Plan 9
Plan 9 from Bell Labs is
a new computer operating system and associated utilities. It was built by the
Computing Science Research Center of Lucent Technologies Bell Laboratories, the
same group that developed Unix, C, and C++.
Plan 9 is a distributed system. In the most general configuration, it uses
three kinds of components: terminals that sit on users' desks, file servers
that store permanent data, and other servers that provide faster CPUs, user
authentication, and network gateways. These components are connected by various
kinds of networks, including Ethernet, specially-built fiber networks, ordinary
modem connections, and ISDN. In typical use, users interact with applications
that run either on their terminals or on CPU servers, and the applications get
their data from the file servers. The design, however, is highly configurable;
it escapes from specific models of networked workstations and central machine
service.
Many programs are structured for simplicity as communicating processes. That
can be done directly using a few system calls, but for more CSP-style
programming there is a threads library.
The novel programming environment Acme and the window
system rio are
concurrent programs.
Plan 9 on the BeBox
To date, the port of Plan 9 to the BeBox has been a one man effort. All the
work done to date is thanks to Charles
Forsyth.
Update: August 21st 2003:
On 19th August 2003, Charles Forsyth made his source code for
/sys/src/9/be available on his website, with
the note below. Bear in mind that it's written for Plan9 Second Edition (the
current version is the Fourth Edition).
Update: August 25th 2003:
In further great news, Charles has now posted his bootstrap code from
/sys/src/boot/be. Hopefully there'll be more information on how
to use this code in the near future.
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