Singularity

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: kelley <kelley () rakfoundry com>
Date: Tue, 01 Mar 2005 14:20:42 -0500
To: <dave () farber net>
Subject: Singularity

Dave,

Hmmmmm. I'm really curious what IP members think about this latest
initiative at Microsoft. (Aside from cracks about the name. :)


from Microsoft Research:
http://research.microsoft.com/os/singularity/


Singularity


"...it is impossible to predict how a singularity will affect objects in
its causal future." - NCSA Cyberia Glossary
<http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/NumRel/glossary.html#singularity>

Overview

Singularity is a research project focused on the construction of dependable
systems through innovation in the areas of systems, languages, and tools.
We are building a research operating system prototype (called Singularity),
extending programming languages, and developing new techniques and tools
for specifying and verifying program behavior.

A system can be called dependable if it obeys a specification of its
behavior. Of special interest are things that a system should not do:
crash, hang, corrupt data, succumb to viruses, etc. A dependable system
should be well-behaved and not act in a manner unwanted or unanticipated by
its designers, developers, administrators, or users. As a step towards this
end, the Singularity OS is designed to facilitate the automatic checking of
partial specifications of the system's behavior.

The Singularity prototype is the first OS to enable anticipatory statements
about system configuration and behavior. A specific Singularity system is a
self describing artifact, not just a collection of bits accumulated with at
best an anecdotal history. Singularity's self-description includes
specifications of the components of the system, their behavior, and their
interactions. One can examine an offline Singularity system image and make
strong statements about its features, components, composition, and
compatibility.

Four design points combine to produce an OS prototype that facilitates
future research and innovates in system reliability:

A type-safe abstract instruction set (MSIL) as the only system binary
interface.
A unified extension mechanism for applications and the OS.
A strong process isolation architecture.
A ubiquitous metadata infrastructure to describes code, data, and
communication.

Publications
Galen C. Hunt and James R. Larus, Singularity Design Motivation
(Singularity Technical Report 1), Microsoft Research MSR-TR-2004-105,
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA, December 17, 2004.
Presentations
Singularity: Systems as Dependable, Self-Describing Artifacts,
Work-in-Progress Presentation, 6th Symposium on Operating System Design and
Implementation (OSDI 2004), San Francisco, CA, December 7, 2004, 5:25PM PST.

<...>


Regards,


Information security and privacy training for today's organizations:
http://www.inkworkswell.com
Voice: +1 (727) 942-9255
Fax: +1 (727) 942-9659
Email: kelley () inkworkswell com

When you need to communicate, Ink Works!


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