Interprocess communication systems

Abstract

This session dealt with distributed systems with proven "existence theorems"; their communications mechanisms must be a compromise between idealism and workability. Vic Lesser (CMU) described process handling for speech recognition, using HYDRA on the C.mmp. Dave Farber (U.C. Irvine) related experience with the DCS loop system. Sandy Fraser (BTL) talked about the protocol for using a free-standing store in SPIDER, the latter being a loop network in existence for several years. An introductory account of these three systems, plus the hierarchical network at the University of Chicago, can be found in the February, 1975, issue of Datamation. Rick Schantz (BBN) discussed using the ARPA Network as the basis for a distributed file system. Richard Peebles (U. Waterloo) was invited to speak, but we ran out of time. His paper is included in the proceedings. During the session Vic Lesser raised the question whether complex systems are necessarily hierarchical. This is the contention of the General System Theory school, out of which many books have appeared, the most accessible being Beyond Reductionism edited by A. Koestler and J.R. Smythies (Beacon Press, Boston, 1975). Another discussion concerns the question of simultaneity in large systems.