DPUP: a distributed processing utilities package

Abstract

DPUP is a library of utilities that support distributed concurrent computing on a local area network of computers. The library is built upon the interprocess communication facilities in Berkeley Unix 4.2bsd. Thus it will run on any network, connected by an Ethernet, where each computer runs a version of the Unix operating system that supports the Berkeley Unix interprocess communication facilities. DPUP supports two models of distributed concurrent computation, a master-slave model based upon stream sockets, and a broadcast model based upon datagram sockets. With each model, facilities for creating and terminating remote processes, establishing communications between them, and sending and receiving data between these processes are provided. This paper describes the facilities provided in DPUP and gives examples of their use.