SOMBRERO PROJECT
SOMBRERO GALAXY SOMBRERO: A VERY LARGE SINGLE ADDRESS SPACE DISTRIBUTED OPERATING SYSTEM Modern computer hardware has matured sufficiently that it can now provide a unique address for every datum that it must store. Modern computer operating systems are lagging behind this opportunity. OS designs remain ram-centric requiring all information to be translated into and out of a temporary volatile store which is inadequate to contain all of the data at once. This limitation forces the use of alternate name spaces such as file systems, and multiple virtual address spaces. The main limitation which forces this use of alternate name spaces is the lack of address space. In the past few years the advances in silicon fabrication technology and VLSI design techniques have led to the manufacture of microprocessors with 64-bit internal data paths, registers and arithmetic units. These modern processors can support a 64-bit virtual address space. Simple arithmetic shows that one could create a new 4 gigabyte object, the size of a full virtual address space on a conventional 32-bit processor, once a second for 136 years and not exhaust the available namespace. This large address space is sufficient to store all of the data associated with most applications for the lifetime of the application. Single Address Space Operating Systems (SASOSs) are operating systems which take advantage of the properties of the large address spaces now available. Sombrero is a SASOS which is designed from the outset to be distributed over a network. Effectively it creates the view of a network as a large Non Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) multiprocessor distributing a single Virtual Address Space over the entire network. It uses the properties of a single address space to eliminate costly Inter Process Communication, file systems, multiple Virtual Address spaces, unnecessary mappings and other overhead associated with conventional Distributed Shared Memory and IP addresses. Instead all principal activities are distributed and shared by default. At the same time Sombrero’s protection domain strategy forms hard walls between principal activities. Sombrero also provides backward compatibility to process oriented systems. The Sombrero design does much to move implementation costs and processor activity back to benefit the intended application by reducing complex application program development time and operating system overhead. Our research group has written a series of documents and presented a number of talks. We have two objectives making them available here. First, we want to get our ideas out on the net and hear what you think of them. Second, they serve as an information basis for proposals we are making to industry to obtain hardware and software platforms on which to complete and extend the current Sombrero prototype and for proposals to government and industry for funding of the research effort.

ASU 64-bit OS Group Sombrero Publications and Presentations and Related Work

Following is a list of currently available publications, MS theses and MCS projects, other documents and presentations related to the Sombrero Single Address Space Operating System project. All documents are in PDF format and presentations are in Powerpoint. Please read the readme.doc  or readme.pdf for more information on contents each of these. An Acrobat reader for PDF is available from Adobe and Microsoft Powerpoint is required to view the slide presentations.

Publications

oLower Level Architecture of the Sombrero Single Address Space Distributed Operating System, D. Miller, D. White,  A. Skousen and R. Tcherepov, The 18th IASTED International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing and Systems (PDCS 2006), November 2006.

oDistributed Scheduling for the Sombrero Single Address Space Operating System, D. Miller, A. Skousen and M. Patil, The 2006 International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Processing Techniques and Applications (PDPTA'06), June 2006, pages 649-655.

oUsing Network Processors for Packet Filtering.  B. Millard, S. Pandya and D. Miller, The 2005 International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Processing Techniques and Applications (PDPTA'05), June 2005.

o
Reduction of Software Development Costs under the Sombrero Distributed Single Address Space Operating System R. Feigen, A. Skousen and D. Miller, The 2002 International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Processing Techniques and Applications (PDPTA'2002), June 2002.
o
The Sombrero Single Address Space Operating System Prototype A Testbed for Evaluating Distributed Persistent System Concepts and Implementation. A. Skousen and D. Miller, The 2000 International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Processing Techniques and Applications (PDPTA'2000), June 2000.
o
Using a Single Address Space Operating System for Distributed Computing and High Performance. A. Skousen and D. Miller, 18th IEEE International Performance, Computing, and Communications Conference, February 1999, pages 8-14.
o
Using a Distributed Single Address Space Operating System to Support Modern Cluster Computing. A. Skousen and D. Miller, Proceedings of the 32nd Hawaii Interntional Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-32)January 1999.
o
Operating System Structure and Processor Architecture for a Large Distributed Single Address Space. A. Skousen and D. Miller, 10th IASTED Parallel and Distributed Computing Conference (PDCS98), October 1998, pages 631-634.
o
The Sombrero Distributed Single Address Space Operating System Project. A. Skousen and D. Miller, 2nd USENIX Windows NT Symposium, August 1998, page 168.

