x - Kernel Programmer ’ s Manual ( Version 3 . 2

This report describes how to implement protocols in the x-kernel. It gives the x-kernel’s programming interface, describes how to configure an x-kernel that contains a certain collection of protocols, and demonstrates how to run and debug an x-kernel. The x-kernel can be run in several environments: as a user program on a Sun SparcStation running SunOS4.1, as a user program on SGI systems running IRIX 4.x or 5.x, as a task on a Mach3.0 system (on some platforms), within the Mach3.0 microkernel (on some platforms), or as a standalone kernel on the DEC Alpha. Protocols can be moved among the different environments without modification. This document assumes that the reader is already familiar with the x-kernel’s object-oriented infrastructure for implementing protocols. This work supported in part by National Science Foundation Grants CCR-8811423, IRI-9015407, and CCR-9102040, Sun Microsystems Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, DARPA Contract DABT63-91-C-0030, and NCSC University Research Grant MDA904-92-C-515