The Nucleus-microkernel for the RHODOS distributed operating system

New architectural approaches are required in the design of distributed operating systems, to meet the requirements of openness and high performance. One approach is to build the distributed operating system as a set of independent system servers, cooperating through a small set of primitive operations provided by a microkernel. The Nucleus is the microkernel of the RHODOS system. It is explained why a microkernel-based design was chosen. The features and advantages of the system are reported, and the Nucleus data structures and other services provided to facilitate the microkernel abstraction are described.<>