Ph.D. Dissertation, MS Theses and MCS Projects

o
Implementation of a Lower Level Architecture for the Sombrero Single Address Space Operating System.  Donald B. White, MS Thesis, Computer Science and Engineering Department, Arizona State University, December 2005.
oImplementation of IXP1200 Network Processor Packet Filtering Software and Parameterization for Higher Performance Network Processors.  Shyamal H. Pandya, MS Thesis, Computer Science and Engineering Department, Arizona State University, May 2003.
o
SOMBRERO: Implementation of a Single Address Space Paradigm for Distributed Computing Exhibiting Reduced Complexity. Alan C. Skousen, Ph.D. Dissertation, Computer Science and Engineering Department, Arizona State University, August 2002.
o
Distributed Consistency Management in Sombrero, A Single Address Space Distributed Operating System. John Olson, MS Thesis, Computer Science and Engineering Department, Arizona State University, August 2002.
o  Reduction of Software Development Costs under Sombrero, A Single Address Space Distributed Operating System.
Ron Feigen, MS Thesis, Computer Science and Engineering Department, Arizona State University, December 2001.
o
Distributed Scheduling in Sombrero, A Single Address Space Distributed Operating System. Milind H. Patil, MS Thesis, Computer Science and Engineering Department, Arizona State University, December 1999.
o
Protection Structures in the Sombrero Operating System. Shahjehan A. Khatri, MS Thesis, Computer Science and Engineering Department, Arizona State University, December 1997.
o
Sombrero System Interface. Mark Carnes, MCS Project Report, Computer Science and Engineering Department, Arizona State University, December 1996.
o
RPLB Design Project Report. Michael J. Torla, MCS Project Report, Computer Science and Engineering Department, Arizona State University, July 1997.
o
SOMBRERO: A Very Large Single Address Space Distributed Operating System. Alan C. Skousen, MS Thesis, Computer Science and Engineering Department, Arizona State University, December 1994.
 

Other Documents

o The Sombrero Distributed Single Address Space Project.  CSE Monitor, Computer Science and Engineering Department, Arizona State University, Fall 2005 Issue, page 7.

oSombrero version 0.003   - Sombrero Distributed SASOS Prototype.  D. Miller, Work in Progress submitted to SOSP'05, October 2005.

o
An Operating System that Reduces the Complexity of Applications in Distributed Systems. D. Miller, Proposal to National Science Foundation, November 2004.
o
Operating System Design to Reduce the Complexity of Distributed Systems. D. Miller, Proposal to National Science Foundation, December 2003.

o Sombrero version 0.002 - Sombrero Distributed SASOS Prototype. D. Miller, Work in Progress submitted to SOSP'03, October 2003.

o
A Hardware Supported Single Address Space Operating System Prototype. D. Miller, Proposal to National Science Foundation, November 1998.
o
Resource Access and Protection in the Sombrero Protection Model, Software Protection Data Structures and Hardware Range Protection Lookaside Buffer. A. Skousen and D. Miller, ASU Computer Science and Engineering Department Technical Report TR-95-013, January 1996 (White Paper 02). odt><
Implementing a Very Large Single Address Space across Multiple Nodes: Memory Partitioning, Protection Domain Migration, Kernel Replication, Consistency and Fault Tolerance. A. Skousen and D. Miller, ASU Computer Science and Engineering Department Technical Report TR-95-021, January 1996 (White Paper 10).

Presentations

oImplementation of a Lower Level Architecture for the Sombrero Single Address Space Operating System.
        MS Thesis Defense Presentation, by Donald White, ASU, August 2005.
o Sombrero: Implementation of a Single Address Space Paradigm for Distributed Computing Exhibiting Reduced Complexity. 
Ph.D. Dissertation Defense Presentation, by Alan Skousen, ASU, August 2002.  
oImplementation of IXP200 Network Processor Packet Filtering Software and Parameterization for Higher Performance Network Processors, by Shyamal H. Pandya, May 2003.
o
Distributed Consistency Management in Sombrero, A Single Address Space Distributed Operating System . MS Thesis Defense Presentation, by John Olson, ASU, August 2002. Additional Figures for Presentation.
o
Reduced Development Costs in the Sombrero Operating System. MS Thesis Defense Presentation by Ron Feigen, ASU, December 2001.
o
The Sombrero Single Address Space Operating System Prototype A Testbed for Evaluating Distributed Persistent System Concepts and Implementation. A. Skousen and D. Miller, Presentation by Donald Miller at PDPTA'2000, Los Vegas, Nevada, June 2000.
o
Distributed Scheduling in Sombrero, A Single Address Space Distributed Operating System. MS Thesis Defense Presentation by Milind Patil, ASU, August1999.
o
Using a single Address Space Operating System for Distributed Computing and High Performance. Presentation by Donald Miller at IPCCC99, Scottsdale, Arizona, February 1999.
o
Single Address Spaces and Single Address Space Operating Systems. Presentation by Donald Miller to ASU Student Chapter of the IEEE Computer Society, ASU, September 1998.
o
The Sombrero Single Address Space Operating System. Presentation by Donald Miller to ASU Student Chapter of the IEEE Computer Society, ASU, September 1998.
o
Operating System Structure and Processor Architecture for a Large Distributed Single Address Space. Presentation by A. Skousen at PDCS98, Las Vegas, Nevada, October 1998.
o
Single Address Spaces, Single Address Space Operating Systems and Sombrero. Presentation by Donald Miller to Mungi SASOS Group and (partially) to Grasshopper SASOS Group, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, June 1998.
o
Protection Structures in the Sombrero Operating System. MS Thesis Defense Presentation by Shah Khatri, ASU, December 1997.
o
Effects of the Single Address Space Paradign on CPU and OS Design for a Distributed Computer System. Presentation by Donald Miller to ASU 64-bit OS Group during 97-98 academic year.
Send comments to: alan.skousen@asu.edu and donald.miller@asu.edu
 

http rev. 10 June 07
This page formatted for Mozilla Firefox (2.0.0.4), Netscape (9.01b) and Internet Explorer (7.0.6) browsers.