Aqumix.1058 net.general utzoo!decvax!ittvax!qumix!msc Fri Apr 30 11:41:37 1982 Breakthrough The following item appeared in the IEE News dated April 1st, 1982. "BRITISH TEAM IN ECONOMICS BREAKTHROUGH" "A DRAMATIC NEW BREAKTHROUGH IN THE EFFICIENT USE OF LARGE-SCALE COMPUTING SYSTEMS HAS BEEN CLAIMED BY A GROUP OF BRITISH SYSTEMS THEORISTS. EMBODIED IN A RADICALLY INNOVATIVE COMPUTER OPERATING SYSTEM, THE NEW BREAKTHROUGH, WHICH IS TO BE FORMALLY ANNOUNCED ON THE DAY OF PUBLICATION OF THIS ISSUE, PROMISES TO REVOLUTIONISE THE WHOLE CONCEPT OF COMPUTER OPERATION BY APPLYING TO THE PROBLEMS OF OVERALL SYSTEM CONTROL THE LATEST DEVOLOPMENTS IN ECONOMICS THEORY. To be known as the Total Optimisation of Resource Interaction concept (TORI), the new approach is aimed at solving one of the main problems facing those responsible for the efficient operation of large-scale computing systems and networks -- that of ensuring that the computing resources available are shared between the various application programs so as to optimise the operation of the system as a whole. Algorithms Currently available systems all approach this problem of efficient resource sharing by the use of complex resource-allocation algorithms contained in a large and often cumbersome piece of software known as the operating system. Behind these resource-allocation algorithms there is invariably a more or less complicated concept of pre-planned priorities so as to maximise throughput, with each functional unit in the system being loaded according to its capacity and each application program being allocated system resources according to its needs. It is exactly this concept of pre-planned priorities that has been so dramatically rejected by the TORI researchers. Such a concept, they point out, leads to gross inefficiencies in practice, not least because of the considerable overheads that are introduced by the need for detailed administration of all system resources by the central operating-system software. Only the applications programs 'owned' by the system's users actually contribute to its useful throughput, the TORI theorists point out, so all overheads introduced by the central (or 'publically' owned) operating software represent nothing more than a waste of system resources. `The trouble with conventional operating systems', a TORI spokesman pointed out, `is that they spend too much time worrying about how to allocate system throughput and not enough on how to maximise it. What we need to do in future is to spend less time in working out how to divide up the 'cake' and more on how to make it bigger.' The concept that the TORI team intends to use in order to fulfill this aim was revealed recently at their research centre in the Buckinghamshire town of Milton Friedman. The idea is essentially to scrap the concept of resource-allocation by pre-planned priorities and to replace it by one of allocating resources by direct transactions between applications programs and the system's functional units. Transaction Units In practice, each applications program will be credited with a number of transaction units, and each functional unit will be given a target number of transaction units that represents how much it needs to 'earn its keep'. From then on the whole operation of the system will be based on direct 'buying and selling' of system resources on what the TORI group calls a 'free-market' basis. As an example, if under this system two applications programs simultaneously require access to, say, a line printer, their order of execution will be decided not by the 'public sector' operating system but by direct bidding within the 'private sector'. Thus the line printer will make itself available to the applications program that is able and willing to 'pay' the greatest number of units. As a result, the TORI theorists point out, the most productive programs will automatically be allocated the most system resources, optimising throughput for the system as a whole. Overheads An important additional advantage of this approach, according to its proponents, is that it allows the 'bureaucratic' overheads of the operating system to be greatly reduced. In fact, this 'public sector' software can be scrapped almost in its entirety, with nearly all its remaining functions being 'privatised' by being incorporated into competing private-sector utility programs that can 'hire themselves out' to other private-sector programs. `All this is much more than just theory', pointed out the TORI spokesman, `in fact, the TORI principles have been under test on a major national system for nearly 3 years now.' When asked whether the predicted large-scale benefits had yet been achieved in practice, the spokesman added that certain external factors had as a matter of fact meant that the real benefits had not been achieved so far, but there was now every sign that what he called `the upturn' would occur in the very near future. Leaked Privately, however, an informal group within the TORI team have made known their doubts about whether the radical new operating scheme is actually capable of achieving the predicted results. Known as the Weak Economic Theory Subgroup (WETS), this part of the TORI team has 'leaked' a number of disturbing facts about the actual operation of the TORI experiment. According to these leaks,the TORI system has been beset with recurrent problems of what is known as 'inflation', which apparently involves the system's functional units constantly increasing their transactional thresholds or 'prices', while applications programs constantly demand greater transactional budgets or 'wages'. In addition, there is said to be a growing problem of the system's functional units being unable to find applications programs capable of keeping them fully occupied, leading to them being designated as Disconnected Operations List Entries, or being 'put on the DOLE'. In terms of memory units alone, this phenomenon of resource 'unemployment' has apparently reached the unprecedented proportion of over 3MBytes. As well as these doubts raised by the WETS researchers, the TORI team also faces competition from a number of other groups. Their main competitor is in fact still very much committed to the concept of resource allocation by pre-planned priorities, but is said to be having continued difficulties in making the component parts of its system work together convincingly. New Approach These problems within TORI's main competitor have recently led to a new approach being promoted by a recently formed joint- venture development between an existing small team and a new 'spin-off' operation headed by four ex-members of the main anit-TORI group. This new joint venture development has recently been attracting a great deal of interest as a result of its claims to be able to give everyone the best of both worlds, but it has been noted that, everytime its spokesmen are asked to explain their system's resource-allocation policies in detail, no real explanation is forthcoming. ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.