An Overview of Eighth Edition UNIX(R)

Eighth Edition Unic (V8) is the Unix system currently in use in the Computing Science Research Center at Bell Laboratories. Though some other groups within AT&T are using the system, and a few universities have obtained copies under special license, V8 is not generally available. This talk will describe how the English Edition system came about, and how it differs from other current UNIX(R) systems. The emphasis will be on characteristic features of V8 such as the stream I/O system and the file system switch, and the use of these features to provide simple, uniform networking and inter-process communication. Those who have attended the last several USENIX summer conferences will hear nothing new.