Early Work
Early work on Sprite was based on the idea of making the operating system more "network aware", and thereby at the same time make it invisible to the user. The primary area of work was the building of a new network file system which made heavy use of local client-side caching in order to improve performance. After opening the file and some initial reads, the network was only used on-demand, and most user actions would occur against the cache. Similar utilities allowed remote devices to be mapped into the local computer's space, allowing for network printing and similar duties.
Many of the key Unix files were based on the network, including things like the password file. All machines in a network shared the root directory as well. Other common Unix utilities such as finger were re-written to make them network aware as well, listing all of the people logged on across the network. This made a Sprite network appear as if it were a single large time-sharing system, or a single-system image.
Another key addition to Sprite was process migration, which allowed programs to be moved between machines at any time. The system maintained a list of machines and their state, and would automatically move processes to idle machines to improve local performance. Processes could also be "evicted" from machines to improve their performance, causing the original starter to move it to another machine on the network, or take control of it locally again. Long tasks (like compiling the Sprite system) could appear very fast.
Read more about this topic: Sprite (operating System)
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or work:
“In the early days of the world, the Almighty said to the first of our race “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread”; and since then, if we except the light and the air of heaven, no good thing has been, or can be enjoyed by us, without having first cost labour.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“Juggling produces both practical and psychological benefits.... A woman’s involvement in one role can enhance her functioning in another. Being a wife can make it easier to work outside the home. Being a mother can facilitate the activities and foster the skills of the efficient wife or of the effective worker. And employment outside the home can contribute in substantial, practical ways to how one works within the home, as a spouse and as a parent.”
—Faye J. Crosby (20th century)