Cambridge Distributed Computing System

Cambridge Distributed Computing System
DeveloperComputer Laboratory, University of Cambridge[1]
Working stateHistoric
PlatformsComputer Automation LSI4, Motorola 68000[2]
InfluencedPlan 9 from Bell Labs[3]

The Cambridge Distributed Computing System is an early discontinued distributed operating system, developed in the 1980s at Cambridge University. It grew out of the Cambridge Ring local area network, which it used to interconnect computers.[2]

The Cambridge system connected terminals to "processor banks". At login, a user would request from the bank a machine with a given architecture and amount of memory. The system then assigned to the user a machine that served, for the duration of the login session, as their "personal" computer. The machines in the processor bank ran the TRIPOS operating system. Additional special-purpose servers provided file and other services. At its height, the Cambridge system consisted of some 90 machines.[2]

  1. ^ Needham, Roger Michael; Herbert, Andrew J. (1983). The Cambridge Distributed Computing System. Addison Wesley.
  2. ^ a b c Tanenbaum, Andrew S.; Van Renesse, Robbert (1985). "Distributed operating systems". ACM Computing Surveys. 17 (4): 419–470. doi:10.1145/6041.6074. hdl:1871/2601. S2CID 5378019.
  3. ^ Pike, R.; Presotto, D.; Dorward, S.; Flandrena, B.; Thompson, K.; Trickey, H.; Winterbottom, P. "Plan 9 from Bell Labs". Bell Labs. Lucent Technologies. Archived from the original on 16 May 2016. Retrieved 2 December 2011.