Plan 9

Operating
System

Submitted By,

LEO KURIAKOSE
S5 MCA
M1234

ABSTRACT

Networking has been the core factor that has been dominating the software industry over
the past few years and for years to come. Many operating systems and strategies have been
developed keeping networking in mind.
Plan 9 is a new distributed operating system built by the Computing Science Research
Center of Lucent Technologies, Bell Laboratories. Plan 9 is designed around the basic principle
that all resources appear as files in a hierarchical file system, which is unique to each process.
The design, however, is highly configurable; it escapes from specific models of networked
workstations and central machine service.
. In the most general configuration, it uses three kinds of components: terminals that sit
on users' desks, file servers that store permanent data, and other servers that provide faster CPUs,
user authentication, and network gateways. These components are connected by various kinds of
networks, including Ethernet, specially-built fiber networks, ordinary modem connections, and
ISDN. In typical use, users interact with applications that run either on their terminals or on CPU
servers and the applications get their data from the file servers.
Its goal is to provide a production-quality system for software development and general
computation using heterogeneous hardware and minimal software. . Users successfully use Plan
9 without knowing the topology of the system or the networks they use. A double layered
security and authentication facility has been provided in it.
All these help to provide a strong for the OS that could be well suited in a distributed and
networked environment.