mo@seismo.CSS.GOV (Mike O'Dell) (03/10/87)
Read Maurice Wilkes' book "The Cambridge CAP Computer and Its Operating System," published by North-Holland. It discusses some of the fundamental problems with capability systems. Bob Fabry's later work also explains why they have problems (can't find the reference now). When Intel went to Wilkes and Fabry to tell them about the 432, the both said "Please don't waste your time doing a capability machine." (Quote from Wilkes at a colloquium at Berkeley with Fabry present, who chimed-in about them asking him, too.) My own personal pseudo-philosophical view is that down at the bottom of all operating systems is a contradiction of levels, and systems founded on Russellian, set-theoretic constructionism will discover the equivalent of Russell's paradox at the heart of their architecture. "Please pass the functors and admit my maps.." -Mike O'Dell