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Date: 20 Feb 1986 1204-EST
From: ALR at XX.LCS.MIT.EDU
Subject: SEMINAR


                        SEMINAR


DATE:  MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1986

TIME:  REFRESHMENTS AT 3:00 PM
TALK AT 3:15 PM

PLACE:  ROOM NE43-512A


        THE ANDREW FILE SYSTEM: PRINCIPLES AND DESIGN

                        M. SATYANARAYANAN
                        Carnegie-Mellon University


                                ABSTRACT
Andrew is a computing and communication system consisting of
thousands of personal computer workstations linked by a
location-transparent distributed file system.  The design of Andrew
is a synthesis of the best features of personal computing and
timesharing.  It combines the rich user-machine interface and
predictable performance characteristic of personal computing with the
ease of information sharing typical of timesharing systems.  This
system is being built at Carnegie-Mellon University in collaboration
with IBM.

In the talk, I will focus on the design and rationale of the
distributed file system for Andrew.  While scale has been the
dominant design influence, careful attention has also been paid to
the goals of location transparency, user mobility and compatibility
with existing operating system interfaces.  Security is an important
design consideration and the mechanisms for it do not assume that the
workstations or the network are secure.  Caching of entire files at
workstations is a key element in this design.

In the latter part of the talk, I will discuss our usage experience
with an initial prototype and the conclusions which led to the
current implementation.  A configuration of about 150 workstations is
in use by more than 500 users at the present time. These numbers are
expected to grow by an order of magnitude over the next two years.


HOST:  PROF. LISKOV