Quikdos: An Experimental Kernel-Based Operating System*
Glenn H. MacEwen, D.F. Athersych · INFOR Information Systems and Operational Research · 1976
A case study in the design of an experimental operating system for the PDP-11/45 is presented. The objectives of the work, namely pedagogical use, protection, extendibility, reliability, understandability, and instrumentation, are met with a design based heavily on the concepts of a kernel and a domain of protection. The kernel, a small software extension to the hardware, implements five types of protected objects, domains, processes, activations, devices, and types, access to which is controlled via a capability mechanism. A domain is viewed as a protected procedure that performs access control and representation management for user defined objects. Domains can be instrumented via operations controlled by the protection mechanism.