Helix

Developed by:
Bell-Northern Research in Ottawa, Canada M. Fridrich and W. Older

Short Description:
Helix is a distributed file system developed as part of a distributed OS, called XMS. With abstraction layering and system decomposition, all the user sees is one homogeneous system. Helix combines capability-based access with a user organized directory s tructure to uniformly access objects distributed over a Local Area Network. Security and system integrity are further enhanced by atomic actions that can be performed on an object or a set of objects. The architecture of Hermix is described in terms of an abstraction layering and system decomposition over a Local Area Network. Helix provides an appearance of uniformity to its clients yet it accommodates a diversity of autonomous devices. Behind the scene, the architecture is supporting 15 LANs and close t o 1000 workstations. The Felix File Server is a part of the system.

Model: loosely coupled, server/client, integrated
Properties: object-oriented, atomic transactions
Transparency: access, location
Running on:
Date: 1983

References:
M. Fridrich and W. Older: "Helix: The Architecture of a Distributed File System". IEEE, Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems, New York, 1984, pp. 422-431.
Fridrich, M. and Older, W: "Helix: the architecture of the XMS distributed file system". IEEE Software, 2(3), pp. 21-29, May 1985

M. Fridrich and W. Older: "The Felix File Server". ACM SIGOPS, Proc. of the 8th Symposium on Operating System Principles, Dec. 1981, pp. 37-44.