The Inferno™ operating system

The Inferno™ operating system facilitates the creation and support of distributed services in the new and emerging world of network environments, such as those typified by CATV and direct satellite broadcasting systems, as well as the Internet. In addition, as the entertainment, telecommunications, and computing industries converge and interconnect, different types of data networks are arising, each one as potentially useful and profitable as the telephone network. However, unlike the telephone system, which started with standard terminals and signaling, these new networks are developing in a world of diverse terminals, network hardware, and protocols. Inferno is designed so that it can insulate the diverse providers of content and services from the equally varied transport and presentation platforms. The Inferno Business Unit of Lucent Technologies and the Computing Sciences Research Center of Bell Labs, the R&D arm of Lucent, designed it specifically as a commercial product. It is intended for licensing in the marketplace and for use in conjunction with new Lucent offerings. Inferno incorporates many years of Bell Labs research in operating systems, languages, on-the-fly compilers, graphics, security, networking, and portability in providing an effective and economical network operating system.