Higher-Order and Symbolic Computation, 12(3)285-299
Continuation-Based MultiprocessingMitchell Wand, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405
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Abstract: Any multiprocessing facility must include three
features: elementary exclusion, data protection, and process
saving. While elementary exclusion must rest on some hardware facility
(e.g., a test-and-set instruction), the other two requirements are
fulfilled by features already present in applicative languages. Data
protection may be obtained through the use of procedures (closures or
funargs), and process saving may be obtained through the use of the
catch operator. The use of catch, in particular, allows an elegant
treatment of process saving. We demonstrate these techniques by writing the kernel and some modules for a multiprocessing system. The kernel is very small. Many functions which one would normally expect to find inside the kernel are completely decentralized. We consider the implementation of other schedulers, interrupts, and the implications of these ideas for language design. Keywords: continuations, multiprocessing, scheme, operating sytems, language design |
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