MULTICS REUNION
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Location: MIT Stata Center, Room 32-141
1:00PM Welcoming Remarks
(Daniela Rus/Howard Shrobe)
1:10PM Introduction
(Peter
Neumann)
Bio: Peter G. Neumann (Neumann@CSL.sri.com, http://www.csl.sri.com/neumann) is Senior Principal Scientist in the Computer Science Lab at SRI International, where he has been since 1971, after 10 years at Bell Labs thoughout the 1960s (which included the Multics years). He is currently PI of two DARPA projects (whose PM was originally Howie Shrobe). A new paper for ICSA 2014 details the Multics-inspired CHERI system hardware design (Capability Hardware Enhanced RISC Instructions), in joint work with SRI and the University of Cambridge: http://www.csl.sri.com/neumann/isca2014-cheri.pdf
1:20PM “Early Days, Project MAC, CTSS, and Multics” (Fernando Corbató)
Abstract: The computing climate and facilities at MIT in the early 1950's and 1960's will be briefly described. This will be followed by a sketch of the events that led to the formation of Project MAC and the decision to embark on the Multics project.
Bio: Fernando J. Corbató, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at M.I.T., has achieved wide recognition for his pioneering work on the design and development of multiple-access computer systems. He was associated with the M.I.T. Computation Center from its organization in 1956 until 1966. In 1963 he was a founding member of Project MAC, the antecedent of CSAIL. An early version of the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) was first demonstrated in November 1961, at the M.I.T. Computation Center. In the fall of 1963, after further development, the system began daily operation at Project MAC.
2:05PM BREAK
2:15PM “SAFE: A New Foundation for Computer Safety and Security” (Andre DeHon)
Abstract:
At a time when computers are increasingly involved in all aspects of
our lives, our computer systems are too easily
broken or subverted. The current state of affairs is, no doubt,
unsurprising to Multicians who are painfully aware of the design
and security compromises that went into the base design of today's
mainstream systems. The past 30 years has also brought
vast changes in the availability and costs of computer hardware as well
as significant advances in formal methods. How do we
exploit these advances to make computer systems worthy of the trust we
are now placing in them? We specifically take a clean-slate
approach to computer architectures and system designs based on modern
costs and threats. We spend now cheap hardware to
reduce or eliminate traditional security-performance tradeoffs and to
provide stronger hardware safety and security interlocks that
prevent gross security and safety violations even when there are bugs in
the code. We embrace well-known security principles of
least and separate privileges and complete mediation of
operations. Our system revisits many pioneering Multics concepts
including
gates between software components with different-privileges, small and
verified system components, and formal information flow
properties and guarantees.
Project paper: http://www.crash-safe.org
Bio:
Andre DeHon received S.B., S.M., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1990, 1993, and 1996
respectively. From 1996 to 1999, Andre co-ran the BRASS
group in the Computer Science Department at the University of California
at Berkeley. From 1999 to 2006, he was an Assistant
Professor of Computer Science at the California Institute of Technology.
In 2006 he joined the Electrical and Systems Engineering
Department at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is now a Full
Professor. He is broadly interested in how we physically
implement computations from substrates, including VLSI and molecular
electronics, up through architecture, CAD, and programming
models. He places special emphasis on spatial programmable
architectures (e.g. FPGAs) and interconnect design and
optimization.
Multics BIO: Andre DeHon is a bastard child of the tail end of
LISP Machine and Multics eras, having been a research assistant for
Knight and a teaching assistant for Saltzer. As a member of MIT's
Student Information Processing Board (SIPB), he was part of the
group that pushed Multics access to MIT students and was logged in
during the decommissioning of MIT-Multics. So, while he never
contributed to Multics, he was around in time to learn that there were
computer systems that predated Unix and Windows and that
did have a principled way to address safety and security. He hopes
the world is now ready for many of the Multics and LISPM ideas
that were ahead of their time and have mostly been forgotten during the
dark ages of mainstream Internet growth.
3:00PM “Multics, The First 50 Years”
(Michael
Pandolfo)
Abstract: November 2015 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the 1965 Fall Joint Computer Conference at which the description of Multics was presented to the computer community. To mark this anniversary I have set for myself three initiatives to mark the event. They are:
1. Write a follow-on book to Organic's text which will describe the second generation of Multics hardware and software;
2. Lobby to get a technical society to sponsor a Multics fifty year anniversary conference centered on the pioneering role Multics has vis-a-vis today's commercial operating systems;
3. Champion the completion of a Multics VM based on the current efforts to emulate the 6180/DPS-8/M.
I will be describing my approaches to and current status of these three initiatives.
Bio: After working on the data management and B2 certification projects at CISL, Michael moved to Stratus Computer where he designed and prototyped several PCBs in addition to writing firmware for other boards. At Banyan Systems Michael maintained their Unix System V kernel and implemented Intel APIC mediated multiprocessing on PC platforms. Most recently at EMC Michael supported tape library robotics and designed Linux drivers. Currently Michael has taken early retirement from EMC and is engaged in processor design utilizing FPGAs.
3:20PM BREAK AND REFRESHMENTS
3:30PM Panel
Discussion and Audience
Questions
Moderator: John Gintell
Fernando J. Corbató Jerome H. Saltzer Peter G. Neumann Robert A. Freiburghouse
Bio:
John Gintell, S.B. MIT; M.S. Northeastern University. At Honeywell from
'62-'67 he wrote a code-generator for a Fortran Compiler; then was
project leader for another Fortran Compiler project; and then was a
member of the System Planning group at Honeywell looking at OS evolution
for several product lines. In late '66 attended an MIT Industrial
Liaison symposium on Multics which led to joining the Multics project
(after it had been cancelled and reinstated). Multician at Cambridge
Information Systems laboratory (CISL) of GE/Honeywell '67-'86, initially
worked on performance management tools and putting the linker in Ring
0. Then was manager of the OS group at CISL; overall project manager for
the MIT/Honeywell joint team for a few years; the last five years as
Manager of CISL. At Honeywell from '86-88 explored a possible Multics
spinoff and was Manager of the Opus Project (an attempt to build a new
OS with Multics technology on a mini-computer). Member of Corporate
staff at Honeywell-Bull '89-'91 working on improved software technology
and software development process. At Bull from '92-'94 was a Research
group principal - key project was Scrutiny, a collaborative tool for
Software Inspection. Independent consultant on Patent Infringement
lawsuits (offense and defense) '95-'01. Now enjoying retirement -
traveling, gardening, contra dancing and being a dance group organizer;
thinking about Multics. Co-chair Cambridge GLBT Commission. Married to
Robert Coren.
4:30PM Close
(Paul
Green)
Until 6:00PM unstructured time to renew friendships