and databases are made available by their own special computers. All local computers communicate with one another via the Fast Local Internet Protocol . Gateways connect distant computers with one another to form a uniform system.

The system is object-based, with each object and the operations allowed for it being identified by what are known as capabilities . Each object is linked to a server process that is addressed by the user program via a remote procedure call .

Amoeba uses a microkernel . At the Free University of Amsterdam , around 80 SPARC single-processor systems that are networked via Ethernet form an Amoeba processor pool. The system also runs on Intel x86 and Motorola 68030 processors. It has been in use for several years.

Worldwide connection

Amoeba systems can be networked worldwide and are then divided into domains. Within a domain, which normally includes the computers of a LAN, the servers for a service can be determined by means of a network broadcast, the locate request. Between domains, they have to be entered explicitly in a directory service, i.e. published. A local server answers the locate request and informs a server on the remote LAN. Communication takes place via the proxy server. This has the following advantages

  • Local communication runs at maximum speed and without a mediation process.
  • Communication with remote computers does not differ from local communication for the servers and clients.

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