Principal Investigator M Kaashoek
Co-investigators Henry Corrigan-Gibbs , Nickolai Zeldovich
Project Website http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/
The Parallel and Distributed Operating Systems (PDSO) group builds and investigates software systems for parallel and distributed environments. We have conducted research in operating systems, networking, mobile computing, language design, compiler design, and architecture, taking a pragmatic approach: our focus is on high-performance, reliable, and working systems.
Most recent research focuses on very large scale distributed systems based on distributed hash tables, such as Chord. The IRIS project is a large, ongoing collaboration. See the IRIS Page for more details.
In general, research focuses on extensible and flexible system services: filesystems, networking, and languages. Click is a flexible, modular router that runs on commodity hardware. SFS, the Self-Certifying File System, creates a global, secure filesystem with a single global namespace and no centralized control. `C (tick-C) is a superset of the ANSI C language with extensions for dynamic code generation. New algorithms in the `C compiler result in fast and high-quality runtime compilation. The Prolac language aims to make network protocol implementations both readable and efficient.
The exokernel, a novel operating system architecture, was the framework of much of the prior research. An exokernel eliminates the high-level abstractions most of today's operating systems are built on, instead concentrating on securely and efficiently multiplexing the raw hardware. A more conventional operating system interface is provided by application-level libraries. This allows untrusted applications to safely override default OS functionality for extensibility, flexibility, or performance.