[uw.cs.grad] ICR May 11 Michael Tilson The Future of UNIX in the Year 2001

cfry@watdcsu.waterloo.edu (C.Fry - Inst. Computer Research) (05/03/88)

                         The Future of UNIX in the Year 2001

          by

          Michael Tilson

          of

          HCR Corporation
          130 Bloor Street West, 10th Floor
          Toronto, Ontario  M5S 1N5

          Abstract

          UNIX has been available outside Bell Labs since the mid-70's; the
          first  UNIX  system at the University of Toronto was installed in
          early 1975.  Thirteen years ago the system was new, still experi-
          mental,  and rarely used.  Today, UNIX is mature, becoming stand-
          ardized, and widely used.  In thirteen years we will see the dawn
          of  a  new  (calendar)  millenium.  What can we expect from UNIX?
          This colloquium discusses the technology trends that will  deter-
          mine  the status of UNIX at the turn of the century, with special
          reference to the role UNIX may play in ``wiring the world''.

          UNIX has  become  a  standard.   The  lifetime  of  standards  is
          surprisingly  long.   On  the other hand, technology continues to
          advance at a rapid rate.  There is no reason to believe that  the
          rate  of change will slow between now and the end of the century.
          However, there are good reasons to believe that  ``conventional''
          architectures will continue to dominate general-purpose computing
          for the next decade, and if this is true, then UNIX  has  a  long
          and bright future as a higher-level machine definition.

          In the next thirteen years UNIX will open the door to  possibili-
          ties for distributed processing and distributed applications that
          go far beyond anything we can do today.  In particular, LAN  net-
          working issues will be solved soon, but long haul connectivity of
          diverse international systems presents some new  technical  chal-
          lenges.   UNIX,  standards, high performance machines, networking
          (especially ISDN), and ``internationalization'' will  combine  to
          create a basis for practical, everyday world-wide network comput-
          ing.

          A goal of this talk is to understand why a typical obsolete C ap-
          plication  written  in  the mid-80's might be still running on an
          incredibly advanced networked  architecture,  moving  data  tran-
          sparently  from  New York to Tokyo in the year 2001, and why that
          might actually represent a good solution.

          This talk is based upon a  paper  presented  at  the  Summer  '87
          Usenix  Conference  and new material presented at the recent Uni-
          Forum '88 conference.

          DATE:     Wednesday, May 11, 1988

          TIME:     3:30 p.m.

          PLACE:    DC 1302

          Everyone is welcome.  Refreshments served.